Nuno Vila-Santa is a researcher at CIUHCT (Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon) and correspondant researcher at CHAM (FCSH-UNL/UAÇ - Lisbon, Portugal). He is also a correspondant member of the Portuguese Navy Academy.
He started working on the viceroys of Portuguese India, writing several bibliographical entries for the Portuguese Encyclopedia of the Virtual Expansion. In 2009, he presented his MA thesis on viceroy D. Afonso de Noronha (1550-1554). Later he studied other viceroys and Portuguese nobility in India, publishing articles and presenting papers. In 2014, he presented his PhD thesis on viceroy D. Luís de Ataíde (1568-1571; 1578-1581) which was published as a book and won a prize from the Portuguese History Academy in 2015. Later in his post-doctoral grants from CHAM, he studied the governor of India and Monomotapa Francisco Barreto (1555-1558; 1569-1571) and viceroy D. Francisco Coutinho, 3rd count of Redondo (1561-1564), chronicler Diogo do Couto and the Jesuit visitor Alessandro Valignano, amongst other topics. His book on Francisco Barreto also won the Admiral Sarmento Rodrigues Prize 2021 from the Portuguese Naval Academy.
He worked on the European Research Council funded RUTTER project (https://www.rutter-project.org/) from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, working about the circulation of geographical and maritime knowledge in the 16th and 17th century Europe between maritime rivals. Most of these researches have been published in international and indexed journals from Scopus and Web of Science (see above). His monograph Knowledge Exchanges between Portugal and Europe published by Amsterdam University Press in 2024, won the Admiral Teixeira da Mota Prize 2024 from the Portuguese Navy Academy. He has also reviewed articles for Portuguese and international journals.
He is now working on the ERC project BADEMS - The Cultural History of the Black African Diaspora in Early Modern Spain, housed at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Main areas of research:
- History of Portugal and of the Portuguese Empire in the Early Modern Period (15th-17th centuries)
- European History in the Renaissance
- Diplomatic History
- Maritime History
- History of Knowledge
- Cultural History
He started working on the viceroys of Portuguese India, writing several bibliographical entries for the Portuguese Encyclopedia of the Virtual Expansion. In 2009, he presented his MA thesis on viceroy D. Afonso de Noronha (1550-1554). Later he studied other viceroys and Portuguese nobility in India, publishing articles and presenting papers. In 2014, he presented his PhD thesis on viceroy D. Luís de Ataíde (1568-1571; 1578-1581) which was published as a book and won a prize from the Portuguese History Academy in 2015. Later in his post-doctoral grants from CHAM, he studied the governor of India and Monomotapa Francisco Barreto (1555-1558; 1569-1571) and viceroy D. Francisco Coutinho, 3rd count of Redondo (1561-1564), chronicler Diogo do Couto and the Jesuit visitor Alessandro Valignano, amongst other topics. His book on Francisco Barreto also won the Admiral Sarmento Rodrigues Prize 2021 from the Portuguese Naval Academy.
He worked on the European Research Council funded RUTTER project (https://www.rutter-project.org/) from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, working about the circulation of geographical and maritime knowledge in the 16th and 17th century Europe between maritime rivals. Most of these researches have been published in international and indexed journals from Scopus and Web of Science (see above). His monograph Knowledge Exchanges between Portugal and Europe published by Amsterdam University Press in 2024, won the Admiral Teixeira da Mota Prize 2024 from the Portuguese Navy Academy. He has also reviewed articles for Portuguese and international journals.
He is now working on the ERC project BADEMS - The Cultural History of the Black African Diaspora in Early Modern Spain, housed at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Main areas of research:
- History of Portugal and of the Portuguese Empire in the Early Modern Period (15th-17th centuries)
- European History in the Renaissance
- Diplomatic History
- Maritime History
- History of Knowledge
- Cultural History
less
Related Authors
InterestsView All (45)
Uploads
Recent Highlights by Nuno Vila-Santa
in its catalogue as ‘brief notes on the Kings of Portugal’. The manuscript is in a mid-sixteenthcentury
hand and has personal annotations by William Cecil (1520–98), better known as Lord
Burghley. It recounts the history of Portugal by reigns and belonged to Cecil’s personal library. Until
now, no other extant example of a history of Portugal written in English in the sixteenth century
was known. This article publishes the first transcription of this unique document, while analysing its
contents and explaining its importance. The first section will discuss the history of the manuscript
itself, explaining its owners, its likely date of composition and the problems relating to authorship.
The second part will deal with the raft of reasons why we believe William Cecil ordered its
composition. The third section will detail the major contents of the manuscript, discussing its most
interesting details. Finally, the conclusion will reflect on why this manuscript is important for
British history.
Forthcoming by Nuno Vila-Santa
Books by Nuno Vila-Santa
Book chapter by Nuno Vila-Santa
in its catalogue as ‘brief notes on the Kings of Portugal’. The manuscript is in a mid-sixteenthcentury
hand and has personal annotations by William Cecil (1520–98), better known as Lord
Burghley. It recounts the history of Portugal by reigns and belonged to Cecil’s personal library. Until
now, no other extant example of a history of Portugal written in English in the sixteenth century
was known. This article publishes the first transcription of this unique document, while analysing its
contents and explaining its importance. The first section will discuss the history of the manuscript
itself, explaining its owners, its likely date of composition and the problems relating to authorship.
The second part will deal with the raft of reasons why we believe William Cecil ordered its
composition. The third section will detail the major contents of the manuscript, discussing its most
interesting details. Finally, the conclusion will reflect on why this manuscript is important for
British history.
tenure are intrinsically connected with the ambassador’s acquisition of Portuguese maritime
knowledge. I also suggest the connection between the information transmitted by Nicot from
Lisbon with his work as a translator and disseminator of Portuguese knowledge after his
resettling in France. Nicot’s embassy is compared with those of other French and Spanish
ambassadors
1577, the Jesuit visitor Alessandro Valignano (1573-1577) also had a previously important action in India, although
this last one is less mentioned. The main goal of this article is to review Valignano´s first three years as Jesuit visitor
to India, linking his missionary initiatives with his political interventions. Contextualization is, thus, made on his
appointment as visitor and on the impact of his arrival to the Portuguese court, in 1573, in order to understand the
origins of the political debates in which Valignano got involved in Asia and the way those controversies affected his
1577´s decision. Based on the visitor’s main correspondence as well as his Sumário Índico we attempt to reevaluate
the importance of his first visitation to India.
during the reigns of King Sebastian and King Henry of Portugal. Cross-checking the political, social and military
contexts of the kingdom and of Asia, present in the appointment of each one of the governors and viceroys of India
during that period with the main correspondence sent by the Crown to the East allows us to answer some questions:
to what extent did the reigns of the last Avis kings proceed with the tendencies inherited from the reign of King John
III? Can any points of contact be established between the policies of these monarchs and the ones of the philipine
period? Focusing on the policies of the regencies during the minority of King Sebastian, taking into account the
changes that followed during the period of the government of King Sebastian and considering also the policy of the
brief reign of King Henry, we intend to understand the reasons of the well-known failure of the Sebastian reformism.
supplies and men, he complained to the king, who dismissed de Noronha
and made Barreto viceroy of Goa in his place". Moniz Barreto was never named viceroy, but only governor.
was appointed regedor da casa da suplicação, the head of one the most
important courts in the country". King Sebastião was grandson and not son of King John III.
So, the work is divided into three main sections. In the first one, mainly chapeters I and II, trying to frame the evolution of the House of Atouguia from its foundation in the fifteenth century until the moment when D. Luís assumed it. For this purpose analysis is made of the ambience of his birth as well as of his first military experiences in the Indean Ocean and at Muhlberg, for the occasion of his embassy to Emperor Charles V in 1547, with contextual minutiae. In the second seccion, embrassing chapters III and IV, the career of this nobleman is detailed for the reigns of D. Sebastião, D. Henrique and for the period of dynastic crisis. Beginning with the study of Ataíde´s rapport with the main protagonists in power, we revisit his nominations as vice-roy and general, in 1568 and 1577, and debate minuciously about his policies during the governments of India and his generalship. Focus is also placed on the evolution of his House during this time. In the third section, mainly the V chapter, we analyse the images of D. Luís that have been implanted along the centuries, debating in the Conclusion the pertinancy and correspondence of those images with the historical facts.
Thefore, this works aims contributing not only to the knowledge of the career of D. Luís de Ataíde but also at revisiting and digging deep into a period of transition, the reigns of D. Sebastião, D. Henrique, and the period of the dynastic crisis, mainly in the Empire, hoping to achieve a better knowledge of the historic period that succedded: the philipine Portugal.
The aim of this communication is to discuss that process and its main intervenors. We will analyze the information that King Philip II received from his ambassador in France and that motivated him to order the Spanish ambassador in Portugal to press the Portuguese regent to demote Dantas. Secondly, we will approach the Portuguese regent’s reaction to such demands and understand why he only recalled Dantas at the fifth Spanish demand. Finally, we will discuss the impact of Dantas’ recall on the French-Portuguese diplomatic relations and also on the Spanish-Portuguese ones. In the process, we will discuss what were the real reasons behind King Philip II’s court demands. Did King Philip II have a clear intention and basis for his suspicions or his pressure for Dantas’ demotion was a diplomatic error? These will be some of the questions that this communication will answer.