Primor E Honra Da Vida Soldadesca No Estado Da India: An Anonymous Late Sixteenth-Century Manual of Soldiery and Political Affirmation of the Military Frontier in India

Abstract

ABSTRACT The anonymous, and undated Primor e honra da vida soldadesca no Estado da India or Excellence and honour of the soldier’s life, a lengthy and powerfully argued tract seeking to uphold military standards in the Portuguese Orient, holds many mysteries: although published in 1630, we do not know when it was written, or by whom. The text has been republished, most recently by Laura Monteiro Pereira in 2003, who argues that the text was written during one of the two administrations of D. Luís de Ataíde tends and tends towards religious rather than classical authority. In this analysis, the varied sources drawn on by the anonymous author are systematically categorised, the work is dated more precisely to 1578–80, some effort is made to adequately contextualise the text, and the impact of the text — one written very much for the future — assessed on subsequent Portuguese policy towards the Orient.