Plants in the poetic work of Luís Vaz de Camões

This exhibit is part of the Celebrations of the 5th Centenary of the birth of Luís Vaz de Camões. As Camões lived his great passion during the 13 years he was in Coimbra (1531- 1544), where he left at the age of 20, most of the plants mentioned in the Lyric are plants from the Mondego fields, which he also mentions, wistfully, in The Lusíadas, in the episode of “Inês de Castro” (Canto III, 118-135) and the episode of “Ilha dos Amores” (Canto IX, 18 – X, 95).

Based on watercolours by Ursula Beau (1906-1984) belonging to the Sociedade Broteriana (SB), the researchers Ana Margarida Dias da Silva, Maria Teresa Gonçalves, and Jorge Paiva selected plants related to those mentioned in Os Lusíadas and Lírica, associating the poetic excerpt where the plant is glossed, complemented with the indication of the scientific name, the common name and the name used by the poet.