Note 152 — II 1325-1521
Reading edition
Lucena (Vida, Bk. III, cap. 3) speaks of romances velhos em que elles [the natives of India] como nos, por ser o ordinario cantar da gente, guardam o successo das memorias e cousas antigas. The expression romance velho in the sixteenth century may mean a romance that has gone out of fashion. Cf. Vicente, Os Almocreves: Hei os de todos grosar Ainda que sejam velhos. Antigo may similarly mean ‘antiquated’ rather than ancient. Barros, Grammatica, 1785 ed., p. 163, mentions rimances antigas. D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos considers that the romances came from Spain to Portugal at the latest in the third quarter and perhaps in the first half of the fifteenth century.