Note 439 — III The Sixteenth Century [1502-80] (continued 2)
Reading edition
1496, the generally accepted year of his birth, is the calculation of Severim de Faria, followed by Barbosa Machado, Nicolás Antonio, &c. As he retired at the end of 1567 it is difficult not to suspect (from his love of method and the decimal system) that he was born in 1497—the year of Vasco da Gama’s expedition.