Note 106 — GOMES EANNES DE AZURARA; (continued 6)

(p. 116). Lisbon ... profit.—The city of Lisbon, whose name was traditionally and absurdly derived from Ulysses—"Ulyssipo," "Olisipo," and his foundation of the original settlement in the course of his voyages, was perhaps a greater city under the Moors, eighth-twelfth century, than at any time before the reign of Emmanuel the Fortunate. It was a Roman colony, but its prosperity greatly increased under the Arab rule from a.d. 714; from this port sailed Edrisi's Maghrarins, or Wanderers, on their voyage of discovery in the Western Ocean, probably in the earliest eleventh century. It was three times recovered and lost by the Christians: in 792(-812) by Alfonso the Chaste of Castille; in 851 by Ordonho I of Leon, who held it only a few months; and in 1093(-1094) by Alfonso VI of Leon, soon after his great defeat by the Almoravides at Zalacca (1086); but on each occasion it was quickly retaken—in 1094 by Seyr, General of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the Almorvaide. In alarm at the Moslem revival, Alfonso founded the county of Portugal in 1095, giving it in charge of Count Henry of Burgundy and his natural daughter Theresa, to hold as a "march" against the Moors. In 1147 Lisbon was finally recaptured by Affonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal, in alliance with a fleet (164 ships) of English, Flemish, German and French Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land (Second Crusade). At this time it was said, perhaps with exaggeration, to contain 400,000 inhabitants; its present number is only about 240,000 (see Cruce-signati Anglici Epistola de Expugnatione Olisiponis, in Portugalliæ Monumenta Historica, vol. i, p. 392, etc). Before 1147 Guimaraens had been the capital of Portugal; and even down to the time of John I, Henry's father, Lisbon was not formally the seat of government, this being more often fixed at Coimbra. In the same reign, Lisbon also, as a commercial port, easily distanced all rivals within the kingdom, especially Oporto; and King John's erection of palaces in the city, and his successful application to the Pope for the creation of an Archiepiscopal See (thus rivalling Braga), further contributed to give point to Azurara's words in this paragraph about "the most noble town in Portugal." On the share of the commercial classes of Lisbon, Lagos, etc., in Henry's schemes, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x, xii.

Paulo Vergeryo is Pietro Paulo Vergerio, born at Capo d'Istria, July 23, 1370, died at Buda, 1444 (1428 according to others). He enjoyed a considerable reputation as a scholar at Padua in 1393, etc., and migrated to Hungary in 1419. See Bayle, Dict. Crit. IV, 430 (1741); P. Louisy, in Nouvelle Biographie Générale, art. (Vergerio); J. Bernardi, in Riv. Univers. (Florence, 1875) xxii, 405-430, in Arch. Stor. Ital. (1876) C., xxiii, 176-180; Brunet, Manuel V, 1132-3; Muratori, Rer. Ital. Scr. (edition of Vergerio's works) XVI, pp. 111-187, 189-215, 215-242; Fabricius, ed. Mansi, VI, p. 289. He has left various Orations and Letters; especially an Epistola de morte Francisci Zabarekae, and a Historia seu Vitae Carariensium Principum ab eorum origine usque ad Jacobini mortem (1355). See also Joachim Vadianus, Biographia P. P. Vergerii, sen.; and C. A. Combi, Di Pierpaolo V. ... seniore ... memoria, Venice, 1880.