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De Gestis Mendi de Saa

book by José de Anchieta

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 22, 2024
Entity authorityQ51076619 ↗
Source-derived summary

De Gestis Mendi de Saa is a poem written about 1560 by José de Anchieta, a 16th-century Spanish Jesuit missionary in the Portuguese colony of Brazil, who was called the "Apostle of Brazil." The poem describes the "heroic deeds" of the Portuguese governor Mem de Sá and his soldiers "fighting in the immense wilderness" and against the French Protestants.

The wars referred to were actually aimed at the systematic conquest and destruction of Tupi villages and fields and the enslaving of their inhabitants, as a means of "putting an end to cannibalism" and facilitating their Christianization. Anchieta and his fellow-Jesuit Manuel da Nóbrega supported and actively promoted that aggressive policy.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “De Gestis Mendi de Saa” as book by José de Anchieta. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gestis, Mendi and book.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1560—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Gestis, Mendi and book providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “De Gestis Mendi de Saa”, the useful work is to connect “book by José de Anchieta” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q51076619. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1560.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “De Gestis Mendi de Saa”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow De Gestis Mendi de Saa primary sources, De Gestis Mendi de Saa archive and Gestis research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “De Gestis Mendi de Saa”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “De Gestis Mendi de Saa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.