author
Bernardim Ribeiro
1482–1552
A pioneering voice of the Portuguese Renaissance, this poet and prose writer helped bring the pastoral style into Portuguese literature. His best-known work, Menina e Moça, is remembered for its dreamlike mood, longing, and emotional intensity.
1 Audiobook
Saudades: história de menina e moça
by Bernardim Ribeiro
About the author
Born around 1482 in Torrão, Portugal, Bernardim Ribeiro became one of the key early figures in Portuguese Renaissance literature. Reference works and literary sources describe him as the writer who introduced the pastoral mode to Portugal through his eclogues and prose fiction.
His most famous book is Menina e Moça—also known as Saudades in some editions—a work often noted as an early and influential pastoral romance on the Iberian Peninsula. His writing is closely associated with saudade, the distinctive sense of longing and absence that became central to Portuguese literary tradition.
Many details of Ribeiro’s life remain uncertain, but he is generally dated to about 1482–1552. What has lasted clearly is the atmosphere of his work: intimate, melancholy, and musical, with a strong influence on later Portuguese literature.