Identities in conflict in the correspondence of a late medieval portuguese envoy

Abstract

Drawing on the epistolary corpus known as the Letters from Italy, this paper offers an analysis of the identity-building strategies employed by Lopo de Almeida (c. 1416–1508) in the letters he sent to King Afonso V of Portugal (1432–1481). Anchored in the concept of virtue as a central category within the late medieval noble ethos, the study seeks to understand how the ambassador, through his correspondence, articulated values, experiences, and discourses that reinforced his belonging to a particular aristocratic elite. The analysis is based on the four previously published letters, as well as a recently identified one, which remains largely unexplored by historiography. These documents are examined through an analytical questionnaire and interpreted using a hermeneutic approach. In doing so, this article aims to contribute to a broader understanding of how the Portuguese nobility in transit represented itself and projected its identity within the European context of the fifteenth century.