(Lisboa, Portugal, aproximadamente 1465 - 1536)
"Gil Vicente (1465-1536?) fue el primer gran dramaturgo portugués y poeta de renombre. Se le identifica también con el joyero, autor de la Custodia de Belem, maestro del equilibrio y con el maestro de retórica del rey Don Manuel. Como hombre de teatro, parece también haber desempeñado las tareas de músico, actor y director. Es considerado frecuentemente, de una forma general, el padre del teatro portugués y también del teatro español, ya que también escribió en castellano, y compartió la paternidad de la dramaturgia española con Juan del Encina. La obra vicentina se considera reflejo del cambio de los tiempos y el paso de la Edad Media al Renacimiento, un balance de una época en la que las jerarquías y el orden social eran regidos por reglas inflexibles, hacia una nueva sociedad donde se comienza (muy vagamente, claro, y apenas en su vertiente teatral) a subvertir el orden instituido. Fue, de hecho, el principal representante de la literatura renacentista portuguesa, anterior a Camoens, e incorporó elementos populares en su escritura que influyó, por sí misma, la cultura popular portuguesa."
"Gil Vicente (Portuguese: [ˈʒiɫ viˈsẽtɨ]; c.1465 - c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus,"[3] often referred to as the "Father of Portuguese drama" and as one of Western literature's greatest playwrights.[1] Vicente worked in Portuguese as much as he worked in Spanish[3] and is thus, with Juan del Encina, considered joint-father of Spanish drama. Vicente was attached to the courts of the Portuguese kings Manuel I and John III. He rose to prominence as a playwright largely on account of the influence of Queen Dowager Leonor, who noticed him as he participated in court dramas and subsequently commissioned him to write his first theatrical work. He may also have been identical to an accomplished goldsmith of the same name,[2] creator of the famous monstrance of Belém, and master of rhetoric of King Manuel I. His plays and poetry, written in both Portuguese and Spanish, were a reflection of the changing times during the transition from Middle Ages to Renaissance and created a balance between the former time of rigid mores and hierarchical social structure and the new society in which this order was undermined. While many of Vicente's works were composed to celebrate religious and national festivals or to commemorate events in the life of the royal family, others draw upon popular culture to entertain, and often to critique, Portuguese society of his day. Though some of his works were later suppressed by the Portuguese Inquisition, causing his fame to wane, he is now recognised as one of the principal figures of the Portuguese Renaissance.[2]"