Portuguese Literature
In 1820 his two-volume Memoirs of Camoens was published by Longmans. It was well received,with Robert Southey in the Quarterly Review of April 1822 speaking warmly in its favour. The two volumes contain a biography of the poet, note on the "rimas" or smaller poems, a translation of an essay by Dom Joze Maria de Souza, an account of the translations and translators of the Lusiad, an account of the editions of Camoens, and notes on his commentators and apologists.
In 1836 Adamson printed a catalogue of his Portuguese library under entitled Bibliotheca Lusitana, in which the books are carefully described with a great deal of bibliographical information. Except for the volumes relating to Camoens and a few others, the library was destroyed by fire in 1849.
In 1842, he brought out the first part of a collection entitled Lusitania Illustrata, consisting of translations from Portuguese sonnets and notes on their writers. This was followed, in 1846, by a second part devoted to ballads. For these, Adamson produced an English prose version, which was then turned into verse by Richard Charles Coxe, vicar of Newcastle upon Tyne.
As a reward for his services to Portuguese literature, the Queen of Portugal conferred the knighthoods of Christ and of the Tower and Sword on Adamson. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and a member of many English and continental philosophical and antiquarian bodies.
Read more about this topic: John Adamson (antiquary)
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“If a nation’s literature declines, the nation atrophies and decays.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)