Exhibition: Camões: Life, Work and Survival in Hispanic Culture

From 3 November to 14 February 2027, the Biblioteca Nacional de España will host an exhibition on Luís de Camões and his links with Spanish literature. The Sala Recoletos will bring together books from the library’s collection to trace the trajectory of his works, from the earliest publications to their influence on contemporary writers.

Among the items on display will be copies of the first editions of Os Lusíadas from 1572, early translations into Castilian, plays, and poetry collections. Special attention will be given to the edition annotated by Manuel de Faria y Sousa, published in Madrid in 1639, which contributed to establishing Camões as a classic of literature.

Curated by Aurelio Vargas Díaz-Toledo, the exhibition will also address Renaissance Portugal, maritime voyages, and the poet’s readings. Greco-Roman authors, the Italian humanist tradition, and poets from the Iberian Peninsula influenced his lyric, theatrical, and epic works.

The exhibition will conclude with writers who admired Camões centuries later, including Rosalía de Castro, Jorge Luis Borges y Antonio Muñoz Molina. The latter took the title of his novel Un andar solitario entre la gente from one of Camões’s sonnets.