Francisco de Sá de Miranda (in medieval Portuguese Sá was also spelled Saa or Sâ) is credited with having introduced into Portuguese literature the comedy in prose and a new lyric meter, the decasyllable. Literary historians praise his contributions to the development of new creations or adaptations to already-existing Iberian forms, such as the tercet, the sestina, the octave, and the sonnet. He gave new meaning to the lyric subgenres of the canção (song), the elegia (elegy), the écloga (eclogue), and the carta (letter in verse), almost always satiric in nature, thus paving the way for later writers such as Diogo Bernardes and Luís de Camões.

Sá de Miranda introduced these new elements from Italy, where he resided between 1521 and 1526. His merit, however, rests on his originality in acclimatizing these imported Italian and classical trends to...