L’Aurora del sebastianismo: le fonti profetiche dell’encuberto

The doctrinal origin of Sebastianism is often ascribed entirely within Portuguese popular culture. It is believed that D. João de Castro, inventor of the legend of the revived king, would have remodeled the figure of the Encuberto by taking it from the Trovas by Bandarra, a shoemaker from Trancoso. In fact, the rhetoric of the Encuberto was widespread in the Iberian peninsula long before the Trovas. D. João himself points out two other “announcements”, in the Vespertilio prophesied by Arnald of Villanova, and in the Sol obscuratus of the Oracle of Cyrill. More generally, this article intends to contribute to the knowledge of the vast prophetic and messianic library of D. João, and thus to show that the legend of D. Sebastião was born and developed at the confluence of multiple traditions circulating in Western Europe starting from the early Middle Ages.