The Obedience of a King of Portugal was first published in 1958. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Especially designed as an example of fine book making, this volume presents a facsimile reproduction and a translation of a fifteen-century publication. The original upon which this publication is based is in the James Ford Bell Collection in the University of Minnesota library. The text is that of the obedience oration of Vasco Fernandes de Lucena, delivered for John II of Portugal to Pope Innocent VIII in 1485. Scholars consider the work a magnificent example of the Latin oratorical prose of the period.

Translated by: Francis M. Rogers