ÁLVAREZ, MANOEL. – Portuguese Jesuit, born at Ribeira Brava (Madeira) in 1526 and died at Évora on 30 December 1582. He was rector of the colleges of Coimbra and Évora; but above all he was an accomplished teacher of the classical languages, and owes his enduring fame to his Latin grammar, published at Lisbon in 1572 under the title De institutione grammatica, libri tres. Prescribed as a Ratio Studiorum (v.) for the colleges of the Order, it went through more than four hundred editions, with numerous versions in the various languages, as well as abridgments and adaptations. Written entirely in Latin—which facilitates the learning not only of the rules but also of the language—it is moreover rich in suggestions and regulations for teaching and methodology, and offers an effective view of the pedagogical system of the ancient colleges. Alongside approval, it also provoked criticism from the outset on the part of the revisers of the Ratio, who desired greater clarity and a better division of the material. The subsequent appearance of Latin grammars written in the vernacular, beginning with the editions of the Oratorian De Condren and the Port-Royalist Lancelot and continuing to those of our own times, progressively diminished its fame and use; nevertheless, some attempts still remain, and not without excellent results (cf., for example, G. Llobera, Grammatica classicae
latinitatis ad Alvari Institutiones conformata Scholis hispanis, americanis, philippinis, Barcelona 1919–20).