BRASILE

BRAZIL. - The United States of Brazil, a federal republic of 20 States, 5 territories, and a federal district, alone cover just under half of the entire South American continent (8.5 million sq. km.), thus ranking among the largest territorial units in the world.

Summary:

I. Geography

II. Ecclesiastical history

III. Art

IV. Literature

V. School system.

I. Geography

Extending over 40° in both latitude and longitude, Brazil encompasses regions of greatly varied nature, which may nonetheless be grouped into three major zones. To the north, for over 3 million sq. km., stretches the Amazonian plain, with a very hot and humid climate, minimal temperature variation, and year-round rainfall. It is covered by the imposing equatorial forest (selvas) and crisscrossed in every direction by water-rich rivers that form an extensive network of navigable routes (50,000 km.; the Amazon is navigable for 4,100 km.). The central interior zone corresponds to a similarly vast plateau, generally sloping from east and south toward the north and west, where tabular landforms of modest altitude (800–1,600 m) prevail. The climate is less extreme, with a dry season (verão) that grows progressively longer as one moves southward, and a rainy summer season. The vegetation shifts from the leafless forest during the dry period (caatingas) to savanna with scattered trees (campos), more or less dense with shrubs (carrascas) and grasses, or even to steppe when rainfall is absent (sertões). The plateau rises along its eastern edge in steep escarpments (serras) that dominate the coastal strip or extend all the way to the sea; this is Brazil’s most populous and wealthiest zone. To the northeast and east (as far as the state of Paraná), the climate remains distinctly tropical, with extreme temperatures and heavy rainfall, while from Paraná to the Paraguayan border, temperatures decrease, summer becomes the driest season, and conditions become more favorable for human settlement, especially inland from the coastal region, which is locally unhealthy and everywhere covered with lush vegetation (Araucaria forests south of the Tropic).

Brazil’s population (48 million today) is composed of 62% Creoles and whites, descendants of both early colonists (Portuguese) and more recent immigrants (after 1820; among the latter, who came from all over the world, Italians rank first and today number no fewer than 2 million). A further 3% are Amerindians (among the "bravos" of the Amazon basin are those still resistant to any civilization), and the remainder consists of blacks (imported from the 16th century to 1851 for plantation work) and mulattoes, descendants of former slaves (slavery was abolished in 1888), especially numerous in the tropical coastal regions. The population is very unevenly distributed: four-fifths of it is concentrated in coastal and sub-coastal areas, while vast stretches of the country are as sparsely populated as the Sahara (Brazil could accommodate perhaps 600–700 million people). Of the 15 cities with over 100,000 inhabitants, 10 are coastal and only one (Manaus) lies in the remote interior. Two exceed one million inhabitants: the capital, Rio de Janeiro (2.3 million including suburbs, in 1945), and São Paulo (1.4 million, of whom over 200,000 are Italian); followed by Recife (Pernambuco, 385,000), Salvador (Bahia, 320,000), Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul, 300,000), Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, 226,000), Belém (Pará, 231,000), etc. The official language of Brazil is Portuguese.

As for religion, no state religion is recognized, but nearly the entire population is Catholic.

A federal republic since 15 November 1889, Brazil adopted a new constitution promulgated by the Constituent Assembly on 18 September 1946, in which it is defined as a presidential and federal republic with a bicameral legislature.

The subdivision of Brazil into States and Territories has undergone changes since 1942; the following table reflects the most recent situation (after 3 February 1947):

| Federated States, Territories, and Regions | Area (sq. km.) | Population (1940 census) | Density (pop. per 1,000 sq. km. in 1946) |
|--------------------------------------------|----------------|--------------------------|------------------------------------------|
| Amazonas | 1,592,626 | 416,011 | 0.26 Manaus (116) |
| Pará | 1,216,726 | 923,453 | 0.76 Belém (123) |
| Guaporé | 254,163 | 21,297 | 0.08 P. Velho (11) |
| Acre | 153,170 | 79,768 | 0.52 R. Branco (17) |
| Rio Branco | 214,316 | 12,130 | 0.06 Bôa Vista (11) |
| Amapá | 137,419 | 21,191 | 0.15 Macapá (11) |
| Disputed between Amazonas and Pará | 3,192 | | |
| Northern Region | | | |
| Maranhão | 334,809 | 1,235,169 | 3.69 S. Luiz (92) |
| Piauí | 249,317 | 817,601 | 3.28 Teresina (73) |
| Ceará | 153,245 | 2,091,032 | 13.65 Fortaleza (194) |
| Rio Grande do Norte | 53,048 | 768,018 | 14.48 Natal (59) |
| Paraíba | 56,282 | 1,422,282 | 25.27 João Pessoa (102) |
| Pernambuco | 97,016 | 2,687,175 | 27.70 Recife (377) |
| Alagoas | 28,531 | 951,300 | 33.34 Maceió (68) |
| Fernando de Noronha | 27 | 1,065 | 39.44 F. de Nor. (1) |
| Northeastern Region | | | |
| Sergipe | 21,057 | 542,326 | 25.76 Aracaju (64) |
| Bahia | 563,762 | 3,918,112 | 6.95 Salvador (54) |
| Minas Gerais | 581,975 | 6,736,416 | 11.58 B. Horizonte (126) |
| Espírito Santo | 40,882 | 750,107 | 18.35 Vitória (49) |
| Rio de Janeiro | 42,588 | 1,847,857 | 43.39 Niterói (153) |
| Federal District | 1,356 | 1,764,141 | 13.00 Rio de Janeiro (230) |
| Disputed between Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo | 10,137 | 66,994 | 6.61 |
| Eastern Region | | | |
| São Paulo | 247,223 | 7,180,316 | 29.04 São Paulo (1,409) |
| Paraná | 201,288 | 1,236,276 | 6.14 Curitiba (152) |
| Santa Catarina | 94,367 | 1,178,340 | 12.48 Florianópolis (50) |
| Rio Grande do Sul | 282,480 | 3,320,689 | 11.76 P. Alegre (295) |
| Southern Region | | | |
| Mato Grosso | 1,262,572 | 420,835 | 0.33 Cuiabá (59) |
| Goiás | 622,463 | 826,414 | 1.33 Goiânia (52) |
| Central-West Region | 1,885,035 | 1,247,249 | 0.66 |
| **TOTAL** | **8,516,037** | **41,236,315** | **4.84** |

Brazil

1. The Brazilian colony

The Portuguese, who had established themselves in Brazil since the beginning of the 16th century, found themselves in possession of a vast territory which extended as far as Angola in Africa. During this colonial period, Brazil was targeted by Calvinists; the French attacked Rio de Janeiro (1555–67), while the Dutch attacked the Brazilian northeast (1630–61), aspiring to establish a Protestant state in South America. However, such attempts came to nothing, for after more or less prolonged struggles, the invaders were vigorously repelled by the patriotic ardor and, in particular, by the religious fervor of the people, wounded in its most sacred traditions. An index of popular religious culture is sacred architecture, which flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries with the typical colonial style.

Under the government of the Marquis of Pombal, the prime author of the suppression of the Society of Jesus and reformer of the University of Coimbra (1772), the Catholic religion suffered a severe blow. Among the evils that followed, one must note a deficient religious instruction of the people in general and the formation of a high clergy of Jansenist and regalist tendencies. More than anything else caused by the ideas of the time were the separatist revolutions of Minas Gerais (1789) and Pernambuco (1817), in which several priests took part.

The final years of the Brazilian colony were marked by a unique event in the history of America. After much hesitation, the Regent of Portugal, the future John VI, to escape the captivity that Napoleonic politics had prepared for him, chose Rio de Janeiro as the new seat of his court (1808–21). Monsignor Lorenzo Caleppi followed him there, and by force of circumstances became the first nuncio and later (1816) the first cardinal on American soil. The colony, elevated to the status of a united kingdom, derived great advantages from the administration of John VI; nor did the religious life of Brazil fail to benefit from the immediate oversight of the representative of the Holy See.

2. The Brazilian Empire

When John VI was compelled to return to Lisbon due to a constitutionalist revolution, he entrusted the government of Brazil to his son Peter, not without foreseeing the imminent separation of Brazil from Portugal. Barely a year later, Peter proclaimed Brazil’s independence (7 September 1822) and declared himself its first emperor. The early years of the new empire were turbulent, and the disorders did not cease even when the emperor, abdicating in favor of his minor son Peter II, entrusted the government to a regency with liberal tendencies. From the outset of the autonomous regime, Catholicism, the official religion, suffered due to the turbulence, both because of the regalism of the government, which accentuated the patronal rights inherited from the kings of Portugal, and because of the open opposition to the Roman Curia, as well as the clergy, which was much inclined toward politics and uncertain in doctrine. A prototype of this state of affairs was the priest and statesman Antônio Feijó. During the prosperous reign of Peter II (1840–1889), while the Church benefited from the establishment of three new dioceses (Diamantina, Porto Alegre, and Fortaleza in 1854, while the prelatures of Cuiabá and Goiás had become bishoprics in 1826), it also fell victim to the liberalism of the emperor himself and the freemasonry of the ministerial cabinets, which promoted the famous “religious question,” culminating in the trial, condemnation, and imprisonment of two heroic bishops, Vital Maria de Oliveira, Bishop of Olinda, and Antônio de Macedo Costa, Bishop of Belém do Pará, guilty only of having fulfilled their pastoral duty by defending the freedom of the Church (1873). Toward the end of the empire, the clergy gradually became more cultured and numerous, a development also aided by the arrival of other religious orders, such as the Jesuits, Lazarists, and Salesians, among others.

3. The Brazilian Republic

A brief military revolution exiled the aged emperor and proclaimed the republic of the United States of Brazil (15 November 1889). In accordance with liberal principles, the Church was separated from the state (7 January 1890). The Brazilian bishops lodged a collective protest, but soon realized that in practice the law brought the Church liberation from the excessively heavy protection of the state. Leo XIII immediately recognized the new republic (1892), which greatly favored, from that time onward, a mutual understanding that still exists today between state and Church in Brazil. Diplomatic relations with the Holy See were maintained, and while the representation of the Brazilian government at the Vatican was elevated to the rank of an embassy, the pontifical representation in Rio de Janeiro was raised to the status of a first-class nunciature (1909). Among other manifestations of the Brazilian government’s understanding of the high mission of the Catholic Church, one must recall the invitation extended to Pope Leo XIII to preside over the arbitration of the boundary dispute with Bolivia (1903), the official reception given to the then Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the papal legate returning from the 34th International Eucharistic Congress in Buenos Aires, the official celebrations of the 4th centenary of the Society of Jesus (1939), and those marking the 50th anniversary of *Rerum Novarum*.

4. Present state of Catholicism in Brazil

Brazil currently has 17 metropolitan sees, 64 suffragan dioceses, 25 *prelature nullius*, and 2 apostolic prefectures, it being noted that the last two archbishops of Rio de Janeiro were raised to the dignity of cardinal

lizia (1905 and 1930). Thanks to the seminary reform promoted by the Holy See, there is today a more numerous and better-trained diocesan clergy. There are 3 major regional seminaries, 9 metropolitan major seminaries, 34 diocesan minor seminaries, and 7 preparatory seminaries. Since 1934, the Pontifical Brazilian College in Rome has been in operation, maintained at the expense of the national episcopate. Fourteen religious orders, 27 congregations, and 3 male religious institutes carry out their beneficial work in Brazil, supported by 11 orders, 18 third orders, and 87 female congregations. The religious primarily dedicate themselves to education, as well as to the care of souls and missions, both popular and in apostolic prelatures and prefectures. Worthy of note in the religious life of the people are the developments of the Franciscan Third Order, the Apostleship of Prayer, the Marian congregations for youth, and the missionary leagues in Catholic colleges. Eucharistic life is fostered through the Eucharistic Crusade, the so-called "Easter of the different classes," and is promoted by major manifestations of faith, such as the important national Eucharistic Congresses held in Rio de Janeiro (1922), Salvador (1933), Belo Horizonte (1938), Recife (1939), São Paulo (1942), and through perpetual day and night adoration in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, and Fortaleza.

There are numerous Catholic organizations, such as Brazilian Catholic Action; workers' circles; the Dom Vital centers of higher culture; the association of Catholic journalists, with daily newspapers, periodicals, and publishing houses; the film censorship commission; Catholic radio stations or those that at least broadcast Catholic programs; and the charitable works of various confraternities, among which the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul stand out.

Maurilio Cesar de Lima

III. Art

With the Portuguese occupation, certain forms of art cultivated until then on Brazilian soil by the Indians, such as the mosaics of variegated feathers, died out; architecture, however, acquired the greatest importance, particularly through religious and military buildings. In the early period, it was military architects who provided the plans for palaces and churches. In the second half of the 16th century, the Jesuits first transplanted simple architectural forms derived from classical Mannerism; later they introduced Italian and Portuguese Baroque, the latter becoming lavish and overloaded, especially in the interiors of churches. The sculptor Diogo Jacome and the architects Antônio Pires, Manuel Fernandes, and Francisco dos Santos worked during this period; they were the authors of numerous monasteries. The residences of governors and viceroys had no artistic value.

In the 17th century, the monk Eusébio de Matos (1629-92), a skilled painter from Bahia, of whose works nothing remains, and two Flemish artists, Frans Post and Albert Eckhout, who, during the Dutch occupation, were the first to paint tropical landscapes from life, were active in Brazil.

In the 18th century, the main churches were built: the richest, with gilded wood decorations, were those of Minas Gerais. In 1735, Sá e Faria designed the plans for the cathedral of Bahia and the church of the Military. In 1751, at the behest of Governor Gomes Freire de Andrade, the Caxoeira aqueduct with its double tier of arches and numerous fortresses were constructed. In 1760, João Batista Primoli built the church of São Miguel.

Antônio José da Silva, known as Aleijadinho (b. c. 1750 in Sabará, Minas Gerais), directed the construction of many churches in São João del-Rei and carved in steatite twelve statues of prophets for the church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário in Congonhas do Campo. Other 18th-century sculptors from Rio were Domingos da Conceição, Simão da Cunha, Gaspar Ribeiro, and later Valentim da Fonseca e Silva (b. in Minas Gerais, 1750-1813), who was also a skilled goldsmith and exerted great influence. Surviving works by him in Rio include a *Passion* (in the church of the Military), the altar of São Francisco with its magnificent lamps, the interiors of the churches of São Bento and São Rita (completed by Martinho de Brito), two medallions, and a bronze shrub placed in a public park, which contributed greatly to his fame. His pupils included Francisco de Paula Borges, José Carlos Pinto, A. J. Vallasques, and the Jesuit Teófilo.

The painter José Joaquim da Rocha frescoed the church of Conceição in Bahia; from his school came Francisco Vellasco (1778-1833), known for his portraits, and Chagas, nicknamed "Cabra," who carved religious statues imbued with profound and human sorrow.

Subsequently, artistic primacy passed from Bahia to Rio de Janeiro, which had already had its first painter in a Benedictine of Flemish origin, known as Ricardo do Pilar (d. c. 1700); a remarkable *Christ with Hands Raised to Heaven* (in the monastery of São Bento) remains of him. His pupil was José de Oliveira, born in Rio, who studied in Portugal. He decorated the hall of the

In this viceregal palace, the Cathedral, the church of St Francis of Penance and the dome of the imperial chapel exerted an influence and inspired Francisco Muzzi, the friar Francisco Solano, Leandro Joaquim (portraits and sacred works including his St Cecilia in the church of the Parto), the prolific Juan de Sousa (cloister of the Carmelites) and the able Manuel da Cunha, a freed slave who completed his studies in Europe and died in 1809 (Deposition from the imperial chapel, St Andrew in the church of St Sebastian, decorations for numerous chapels in Rio and a portrait of the Count of Bobadella).

Manuel’s pupils included the mulatto Ray Mundo da Costa y Silva (Last Supper), who was also an architect, José Leandro Carvalho, who died in 1846 at Angra dos Reis (portraits of John VI, St Anne, Our Lady of Mount Carmel with the imperial family), and his son, a flower painter who died in 1838, Antonio Alves, Domiciano Pereira Carreto and the versatile Manuel Dias de Oliveira Brasilense (d. 1831), nicknamed “the Roman” for having studied in Rome. Notable in this period too are the miniatures by M. S. Gentil and F. P. Amaral (d. 1830), a pupil of Leandro Carvalho (frescoes in the castle of Boa Vista and in the library).

With the establishment of the Portuguese court in Rio de Janeiro (1808), the arts received fresh impetus and a vital spirit of renewal, especially after 1816 when John VI, acting on the advice of the Count of Barca and Baron von Humboldt, invited French artists headed by J. Le Breton (d. 1819) to found a school of fine arts. The Academy was closed in 1831 and reopened only in 1837 on the initiative of Minister Vasconcellos; yet from 1816 onwards French influence is evident in almost all the painters. Soon afterwards Roman influence began to make itself felt, first in Enrique José de Silva, the portraitist Claudio Brandier (d. 1857), Correia de Lima, Simplicio Rodrigues de Sá Correa, Luna and Manoel de Araújo Porto Alegre (1806–76), celebrated for their historical paintings. Whereas earlier artists had drawn their inspiration chiefly from episodes of the Bible, mythology and ancient history, from the exploits of the first colonists and the life of the Indians, after Brazil’s victory over Paraguay epic themes and the struggles of the fatherland offered a rich new source of inspiration.

Pedro Américo (b. Parahyba 1845, d. 1905) may be regarded as the first great Brazilian artist. He studied in Paris, was a friend of Gide and Lefebvre, and preferred religious subjects, especially biblical, allegorical and patriotic themes. Several battle scenes survive, besides a self-portrait (Uffizi), and some works are in Italy.

The new generation of painters all studied in Paris, Rome or Munich: Oscar Pereira da Silva, Estebanda, Firmino Monteiro, Rodolfo Amoedo (a pupil of Cabanel: Jacob, Jesus in Capernaum), Décio Villares, brilliant colourist and sculptor (subjects drawn from Holy Scripture and portraits of women in a Venetian style). The Italian influence is clear in the paintings (including watercolours and pastels) of Enrico Bernardelli, whose work is marked by attractive, luminous colouring and original technique.

Among notable sculptors is Manuel Chaves Pinheiro (1822–84), a pupil of Ferrez (statues of Pedro II, St Sebastian, plaster groups), who in turn had among his pupils Rodolfo Bernardelli, the painter’s brother. In Rome Rodolfo executed his first major work, the imposing Christ and the Adulteress; through his efforts the palace of Fine Arts and the National Gallery in Rio were built.

Architecture, influenced by that of the great European metropolises, has had devotees such as Souza Aguiar, Francisco Bicalho and Carlos Sampaio. Since 1936 the Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional has been established, which besides creating numerous museums seeks to guide the country’s art towards genuine and spontaneous forms.

Relics of ancient Brazilian religious art were jealously preserved in the diocesan museums of São Paulo, Salvador, Campanha and Mariana. Contemporary sacred art in Brazil takes pride in the colossal statue of Christ the Redeemer, erected in 1931 by the engineer Heitor da Silva Costa despite formidable technical difficulties on the summit of Corcovado at 700 m above sea level. The statue, which stands on an 8 m pedestal, is 30 m high and measures 28 m from wrist to wrist; it dominates the abysses, the forest, the city and the sea, and has become a fitting symbol of Catholicism in Brazil.

IV. LITERATURE

Only towards the close of the first quarter of the sixteenth century did Brazil become the object of widespread action not merely of exploitation but also of enlightened colonisation, and this above all through the agency of the Society of Jesus, whose fervent preaching of the Gospel and teaching contributed greatly to the formation of the Brazilian national spirit.

Indeed, among the earliest writers in Brazil, though still entirely within the forms of Portuguese culture, there were not a few Jesuits, such as the Portuguese father Anchieta (1530–97) (v.), a noble figure of a humanist and delicate poet, the most ancient writer of Brazil, and Fernão Cardim (1540–1625), whose Narrativa epistolar de uma viagem e missão seguida pela Bahia, Ilhéos, Porto Seguro etc. fittingly crowns, together with the valuable collection of geographical, historical and economic observations handed down in the Tratado descritivo do Brasil (1587) by Gabriel Soares de Sousa (d. 1591), those famous Dialogues on the Great Ones of Brazil in which the life of the young colony is reflected in every detail, and to whose author, Bento Teixeira Pinto, we also owe a dramatic Relação do naufrágio que fez... Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho and a mediocre Prosopopeia (1601) in Camõesian style. In the struggle of the glorious wars waged against the Portuguese, English and Dutch, the spiritual physiognomy of Brazil was at last clearly defined: the concept of nationality now emerged with precision in the Historia da Custodia do Brasil (the oldest history of Brazil), written by Friar Vicente do Salvador (1627), in which the word “Brazil” no longer has merely a geographical content but acquires a new historical and social meaning.

The intense cultural flowering with which, above all, Bahia was now adorned is attested by advances in prose, notably in the work of Manoel de Moraes, Diogo Gomes Carneiro, Eusébio de Matos (1629–92), a learned and eloquent Jesuit, and finds its first truly Brazilian accents in the little poem dedicated by Manoel Botelho de Oliveira (1626–1711) to Ilha de Maré; in the varied output of Gregório de Matos (1623–96), whose verse is mostly satirical and moralising and thus an invaluable aid to understanding contemporary society and life, poetry at last assumes a distinctly personal stamp. The development of the economy, especially as a result of the degree of perfection attained by the extractive industries, was accompanied at the beginning of the eighteenth century by a more widespread cultural activity; and if numerous more or less ephemeral Academies sprang up (of the Esquecidos, Felizes, Selectos, Renascidos etc.), in which poetry degenerated into idle exercise

Brazil — Lavabo in stone by Antônio Francisco Lisboa, known as Aleijadinho (18th century). Sacristy of the church of St Francis of Assisi — Ouro Preto City (State of Minas Gerais).

Subtleties and puns (a case in point being the ponderous poem *Eustachidos* by Friar Manoel de S. Maria de Itaparica [1704–81], in which poverty of imagination is matched by bad taste), prose, on the other hand, gives us in the allegorical tale by Nuno Marques Pereira (1652–1728) a narrative whose moralising surface is undercut by no small measure of folkloric and landscape observation—observations in which, precisely, the chief interest of the work resides—while in the *Reflexô sobre a vaidade dos homens* by Matias Aires Ramos da Silva de Eça (1705–96) it offers an elegant book of philosophical-moral content whose value was recognised only much later. Finally, in the *História da América portuguesa* (published in Lisbon in 1730) it provides, despite a near-total absence of critical sense and geographical precision, concrete evidence of a noteworthy and sincere effort at synthesis. Nor should it be forgotten that an Alexandre de Gusmão (1695–1753) reveals himself in the same period as an ingenious imitator of Molière, and that to Brazil belongs, by birth, Antônio José da Silva, nicknamed *o Judeu* (b. in Rio de Janeiro on 8 May 1705; d. in Lisbon on 19 Oct. 1739), a skilful creator of short but savoury comic theatre.

The high degree of culture attained at the same time, particularly in the region of Minas Gerais, finds expression in the luxuriant flowering of the poetry of the school that takes its name precisely from that region, the so-called *mineira* (whose members almost all ended their lives tragically, swept up in the Inconfidência conspiracy of 1789), and is epitomised in the names of José Basílio da Gama (1741–95) and José da Silva Durão (1722–84), both epic poets, the former author of *Uraguai* (1769), a poem remarkable for its spontaneous inspiration and vivid colouring, the latter of *Caramuru*, a poem more classical in tone and rich in intense and broad Camõesian reminiscences, as well as written in a more copious and brilliant language; of Cláudio Manuel da Costa (1729–80), likewise author of an epic poem (*Vila Rica*), cold and colourless, yet an adroit Arcadian versifier and admirer of Camões and Petrarch; of Tomás Antônio Gonzaga (1744–1810), the greatest lyric poet of his age, sincere author of the finest love songbook written in Portuguese (*Marília de Dirceu*), and very probably also of the anonymous and celebrated *Cartas chilenas*, a supremely refined satirical poem directed against Governor Luís da Cunha Menezes (partially published in 1845 and complete in 1863); and José Inácio Alvarenga Peixoto (1744–93), more superficial but of easy and colourful imagination; and Manuel Inácio da Silva Alvarenga (1749–1814), the last representative of the *mineiro* group, an elegant Arcadian yet sensitive to the beauties of the Brazilian landscape; nor should we at the same time forget the spontaneous and popular muse of Domingos Caldas Barbosa (1740–1800), author of a poetic collection *A viola de Lereno* (the Arcadian name of the author), which met with a warm reception, and Domingos Vidal Barbosa, Bento de Figueiredo Tenreiro Aranha, and a few others besides.

Only in the 19th century, however, does Brazilian culture enter a decisively national phase, to whose formation political events contribute substantially (first the transformation of the colony into a kingdom, then the proclamation of its independence, with the consequent ferment and reforms), as do increased commercial and economic contacts with the outside world. Poetry, it is true, still clings to the now hackneyed Arcadian forms (worthy of mention here are only Antônio Pereira da Sousa Caldas [1762–1814], of painful and almost romantic sensibility finally calmed in complete abandonment to the Catholic faith), Friar Francisco de S. Carlos (1763–1829), notable orator and author of a sprawling poem on the Assumption of the Virgin, and José Eloy Ottoni (1764–1841), facile and elegant Arcadian poet, translator also of the Proverbs of Solomon and the Book of Job, and, lastly and chiefly, José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (1765–1838), a many-sided intelligence as scientist, orator, active politician, vigorous poet, fine moralist, who not infrequently overlays the predominant memory of Juvenal with that of Anacreon. Among prose writers, on the other hand, worthy of mention are, among others, José da Silva Lisboa (1756–1836), learned and skilful writer on politics and economics, whose works of importance both in content and in scope include *História dos principais sucessos políticos do Império do Brasil* (1818), *Constituição moral ou deveres do cidadão* (1825), and *Causa da religião e disciplina eclesiástica do celibato clerical* (1828); Mariano José Pereira da Fonseca (1773–1848), author of a collection of maxims and reflections (published in 1837) that more than once recalls La Rochefoucauld; José Feliciano Fernandes Pinheiro (1774–1847); and, in particular, Francisco Mont’Alverne (1784–1850), eloquent preacher credited with introducing the study of European philosophy into Brazil; and Hipólito José da Costa Pereira Furtado de Mendonça (1774–1832), the first notable journalist of Brazil, lively polemicist and ardent advocate of national independence. These are names of the first rank, surrounded by others no less worthy though less widely known, representatives of Brazilian thought in the period of the struggles for

Independence, among whom were Friar Francisco de S. Thereza de Jesus Sampaio (1778–1830), a fine orator; Friar Joaquim do Amor Divino Caneca (1779–1825), orator, poet and journalist; Balthazar da Silva Lisboa (1776–1840), historian, jurist and naturalist; Manoel Ayres do Casal, notable geographer and historian; Antonio de Moraes Silva (1775–1824), distinguished lexicographer and many others.

Poets generally termed “of transition,” such as Maciel Monteiro (1804–68), of refined lyrical taste and translator of Homer and Virgil, and Salomé Queiroga (1810–78), with pastoral leanings, immediately precede the leading exponents of the first Brazilian Romanticism: José Domingos Gonçalves de Magalhães (1811–82), Viscount of Araguaia, a serene and optimistic poet sustained by a sure faith, whose two collections of lyrics, *Suspiros poéticos* and *Saudades* (1836), though in emphatic and oratorical forms, announce the new direction of poetry. They are rich and varied in metres and rhythms, animated by a sincere religious and patriotic inspiration. To these were added, besides the tragedy *Antonio José*, too faithful to old classical schemes, the *Confederação dos Tamoios* (1856), marked by a strong local colour, a short poem *Urania*, etc.; Porto Alegre (1806–1879), whose youthful poem *A voz da natureza* (1835) shows new forms of thought and style, while the *Brasilianas* (1863) are heavy with religious and patriotic concerns, and from unrestrained imagination were born the forty cantos of the poem *Calabar* (1866). Antonio Gonçalves Dias (1823–64) is, finally, the first true Romantic poet, a sincere singer of the Brazilian land, exalted in delicate and limpid verses of frankly pantheistic intonation, and to whose resigned and nostalgic spiritual attitude there is a strange contrast in the soft and restless tone of Manoel Antonio Alvares de Azevedo (1831–52), whose *Lyra dos vinte annos* inaugurates a refined and fanciful, sorrowful and ironic poetry, in which are interwoven a thousand influences from Byron to Musset, to Heine. Close behind him come Laurindo J. da Silva Rabello (1826–1864), rebellious and pessimistic, of moving sincerity; L. José Junqueira Freire (1832–55), tormented and restless spirit but of fine lyrical sensitivity; and Casimiro de Abreu (1837–60), sincere and sentimental, who in his limpid and colourful verses reveals himself anxious for a calm and never attained happiness; finally, Antonio de Castro Alves (1847–71), declamatory and magniloquent, whose voice rose high and noble to vindicate human rights and strike cruel social prejudices, thereby deeply influencing national poetry. Many other names, too, though to varying degrees, are not undeserving of oblivion.

The definition of a Naturalist tendency in poetry, though attested in several cases (Martins Junior, Lucio de Mendonça, Celso Magalhães, Augusto de Lima, etc.), did not find deep adherence in Brazil, so that it was soon overtaken by the Parnassian virtuosity of Gonçalves Crespo, of Luis Guimarães, measured and refined, admirer of Lamartine and Musset as of Heine and Vigny, of Carducci as of Stecchetti; of Machado de Assis, discreet and nostalgic in his precise realistic inspirations, expressed with metric and rhythmic freedom; of Theophilo Dias, elegant and eloquent lyricist, whose art gathers Romantic reminiscences in recherché and precious forms, yet ever concerned with an exact correspondence between thought and form (*Cantos tropicaes*, *Fanfarras*, *Lyra dos verdes annos*), and still more of Raymundo Correa, acute investigator of psychological themes but at the same time refined and aristocratic describer of natural impressions, of soft sensitivity and timid delicacy; and finally Alberto de Oliveira, one of the greatest, who in colourful and imaginative verses, imbued with subtle melancholy, portrays the face of the Brazilian landscape (*Canções românticas*, *Meridionais*, etc.), and Olavo Bilac, of Epicurean and sensual accent but refined simplicity, and Luis Delfino and Luis Murat, a Romantic epigone of Victor Hugo-esque verbosity and grandiosity.

Yet against Parnassian composure, too, in Brazil at the end of the century the Symbolist wave breaks through with the contradictory and obscure, yet delirious with human emotion, poetry of Cruz e Souza, and that of B. Lopes, of Romantic and Parnassian training, in an early phase limpid and picturesque, but destined to lose himself in sonorous affectation. The same artistic direction is followed by E. de Menezes, F. Pacheco, A. de Guimarães, and finally Mario Pederneiras, who at last is able to free art from artifice and sing with elegant simplicity the sweetness of intimate life, the charm of tropical nature, the whole of daily reality in a form free of emphasis and ornament.

Prose, on the other hand, from the early attempts of Teixeira e Souza (1812–61), in a sense creator of the popular novel, and Joaquim Norberto de Souza Silva (1820–1891), historian and playwright, with Joaquim Manoel de Macedo (1820–82) is organized along the lines of the sentimental and ingenuous national novel (*Moema*, *O moço loiro*, etc.), sober and restrained, of respectful Catholic imprint, correct and pleasing in style, to arrive at expressing in the prose of José de Alencar (1809–77) the fresh emotions aroused by a profound intuition of nature, in a series of novels (*As minas de prata*, *O sertanejo*, etc.), written in energetic and nervous form, and often, as especially in *Iracema* and *Guarany*, quite free of rhetoric.

In a way, a kind of Brazilian Balzac may be considered Manoel Antonio de Almeida (1830–61) for *Memorias de um sargento de milicias* (an exact picture of the middle bourgeoisie at the beginning of the century), while Bernardo Joaquim da Silva Guimarães (1827–85) turns a keen and loving eye to the vast hinterlands of the country.

Following a trend that would become ever more pronounced in the work of Franklin Távora (1842–88), almost entirely inspired by rural life (O cabeleira, Casa de palha, Lourenço, etc.), and in the more refined and sober style of A. Escragnolle Taunay (1843–99), marked by a rich and lyrical imagination that finds its fullest expression in Retirada da lagoa and in the measured, restrained forms of Innocência.

Depth of thought, subtlety of psychological insight and observation, sobriety of form, and subtle irony make Joaquim Machado de Assis (b. 21 June 1839, d. 29 Sept. 1908), educated in the Romantic tradition, the most significant representative of the Naturalist trend. His preoccupation with human documentation, viewed with a human eye, leads to a pessimistic vision of life, which is at least partly illuminated by his faith in human goodness, while his art gradually ascends from the still uncertain forms of Contos fluminenses (1870), Resurreição, etc., to the perfect forms of Memórias póstumas de Brás Cubas (1880), Dom Casmurro (1900), etc. More superficial, Aluísio de Azevedo, from Uma lágrima de mulher to O mulato (1881), his first success, and then to Casa de pensão, O homem, O cortiço, renders in striking, vividly colored forms the tumultuous and complex life of the people, with its coarse vices and violent passions. A delicate sensibility, sometimes rendered with fine poetic touches, is revealed in Júlio Ribeiro’s Padre Belchior de Pontes e Carne; restless and moved by the fatality of destiny is Raul Pompeia (1863–95), who reveals himself in O Ateneu (1888) as an original and precise observer. The contemporaries who are disciples of these major figures range from Coelho Neto to Medeiros e Albuquerque, to Xavier Marques, who, with greater penetration and precision, take up again the work of the Romantics from Alencar to Taunay: among these, Afonso Arinos and Coelho Neto closely observe the humble life of the countryside, while Euclides da Cunha and Graça Aranha study ethnographic problems with passion.

A few words now on scientific prose. In the field of history and scholarship, A. de Varnhagen (1816–78) already carried out conscientious work based on precise archival research, from Florilégio da poesia brasileira to História geral do Brasil and História da Independência, valuable contributions to the history of colonial Brazil. By contrast, Pereira da Silva (1817–98) is nothing more than a sincere but historically imprecise popularizer, while Joaquim Norberto de Sousa Silva, already mentioned, is distorted by a misguided sense of patriotism. João Francisco Lisboa (1812–63), in pure language and subtly ironic forms, treated political, ethnographic, and social problems with keen insight. Historians also include Alexandre de Melo Morais (1816–82) and Joaquim Caetano da Silva (1810–73), the latter a fine scholar also of philosophy and medicine. But it was only around 1870 that Brazil truly entered the circle of international culture through that select minority of minds to which we owe the so-called Recife movement: just as the abolitionist campaign stands at the center of a more secure study of political and social problems, so precise criticism defines methods and aims in the penetrating work of Tobias Barreto, in the lively polemics of Sílvio Romero, critic and poet, philosopher and politician of European culture, and in that of Araripe Júnior, a disciple of Taine who was acute and paradoxical but capable of subtle criticism. In José Veríssimo, a disciple of Sainte-Beuve and Brunetière, we find scrupulous but lacking in comprehensive vision. In the hands of Joaquim Nabuco, a refined humanist and clear thinker, history assumes plastic and brilliant forms in the rapidity of vision and the suavest strength of eloquence. Eduardo Prado, a reactionary journalist and author of the well-known A ilusão americana, demonstrates in elegant and assured essays a full understanding of the Brazilian political and social problem, closely linked to the ethnic one, and openly wages battle against North American expansionism.

The significance of Brazilian theater is minimal. Born, one might say, with Antônio José (Gonçalves de Magalhães, 1838), of only historical value, it improves its technique with L. C. Martins Pena (1815–48), a prolific author of dramas, comedies, and tragicomedies, and is cultivated, though without notable results, by França Júnior, Agrário de Menezes, Augusto de Castro, before declining into trivial and light forms of outright French imitation (Valentim Magalhães, Moreira Sampaio, etc.), and only regaining some traditional Romantic forms with Artur Azevedo, marked by easy and spontaneous humor; fine comedies are owed to Machado de Assis.

V. ORGANIZAMENTO SCOLASTICO

The Brazilian constitution of 18 September 1946, taking into account the 1940 census which showed 40 to 72 percent illiteracy, established that elementary education be compulsory and delivered in the national language, requiring industrial or agricultural enterprises to maintain free elementary education.

Religion constitutes an optional subject of instruction and corresponds to the pupil’s own religion (Brazilian Constitution, Art. 18, §9, chap. 5). Schools are dependent either on the federal Union, on individual states, on federal districts, or on municipalities.

Private schools are permitted. Elementary schools (Escolas de primeira ensino) are divided into 11,342 state-run, 2,532 municipal, 3,421 private, 302 Italian elementary schools, 1,200 elementary schools for other ethnic groups, and 17 missionary elementary schools. To these must be added the 10,000 detached classes in which elementary education has been provided since 1947 for pupils aged 15 to 25. Secondary schools (Escolas de segunda ensino) are divided into 2 federal, 24 state-run, 3 municipal, 208 private, 8 Italian, and 1 missionary. Normal schools, regulated by decree-law no. 8530 of 2 January 1946, are divided into (Curso regente do ensino primário), which trains elementary school teachers and lasts four years; (Curso de formação dos professores primários), lasting three years; and (Curso de especialização e administração escolar). Classrooms are divided by sex or may be mixed. There are 24 state-run and 15 private normal schools.

There are also vocational schools, divided into 6 federal, 38 state-run, 7 municipal, 46 private, and 2 missionary; art-industrial schools, divided into 2 federal, 7 state-run, 4 municipal, and 15 private; artisan schools, divided into 2 federal, 2 state-run, and 8 private; 3 agricultural schools; 2 federal nautical schools; 9 commercial schools; 94 various military schools; and 17 primary naval schools, divided into 14 pure primary schools and 3 model schools.

Higher education is provided at the federal university (Universidade do Brasil) and at the state universities of Recife, Bahia, Belo Horizonte, and Porto Alegre. Notable among these are the two Catholic universities: the first, run by the Jesuits, is located in Rio de Janeiro, and the second, run by the Benedictines, in São Paulo. Attached to the latter is a Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences, and Letters of the Augustinian Canons. In addition to the full universities, there are several university institutes (fa

coltà) of law in Rio, Recife, Ceará, São Paulo, Goiás, Pará, Bahia, Belo Horizonte, and Porto Alegre; of medicine in Rio, Bahia, Belo Horizonte, Juiz de Fora, Porto Alegre, São Paulo; of pharmacology in Ouro Preto and Pará; polytechnics in Rio, Ouro Preto, São Paulo, Bahia, Recife, and Porto Alegre. Other Catholic university institutes besides those named are: the philosophy faculty “Paula Frassinetti” of the Sisters of St Dorothy in Recife, the philosophy faculty of the Jesuits in Recife, and the philosophy faculty of the Marist Brothers in Porto Alegre. There also exist in Rio the National School of Fine Arts, a “School of Music of Maranhão” in Terezina, academies of fine arts in Pará, Bahia, Paraná, and São Paulo (where there is also a conservatory), and a School of Social Service in Rio and Recife. – See Pl. II.