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The Contribution of Capistrano de Abreu to Brazilian Historiography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Katherine Fringer
Katherine Fringer*
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
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Extract

João Capistrano de Abreu changed the course of Brazilian historiography. Unlike previous historians who had oriented their studies toward colonial history as an expression of Brazil's connections with European culture, he pointed to the socioeconomic and psychological aspects of the evolution of the Brazilian interior as the most significant part of Brazilian history. By reinterpreting familiar sources and uncovering new material, he reconstructed the Brazilian colonial experience from a totally original point of view. Dating from the publication of his two major works, Os Caminhos Amigos e o Povoamento do Brasil (1889) and Capítulos de História Colonial (1907), the perspectives of historiography in Brazil have altered, and historians have reoriented their studies to emphasize the development of Brazil as an independent nation rather than as an appendage of Portugal.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , April 1971 , pp. 258 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1971

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References

1 Os Caminhos Aniigos e o Povoamento do Brasil was first published in 1889 in three articles in the Jornal do Comercio, Rio de Janeiro, and reappeared in 1930 as the title of a collection of essays by Capistrano de Abreu. See Os Caminhos Antigos e o Povoamento do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Briguiet, 1930).

2 Abreu, Capistrano de, Capítulos de Historia Colonial (1500-1800), 4th. ed. revised and annotated by Rodriques, José Honorio (Rio de Janeiro: Briguiet, 1954)Google Scholar.

3 Rodrigues, José Honorio, “Capistrano and Brazilian Historiography,” in Bradford Burns, E., ed., Perspectives on Brazilian Historiography (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 176 Google Scholar. For an essay on colonial Brazilian historiography in English, see the introduction by E. Bradford Burns in his Perspectives.

4 Taunay, Afonso de E., “Capistrano de Abreu,” Curso Capistrano de Abreu, Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro 221 (October/December 1953): 200 Google Scholar.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid—in Portuguese the expression is “modesta mas honesta.“

7 Letter to Soares, Antonio Joaquim Macedo, 1883, in Abreu, Capistrano de, Correspondencia, 3: 2. The correspondence was published in three volumes, organized and prefaced by Rodrigues, José Honorio (Rio de Janeiro: Ministerio de Educacáo e Cultura, Instituto Nacional de Livro, 1954)Google Scholar.

8 Rodrigues, José Honório, Teoría da História do Brasil (São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1957), 2: 12 Google Scholar.

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10 Ibid., 19 March 1917, 2: 37-38.

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12 Quoted by Tristao de Athayde in “Capistrano de Abreu,” Revista do Instituto de Ceará 43 (1928): 134 Google Scholar

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14 Brandão, Ambrosio Fernandes, Diálogos das Grandezas do Brasil, introduction by Abreu, Capistrano de (Salvador, Bahía: Livraria Progresso, 1956), p. 21 Google Scholar.

15 Ibid.

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17 Capistrano de Abreu, letter to Studart, 19 October 1892. Correspondencia, 1: 140.

18 Capistrano de Abreu, introduction to Frei Vicente do Salvador, Historia do Brasil, p. xx.

19 Ibid.

20 See Capistrano de Abreu, “A Critique of Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen,” first published Historia Geral do Brasil in Madrid in 1854. For the third edition, revised by Capistrano de Abreu, see Varnhagen, , Historia Geral do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Laemmert, 1907)Google Scholar.

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25 Ibid.

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33 In order to avoid needless repetition, I shall merely outline the principal conclusions Capistrano reached for each of the four areas and include a more detailed look at these themes in the discussion of Capítulos de História Colonial. See infra, pp. 269.

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35 Ibid., pp. 100-101.

36 Abreu, Capistrano de, “A Geografía do Brasil,” Ensaios e Estudos, 2: 40 Google Scholar.

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38 Abreu, Capistrano de, letter to Rio Branco, 17 April 1890. Correspondência, 1: 124 Google Scholar

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40 Ibid., p. 140.

41 Ibid., pp. 175-76.

42 Ibid., p. 177.

43 Ibid., p. 182.

44 Ibid., p. 184.

45 Ibid., p. 187.

46 Ibid., p. 188.

47 Ibid., pp. 191-92. Quoted from “Informa?áo do Estado do Brasil e de suas necessidades,” Revista do Inst. Hist, e Geog. Bras. 25 (1862): 473.

48 Abreu, Capistrano de, Capítulos de Historia Colonial, p. 202 Google Scholar.

49 Abreu, Capistrano de, letter to Joáo Lúzio de Azevedo, 14 September 1916. Correspondencia, 2: 16 Google Scholar.

50 Abreu, Capistrano de, Capítulos de Historia Colonial, p. 213 Google Scholar.

51 Ibid., pp. 213-14.

52 Ibid., p. 214.

53 Ibid., p. 217.

54 Ibid., p. 222.

55 Ibid., p. 225.

56 Ibid., pp. 228-29. See de Sousa, Gabriel Soares, Tratado Descritivo do Brasil em 1587 (Rio de Janeiro: Laemmert, 1851) and Revista do Inst. Hist, e Geog. Bras. I 14(1851)Google Scholar.

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58 Ibid.

59 Ibid., pp. 246-47. See de Eschwege, Guilherme B., “Extrato de urna memória sôbre a decadéncia das minas de ouro da capitanía de Minas Gerais e sôbre vários outros objetos Montanísticos,” História e Memórias da Academia Real das Ciências de Lisboa (Lisbon, 1868), vol. 4, part 2, pp. 222-23Google Scholar.

60 Abreu, Capistrano de, Capítulos de História Colonial, p. 248 Google Scholar.

61 Ibid., p. 267.

62 Abreu, Capistrano de, “Notícias Atrasadas,” Ensaios e Estudos, 3: 183 Google Scholar.

63 Capistrano de Abreu, Capítulos de Historia Colonial. A history of the Jesuits was finally written in 1938 by Serafim Leite. See Historia da Companhia de Jesús no Brasil, 11 vols. (Rio de Janeiro, 1938-1949).

64 Abreu, Capistrano de, Capítulos de História Colonial, p. 278 Google Scholar.

65 Ibid., pp. 337-38.

66 Holanda, Sergio Buarque de, “Historical Thought in Twentieth-Century Brazil,” in Burns, Perspectives, p. 181 Google Scholar.