Abstract

Iris Kantor - Academia Brasílica dos Renascidos and the political government of the Portuguese americas (1759). Some remarks about the contradictions in Portuguese-American academic cosmopolitism

The foundation of the Learned Society (Academia Brasílica dos Renascidos) in Salvador (Bahia-1759), during the critical period of the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Portuguese Empire, aroused contradictions, which characterize the specificity of Portuguese-American colonial society. The Academia Brasílica formed a network of members and correspondents all over Portuguese America, which included members of the major Learned Societies in Portugal and Spain. This paper discusses the historiographic project conceived by the Portuguese-American savants in order to explain the Academia Brasílica dos Renascidos's failure in the secularisation process of the Portuguese Empire.