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OLIVEIRA MARTINS, JOAQUIM PEDRO DE (1...

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 87 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OLIVEIRA MARTINS, JOAQUIM PEDRO DE (1845-1894) , Portuguese writer, was See also:

born in See also:Lisbon and received his See also:early See also:education at the Lyceo Nacional and the Academia das Bellas Artes. At the See also:age of fourteen his See also:father's See also:death compelled him to seek a living as clerk in a commercial See also:house, but he gradually improved his position until in 187o he was appointed manager of the mine of St Eufemia near See also:Cordova. In See also:Spain he wrote 0. See also:Socialism?, and See also:developed that sympathy for the See also:industrial classes of which he gave See also:proof throughout his See also:life. Returning to See also:Portugal in 1874, he became See also:administrator of the railway from See also:Oporto to Povoa, residing in Oporto. He had married when only nineteen, and for many years devoted his leisure See also:hours to the study of See also:economics, See also:geography and See also:history. In 1878 his memoir A Circulagao fiduciaria brought him the See also:gold See also:medal and member-See also:ship of the Royal See also:Academy of Sciences of Lisbon. Two years later he was elected See also:president of the Society of Commercial Geography of Oporto, and in 1884 he became director of the Industrial and Commercial Museum in that See also:city. In 1885 he entered public life, and in the following See also:year represented Vianna do See also:Castello in See also:parliament, and in 1887 Oporto. Removing to Lisbon in 1888, he continued the journalistic See also:work which he had commenced when living in the See also:north, by editing the Reporter, and in 1889 he was named administrator of the See also:Tobacco Regie. He represented Portugal at See also:international conferences in See also:Berlin and See also:Madrid in 189o, and was chosen to speak at the celebration of the See also:fourth See also:centenary of See also:Columbus held in Madrid in 1891, which gained him membership of the See also:Spanish Royal Academy of History. He became See also:minister of See also:finance on the 17th of See also:January 1892, and later See also:vice-president of the See also:Junta do Credito Publico.

His See also:

health, however, began to break down as a result of a life spent in unremitting toil, and he died on the 24th of See also:August 1894. His youthful struggles and privations had taught him a serious view of life, which, with his acute sensibility, gave him a reserved manner, but Oliveira Martins was one of the most generous and See also:noble of men. Like Anthero de See also:Quental, he was impregnated with See also:modern See also:German See also:philosophy, and his See also:perception of the lowmoral See also:standard prevailing in public life made him a pessimist who despaired of his See also:country's future, but his sense of proportion, and the See also:necessity which impelled him to work, saved him from the See also:fate which befell his friend, and he died a believing See also:Catholic. At once a gifted psychologist, a profound sociologist, a stern moralist, and an ardent patriot, Oliveira Martins deserved his See also:European reputation. His Bibliotheca das sciencias sociaes, a veritable See also:encyclopaedia, comprises See also:literary See also:criticism, socialism, economics, See also:anthropology, histories of Iberian See also:civilization, of the See also:Roman See also:Republic, Portugal and See also:Brazil. Towards the end of his life he specialized in the 15th See also:century and produced two notable volumes, Os fithos de D. Joao I. and A See also:vida de See also:Nun'Alvares, leaving unfinished 0 Principe perfeito, a study on See also:King See also:John II., which was edited by his friend Henrique de See also:Barros Gomes. As the literary See also:leader of a See also:national revival, Oliveira Martins occupied an almost unique position in Portugal during the last third of the 19th century. If he judged and condemned the See also:parliamentary regime and destroyed many illusions in his sensational Contemporary Portugal, and if in his philosophic History of Portugal he showed, in a See also:series of impressionist pictures, the slow decline of his country commencing in the .See also:golden age of the discoveries and conquests, he at the See also:flame See also:time directed the gaze of his countrymen to the days of their real greatness under the House of Aviz, and incited them to work for a better future by describing the faith and patriotism which had animated the foremost men of the See also:race in the See also:middle ages. He had neither time nor opportunity for See also:original See also:research, but his Powerful See also:imagination and picturesque See also:style enabled him to evoke the past and make it See also:present to his readers. The See also:chief characteristics of the See also:man—psychological imagination combined with See also:realism and a See also:gentle See also:irony—make his strength as a historian and his See also:charm as a writer. When some critics objected that his Historic de Portugal ought rather to be named " Ideas on Portuguese History," he replied that a synthetic and dramatic picture of one of those collective beings called nations gives the mind a clearer, truer and more lasting impression than a See also:summary narrative of successive events.

But just because he possessed the talents and temperament of a poet, Oliveira Martins was fated to make frequent mistakes as well as to discover important truths. He must be read with care because he is emotional, and cannot let facts speak for themselves, but interrupts the narrative with expressions of praise or blame. Some of his books resemble a series of visions, while, despite his immense erudition, he does not always See also:

supply notes or refer to authorities. He can draw admirable portraits, See also:rich with See also:colour and life; in his Historia de Portugal and Contemporaneo Portugal those of King Pedro I. and Herculano are among the best known. He describes to perfection such striking events as the Lisbon See also:earthquake, and excels in the appreciation of an See also:epoch. In these respects Castelar considered him See also:superior to See also:Macaulay, and declared that few men in See also:Europe possessed the universal aptitude and the fullness of knowledge displayed by Oliveira Martins. The See also:works of Oliveira Martins include Elementos de anthropologia, As Ragas humanas e a civilisagao primitiva, Systema dos mythos religiosos, Quadro das instituicoes primitivas, 0 Regime das riquezas, Politica e economic nacional, Taboas de chronologia e geographia historica, 0 Hellenismo e a civilisagao christa, Historia da Republica See also:Romana, Historia da civilisagao iberica, Historia de Portugual, Brazil e as colonias portuguezas, Portugal nos Mares, Portugal em See also:Africa, Portugal contemporaneo, See also:Cam(ees os Lusiadas e a renascenga em Portugal—a brilliant commentary on the See also:physiognomy of the poet and his poem, Os Filhos de D. Joao I., the See also:preface to which gives his views on the See also:writing of history—A Vida de Nun' Alvares; and A. Inglaterra de Hoje—the result of a visit to See also:England. See Moniz Barreto, Oliveira Martins, estudo de psychologia (See also:Paris, 1887), a remarkable study; F. Diniz D'Ayalla, Os Ideaes de Oliveira Martins (Lisbon, 1897), which contains an admirable statement of his ideas, philosophical and otherwise; Anthero de Quental, Oliveira Martins (Lisbon, 1894) and Diccionario bibliographico portuguez, Xii. See also:I25.

(E.

End of Article: OLIVEIRA MARTINS, JOAQUIM PEDRO DE (1845-1894)

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