Academia Brasileira de Letras

Academia Brasileira de Letras

Facade of the Brazilian Academy of Letters
Formation	20 July 1897 (20 July 1897)
Headquarters	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Membership	40 members
Official language	Portuguese
President	Marco Lucchesi
Website	www.academia.org.br

The Academia Brasileira de Letras (ABL; Portuguese pronunciation: [akadeˈmiɐ bɾaziˈlejɾɐ dʒi ˈletɾɐs] English: Brazilian Academy of Letters) is a Brazilian literary non-profit society established at the end of the 19th century. The first president, Machado de Assis, declared its foundation on Tuesday, 15 December 1896, with the by-laws being passed on Thursday, 28 January 1897. On Tuesday, 20 July of the same year, the academy started its operation.

According to its statutes, it is the pre-eminent Portuguese council for matters pertaining to the Portuguese language. The ABL is considered the foremost institution devoted to the Portuguese language in Brazil. Its prestige and technical qualification gives it paramount authority in Brazilian Portuguese, even though it is not a public institution and no law grants it oversight over the language. The academy's main publication in this field is the Orthographic Vocabulary of the Portuguese Language (Vocabulário Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa) which has five editions. The Vocabulary is prepared by the academy's Commission on Lexicology and Lexicography. If a word is not included in the Vocabulary, it is considered not to exist as a correct word in Brazilian Portuguese.

Since its beginning and to this day, the academy is composed of 40 members, known as the "immortals". These members are chosen from among citizens of Brazil who have published works or books with recognized literary value. The position of "immortal" is awarded for the lifetime. New members are admitted by a vote of the academy members when one of the "chairs" become vacant. The chairs are numbered and each has a Patron: the Patrons are 40 great Brazilian writers that were already dead when the ABL was founded; the names of the Patrons were chosen by the Founders as to honour them post mortem by assigning patronage over a chair. Thus, each chair is associated with its current holder, her or his predecessors, the original Founder who occupied it in the first place, and also with a Patron.

The academicians use formal gala gilded uniforms with a sword (the uniform is called "fardão") when participating in official meetings at the academy. The body has the task of acting as an official authority on the language; it is charged with publishing an official dictionary of the language. Its rulings, however, are not binding on either the public or the government.

History

Lúcio de Mendonça, founder of the ABL

Foundation

The initiative to establish the ABL was taken by Lúcio de Mendonça and was realised in preparatory meetings that began on 15 December 1896, under the presidency of Machado de Assis. The statuses of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and the membership of the 40 founding fathers were approved at these meetings, on 28 January 1897. On 20 July of the same year, the inaugural session was held at the Pedagogium's facility in the centre of Rio de Janeiro.

Without appointed headquarters or financial resources, the solemn meetings of the academy were held at the hall of the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, at the premises of the former National Gymnasium and at the Noble Hall of the Ministry of the Interior. The joint sessions were held at the law firm of Rodrigo Octávio, the ABL's first secretary's, at Quitanda Street, 47.

In 1904, the academy obtained the left wing of the Brazilian Silogeo, a governmental building that housed other cultural institutions. It remained there until moving to its own headquarters in 1923.

Petit Trianon

The Petit Trianon in Rio de Janeiro, the seat of the academy since 1923

In 1923, thanks to the initiative of its president at the time, Afrânio Peixoto and of the then-French ambassador, Raymond Conty, the French government donated the French Pavilion building to the academy. The building had been built for the Independence of Brazil's Centenary International Exposition by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, between 1762 and 1768 and was a replica of the Petit Trianon of Versailles.

These facilities have been inscribed as Brazilian Cultural heritage since Monday, 9 November 1987, by the State Institute of Cultural Heritage (INEPAC), of the Municipal Secretary of Culture of Rio de Janeiro. To the present day, its halls continue to host regular meetings, solemn sessions, commemorative meetings and inauguration sessions of the new academics, as well as the traditional Thursdays' tea. They are also open to the public for guided tours or for special cultural programs, such as chamber music concerts, book launches, conference cycles and theatre plays.

In the buildings' first floor hall stands the decorated marble floor, a French crystal chandelier, a large white porcelain vase from Sèvres and four English bas-reliefs. Inside the building, the following premises stand out:

• the Noble Hall, where the solemn sessions take place;
• the French Hall, where the new members traditionally remain alone, in reflection;
• the Francisco Alves Room, where an oil painting on canvas of a collective of nineteenth-century writers and intellectuals, by the painter Rodolfo Amoedo, is depicted;
• the Hall of the Founders, decorated with period furniture and paintings by Candido Portinari;
• the Machado de Assis Room, decorated with the writer's desk, books and personal belongings, such as portrait by painter Henrique Bernardelli;
• the Hall of Romantic Poets, which holds bronze busts of Castro Alves, Fagundes Varela, Gonçalves Dias, Casimiro de Abreu and Álvares de Azevedo, by Brazilian-Mexican sculptor Rodolfo Bernardelli.

On the second floor, one can find the Sessions Room, the Library the Tea Room. The Tea Room is the academics' meeting point before the Plenary Session, on Thursdays. The Library is used by scholars and researchers and holds a collection of Manuel Bandeira.

Dictatorship

The Dictator Getúlio Vargas being invested as member of the academy in 1943

During periods like the Vargas' totalitarian dictatorship or the Brazilian military government, the academy's neutrality in choosing proper members dedicated to the literary profession was compromised with the election of politicians with few or no contributions to literature, such as ex-president and dictator Getúlio Vargas in 1943. The academy is also accused of not having defended culture expression and freedom of speech during both Vargas' Era and during the Military dictatorship. Both of these ruling periods imposed heavy censorship on Brazilian culture, including Brazilian literature.

Characteristic

According to its statutes, the academy aims to promote the "culture of the national language". It comprises 40 effective and perpetual members, known as "immortals". These members are Brazilian citizens with published works of relevant literary value. Besides these members, the ABL also comprises 20 correspondent members.

All members go through a solemn session, in which dress the academy's official garment for the first time. During the ceremony, the new member makes a speech remembering her or his predecessor and all previous members that occupied the chair.

The ABL, which was a traditionally male institution, elected its first female member on Friday, 4 November 1977 – the novelist Rachel de Queiroz. This groundbreaking election of the novelist opened the path for other female members. The academy currently has three women members (7.5% of its total membership).

Nowadays

The writer Fernando Henrique Cardoso, ex-President of Brazil, taking possession as a member of the academy in 2013

Thanks to revenues over $ 4 million a year, the academy is financially stable. It owns a skyscraper with 28 floors (Palácio Austregésilo de Athayde) in the centre of Rio, which the academy rents for office space, generating 70% of its current revenue. The rest comes from rental of other buildings, which were inherited from book editor Francisco Alves, in 1917, and from other financial investments. This comfortable situation allows the payment of a "jeton" to each academician.

The academy annually awards several literary prizes:

• the Prêmio Machado de Assis, the most important literature prize in the country, awarded for lifework;
• the ABL prizes for poetry, fiction, drama, essays, history of the literature and for children's literature;
• the José Lins do Rego prize, an extraordinary commemorative prize awarded in 2001
• the Afonso Arinos prize, an extraordinary commemorative prize awarded in 2005.

The academy also publishes a literary periodical, the Brazilian Review (Revista Brasileira), with quarterly editions.

Orthographic Vocabulary

Standing: Rodolfo Amoedo, Artur Azevedo, Inglês de Souza, Bilac, Veríssimo, Bandeira, Filinto de Almeida, Passos, Magalhães, Bernardelli, Rodrigo Octavio, Peixoto; seated: João Ribeiro, Machado, Lúcio de Mendonça and Silva Ramos

The academy's main publication in this field is the Orthographic Vocabulary of the Portuguese Language (Vocabulário Ortográfico da Língua Portuguesa) of which there are five editions. The Vocabulary is prepared by the ABL's Commission on Lexicology and Lexicography. If a word is not included in the Vocabulary, it is considered not to exist as a correct word in Brazilian Portuguese.

The Orthographic Vocabulary, however, is not a dictionary, as it contains words and their grammatical categories, but not the definition or meaning of the words listed. Thus, unlike the French Academy, the Royal Spanish Academy and other foreign institutions dedicated to the care of a national language, the Brazilian Academy of Letters hasn't published an official dictionary. It has, however, published a School Dictionary of the Portuguese Language (Dicionário Escolar da Língua Portuguesa), with students as its target customers, in 2009.

The ABL does plan to publish a full and official Dictionary. For the time being, however, other dictionaries such as the Aurélio and the Houaiss remain more prestigious than the School Dictionary, in spite of the fact that the latter is sometimes marketed by booksellers as the "ABL's Dictionary", due to its being authored by the academy. Both the Houaiss and the Aurélio Dictionaries, however, were first compiled by members of the academy Antônio Houaiss and Aurélio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira, respectively. The preparation of an official dictionary of the Portuguese language is a stated goal of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Members

Original patrons

1. Adelino Fontoura
2. Álvares de Azevedo
3. Artur de Oliveira
4. Basílio da Gama
5. Bernardo Guimarães
6. Casimiro de Abreu
7. Castro Alves
8. Cláudio Manuel da Costa
9. Gonçalves de Magalhães
10. Evaristo da Veiga
11. Fagundes Varela
12. França Júnior
13. Francisco Otaviano
14. Franklin Távora
15. Gonçalves Dias
16. Gregório de Matos
17. Hipólito da Costa
18. João Francisco Lisboa
19. Joaquim Caetano
20. Joaquim Manuel de Macedo
21. Joaquim Serra
22. José Bonifácio the Younger
23. José de Alencar
24. Júlio Ribeiro
25. Junqueira Freire
26. Laurindo Rabelo
27. Antônio Peregrino Maciel Monteiro
28. Manuel Antônio de Almeida
29. Martins Pena
30. Pardal Mallet
31. Pedro Luís Pereira de Sousa
32. Manuel de Araújo Porto-Alegre
33. Raul Pompeia
34. Sousa Caldas
35. Tavares Bastos
36. Teófilo Dias
37. Tomás António Gonzaga
38. Tobias Barreto
39. Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen
40. José Maria da Silva Paranhos Sr.

Correspondents

1. Alexandre de Gusmão
2. António José da Silva
3. Manuel Botelho de Oliveira
4. Eusébio de Matos
5. Francisco de Sousa
6. Matias Aires
7. Nuno Marques Pereira
8. Sebastião da Rocha Pita
9. Santa Rita Durão
10. Vicente do Salvador
11. Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira
12. Antônio de Morais Silva
13. Domingos Borges de Barros
14. Francisco do Monte Alverne
15. Joaquim Gonçalves Ledo
16. José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva
17. Odorico Mendes
18. Manuel Inácio da Silva Alvarenga
19. Sotero dos Reis
20. José da Silva Lisboa

Presidents

1. Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis 1897–1908
2. Ruy Barbosa 1908–1919
3. Domício da Gama 1919
4. Carlos de Laet 1919–1922
5. Afrânio Peixoto 1922–1923
6. Medeiros e Albuquerque 1923
7. Afrânio Peixoto 1923–1924
8. Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo Júnior 1925
9. Coelho Neto 1926
10. Rodrigo Otávio 1927
11. Augusto de Lima 1928
12. Fernando Magalhães 1929
13. Aloisio de Castro 1930
14. Fernando Magalhães 1931–1932
15. Gustavo Barroso 1932–1933
16. Ramiz Galvão 1933–1934
17. Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo Júnior 1935
18. Laudelino Freire 1936
19. Ataulfo de Paiva 1937
20. Cláudio de Souza 1938
21. Antônio Austregésilo 1939
22. Celso Vieira 1940
23. Levi Carneiro 1941
24. Macedo Sorares 1942–1943
25. Múcio Leão 1944
26. Pedro Calmon 1945
27. Cláudio de Sousa 1946
28. João Neves da Fontoura 1947
29. Adelmar Tavares 1948
30. Miguel Osório de Almeida 1949
31. Gustavo Barroso 1950-1950
32. Aloisio de Castro 1951
33. Aníbal Freire da Fonseca 1952
34. Barbosa Lima Sobrinho 1953–1954
35. Rodrigo Otávio Filho 1955
36. Peregrino Júnior 1956–1957
37. Elmano Cardim 1958
38. Austregésilo de Athayde 1959–1993
39. Abgar Renault 1993
40. Josué Montello 1993–1995
41. Antônio Houaiss 1995–1996
42. Nélida Piñon 1996–1997
43. Arnaldo Niskier 1997–1999
44. Tarcísio Padilha 2000–2002
45. Alberto da Costa e Silva 2002–2004
46. Ivan Junqueira 2004–2005
47. Marcos Vinícios Rodrigues Vilaça 2006–2007
48. Cícero Sandroni 2008

Current members

The members of the Brazilian Academy of Letters (June 2023):

1. Ana Maria Machado
2. Eduardo Giannetti
3. Joaquim Falcão
4. Carlos Nejar
5. José Murilo de Carvalho
6. Cícero Sandroni
7. Cacá Diegues
8. Ricardo Cavaliere (inauguration pending)
9. Lilia Moritz Schwarcz (inauguration pending)
10. Rosiska Darcy de Oliveira
11. Ignácio de Loyola Brandão
12. Paulo Niemeyer Filho
13. Ruy Castro
14. Celso Lafer
15. Marco Lucchesi
16. Jorge Caldeira
17. Fernanda Montenegro
18. Arnaldo Niskier
19. Antônio Carlos Secchin
20. Gilberto Gil
21. Paulo Coelho
22. João Almino
23. Antônio Torres
24. Geraldo Carneiro
25. Alberto Venancio Filho
26. Marcos Vilaça
27. Antonio Cicero
28. Domício Proença Filho
29. Geraldo Holanda Cavalcanti
30. Heloísa Buarque de Hollanda
31. Merval Pereira
32. Zuenir Ventura
33. Evanildo Bechara
34. Evaldo Cabral de Mello
35. Godofredo de Oliveira Neto
36. Fernando Henrique Cardoso
37. Arno Wehling
38. José Sarney
39. José Paulo Cavalcanti Filho
40. Edmar Bacha

Gallery of the Immortals

• Machado de Assis
• Jorge Amado
• José Guilherme Merquior
• Tobias Barreto
• Zélia Gattai

See also

• List of members of the Brazilian Academy of Letters
• Lisbon Academy of Sciences
  • Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras
• Sociedade Partenon Literário

External links

• Official website (in Portuguese)