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University of Porto Famous Alumni
António Rocha Peixoto
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António Rocha Peixoto 1866-1909 Naturalist, ethnographer, archaeologist and librarian |
António Augusto César Octaviano da Rocha Peixoto was born on 18 May 1866, at 20 Silveira Street (nowadays Rocha Peixoto Street), in Póvoa de Varzim.
He was the 11th son of 12 children raised by António Luís da Rocha Peixoto, a doctor, surgeon and D. Miguel sympathizer, from Arcos de Valdevez, and of Constança Amélia da Costa Pereira Flores, from Vila do Conde. He was baptized in the Nossa Senhora da Conceição Parish Church on 21 May.
In 1874, the death of his father had a great impact on his life, and forced him to work to support his mother and three sisters, even before he completed his academic training.
As a child, his apparently frail looks helped hide an extremely strong character. He studied at the Colégio de Nossa Senhora do Rosário, in Porto and, at the age of 15, he helped to found the students' magazine "Boletim Litterario. Revista Académica Mensal", with three printed editions.
In 1883, at the age of sixteen and under the name of Augusto César, he published critical articles on the Jesuits in the Póvoa de Varzim newspaper "A Independência", in reply to Afonso dos Santos Soares, who was an avowed defender of the Companhia de Jesus.
In the following year, he studied at the S. Domingos Institute (later converted into the Academic School), close to Sovela Street, in Porto, and had as colleagues António Nobre and Alexandre Braga.
When the Academic School moved to Quinta do Pinheiro, he became friends with Hamilton de Araújo, Fonseca Cardoso and Ricardo Severo, the organizers of the "Grémio Oliveira Martins" [a literary society].
In 1887, at the Porto Polytechnic Academy, a group formed by Rocha Peixoto, Fonseca Cardoso, João Barreira, Ricardo Severo and Xavier Pinho founded the "Carlos Ribeiro Society". The group, which was later joined by Basílio Teles, António Arroio, António Nobre and Augusto Nobre, met in a house in Moinho de Vento to discuss the national crisis. Following these meetings, the magazine "Revista de Sciencias Naturaes e Sociaes" was published between 1890 and 1898, run by Rocha Peixoto, Ricardo Severo and Wenceslau de Lima.
As a student, Rocha Peixoto published articles and pamphlets on the degradation of the Municipal Museum of Porto, collaborated in booklets and newspapers, such as "O Primeiro de Janeiro", in Porto, and "O Século", in Lisbon, and also participated in musical gatherings, playing the guitar, and even composed a waltz entitled "Lavandisca".
Rocha Peixoto took part in the 31 January 1891 tumults, together with Ricardo Severo and Basílio Teles. He was responsible for writing the manifest to the civilian population, in particular to the working class.
He was the secretary of the magazine "Revista de Portugal" (1891-1892), run by Eça de Queirós, organized a catalogue on Mineralogy, Geology and Palaeontology entitled "Catálogo de Mineralogia, Geologia e Paleontologia: Extracto do Annuário de 1890-91", at the Porto Polytechnic Academy. In 1893, he became a member of the Academy of Sciences and worked as librarian in the Ateneu Comercial do Porto (1893-1900).
He began to collaborate in the "Revista d'Hoje" in 1895 and received the academic diploma for the Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences Class.
When both the group "Sociedade Carlos Ribeiro" and the magazine "Revista de Sciencias Naturaes e Sociaes" (1898) were extinct, Rocha Peixoto was teaching Geography and Physics-Natural Sciences at the Infante D. Henrique Industrial School, in Porto.
In 1899, he joined the new nationalist magazine "Portugália", which replaced "Revista de Sciencias Naturaes e Sociaes". This publication was run by Ricardo Severo, with Fonseca Cardoso as secretary and Rocha Peixoto as chief-editor and columnist.
In 1900, he was appointed Curator of the Municipal Museum of Porto, which was at the time located in a building in Restauração Street, and on 28 June of the same year he also became the Director of the Public Municipal Library of Porto, where he was Interim Director between 1900 and 1904 and Permanent Director between 1904 and 1909.
His relation with the Municipal Museum had begun prior to his involvement in the institution, since while he was a student at the Porto Polytechnic Academy he had written about its downfall state, under the title "O Museu Municipal do Porto (História Natural)" and in the article "O Museu da Restauração", published in "O Primeiro de Janeiro", in 1893. In 1894, in that same newspaper, he suggested that the Porto town council should buy a pottery collection by Guerra Junqueiro, and in 1897 he joined a study commission on the reorganization of the museum and its new facilities in a new building.
During his work spell at the Museum, he organized the various museum collections sections, namely the sections on Mineralogy, Palaeontology, Ethnography, Archaeology, Decorative Arts and Coins, he reformed the painting and glazed tiles collections and conducted the construction works on the buildings. In 1902, together with Joaquim de Vasconcelos, he created a guidebook entitled "Guia do Museu Municipal do Porto", began to transfer the Museum to its new facilities, next to the Library (1902-1905), and equipped it with works from the Monastery of Santa Clara, Vila do Conde, an initiative which raised some controversy.
During the period as Library Director, he promoted extensive restoration works in the building, the reorganization of its services, and the reform and modernization of the classification and cataloguing of the books. He created three small libraries in Porto (in Bonfim, Cedofeita and Foz, with modern books that existed in duplicate in the Public Municipal Museum of Porto), promoted donations to the libraries of Póvoa de Varzim and Ponte de Lima, and had 16th century Baroque glazed tiles put up on the walls of the cloister of the Public Library (the old cloister of the Santo António da Cidade Convent), which came from extinct convents in the north of Portugal (Santa Clara and São Bento de Avé Maria Convents, in Porto, Santa Clara and S. Francisco Convents, in Vila do Conde, Grijó Convent, in Vila Nova de Gaia, etc.).
At the end of 1901, he was appointed deputy-naturalist of the Mineralogy Department of the Porto Polytechnic Academy, and in 1903 his work was praised by Minister Luís Augusto Pimentel Pinto, together with the other members responsible for the magazine "Portugália".
In 1908, he spent some time in the thermal resort of Peso de Melgaço, where he became acquainted with a group of users, such as Dr. Teixeira de Sousa, from Chaves, Dr. Silva Gaio, Secretary of the University of Coimbra, and the Porto artist António Carneiro. He named this group "the Academy".
Despite his academic, cultural and professional activities in Porto, Rocha Peixoto was always strongly connected to His home town, as his studies on its archaeological, historical and ethnological heritage of Póvoa de Varzim testify. He was in charge of he first excavation works in Cividade de Terroso, of the Castro de Laúndos and the town of Martim Vaz; he was also involved in the issue around the birth place of Eça de Queirós and was committed to the defence of the fishing community of Póvoa de Varzim, which influenced, among others, the work of Fonseca Cardoso (an anthropological study on the fishermen of Póvoa, edited by "Portugália", in 1908), of Cândido Landolt (a book on the folklore of Póvoa de Varzim, dated 1915) and the work of António dos Santos Graça ("O Poveiro", dated 1932). So it's not surprising that he left his book collection, consisting of more than 2,000 books, to the Municipal Library of Póvoa de Varzim.
This remarkable naturalist, teacher, anthropologist, ethnologist and writer died in Matosinhos, of acute tuberculosis, on 2 May 1909.
At the time, he was working in Porto as deputy naturalist at the Polytechnic Academy, as he Director of the Public Library and of the Municipal Museum of Porto, and also as a geography and Physics and natural Sciences teacher at the Infante D. Henrique Industrial School.
He was buried at the Agramonte Cemetery, in Porto, and his body was transferred to the Póvoa de Varzim Cemetery on 16 May 1909, following a request of the Póvoa de Varzim City Hall.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2010)
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