Name: EDUARDO GOMES MOLULO MOISES
Publication date: 13/08/2025
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ANA CAROLINA DE CARVALHO VIOTTI | Examinador Externo |
| CAMILA BUENO GREJO | Examinador Interno |
| FERNANDO SANTA CLARA VIANA JUNIOR | Examinador Externo |
| PATRICIA MARIA DA SILVA MERLO | Presidente |
| SEBASTIAO PIMENTEL FRANCO | Examinador Interno |
Summary: The development of knowledge throughout Modernity is characterized by a process marked, on one hand, by a series of continuities related to the accumulation of knowledge built up to that period; and on the other, by a set of transformations brought about by European overseas expansions and their resulting effects, including the domination of other territories and access to the natural resources they provided. This context led to adjustments and reconfigurations of the established bodies of knowledge in order to encompass the new reality that emerged from the late 15th century onward. In addition, there were changes in the very nature of scientific production throughout the Modern Period. In this regard, the founding of scientific academies across Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries played a prominent role, leading to the emergence of new methodologies and disciplines, among which natural history stands out. It is certain, however, that this process occurred at different times and in various ways across European states. In the case of Portugal, it was only in the final decades of the 18th century that the kingdom decisively entered the scientific landscape shaped by the standards of the 1700s and was able to invigorate its knowledge production aimed at ensuring development and colonial dominance. During this period, a series of studies addressing the natural potentialities of the Empire’s territories were published, revealing a wide array of species and their various properties. This research proposes to analyze the agricultural collection O Fazendeiro do Brazil, published by Friar José Mariano da Conceição Veloso between 1798 and 1806. Through the analysis of the three parts that make up its Volume III, we aim to understand how knowledge, especially medical knowledge, about coffee and cacao circulated in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. According to our analysis, the manual faithfully portrays the medical knowledge of the time in which it was written, being marked by the interaction between medical discourses originating in Antiquity and those developed through the practices of the New Science. In this way, it presents information based on laboratory analyses, as well as on evaluations of the nature of the products and of the individuals who consume them. Thus, we identified recommendations on how to ingest cacao and coffee that reflect the general structures of healthy consumption of natural products during the period in question. Methodologically, we employed Content Analysis, as proposed by Christian Laville and Jean Dionne (1999), in order to construct categories that would help us identify the circulation of therapeutic knowledge characteristic of the scientific debates of Modernity.
