José Correia da Serra - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

José Francisco Correia da Serra (1750–1823) was a Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

, polymath

Polymath

A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...

- philosopher, diplomat

Diplomat

A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

, statesman

Statesman

A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...

, politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

and scientist. In some circumstances, he was also known as Abbé
Abbé
Abbé is the French word for abbot. It is the title for lower-ranking Catholic clergymen in France....

Correa.

Biography

Correia da Serra was born at Serpa

Serpa

Serpa is a municipality in Portugal, in Alentejo Region, with a total area of 1104.0 km² and a total population of 16,178 inhabitants. The Guadiana River flows close to the town of Serpa....

, in Alentejo, in 1750, and was educated at Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, where he took holy orders

Holy Orders

The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....

. In 1777 he returned to Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, where he was one of the founders of the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa in 1779 (then called Academia Real das Ciências de Lisboa; Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon).

His published writings brought him into conflict with reactionary members of the religious and political hierarchy in Portugal.

In 1786, he fled to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, and remained there till the death of Portuguese King-consort Pedro III

Peter III of Portugal

Peter III became King of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves by the accession of his wife and niece Queen Maria I in 1777, and co-reigned alongside her until his death.-Biography:...

, when he again returned to his homeland, but political difficulties forced him to leave the country again. He went to England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, where he found a protector in Sir Joseph Banks

Joseph Banks

Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...

, who was President

President of the Royal Society

The president of the Royal Society is the elected director of the Royal Society of London. After informal meetings at Gresham College, the Royal Society was founded officially on 15 July 1662 for the encouragement of ‘philosophical studies’, by a royal charter which nominated William Brouncker as...

of the Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

. With Banks' support, he was easily elected a fellow of the society. In 1797, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...

.

In 1797, he was appointed secretary to the Portuguese embassy in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, but a quarrel with the ambassador drove him once more to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

(1802). He would stay in Paris for the next eleven years.

In 1813, he left Europe for the New World

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

, arriving first in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. His travels took him several times to Monticello

Monticello

Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...

, the home of former President Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

where his political views found a fulsome reception.

In 1816, he was made Portuguese minister-plenipotentiary at Washington D.C., but resided in Philadelphia.

In 1820 he was recalled home to Portugal, where he was appointed a member of the financial council, and elected to a seat in the "General Extraordinary and Constituent Cortes of the Portuguese Nation", but he died only three years later.

Works

Colecção de livros inéditos da história Portuguesa, 4 vols., 1790-1816.

Articles:

"On the fructification of the submersed Algae," Philosophical Transactions, 1799, pp. 494–505.
"On a submarine forest on the coast of England," Philosophical Transactions, 1799, pp. 145–155.
"On two genera of plants belonging to the natural family of the Aurantia," Transactions of the Linnean Society, Vol. 5, pp. 218–226.
"On the Doryantha, a new genius of plants from New Holland next akin to the Agave," Transactions of the Linnean Society, 6, pp. 211–213.
"Observations sur la famille des oranges et sur les limites qui la circonscrivent," Annales du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, 6, pp. 376–386.
"Mémoire sur la germination du nelumbo," Annales du Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, 13, 174.
"Vues Carpologiques/Observations Carpologiques," Annales du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, 8, 9, 10.
"Mémoire sur la valeur du périsperme, considerée comme caractère d’affinité des plantes", Bulletin de la Société Philomatique, 11, 350.
"De l’état des Sciences, et des lettres en Portugal, à la fin du dixhuitième siècle," Archives litteraires de l’Europe, Vol. I, 1804.
"Sur l’agriculture des arabes en Espagne", Archives Littéraires de l’Europe, 2, pp. 239–404.
"Observations and conjectures on the formation and nature of the soil of Kentucky," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1811.
"Considerations générales sur l’etat passé et futur de l’Europe," The American Review, 1812.

Biography

Works

See also