:: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco - MEC

Lúcia Gaspar
Joaquim Nabuco Foundation Librarian
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Arthur Orlando da Silva was born on 29 July 1858 in Recife, to Lieutenant Jose Caetano da Silva and Belarmina Augusta de Moraes de Mesquita Pimentel da Silva.

He graduated from the Recife Faculty of Law in 1881, at 23 years of age.

Soon after graduation he dedicated himself to law and journalism.

He married Maria Fragoso, one of the first three female students to graduate in Law in Brazil, with whom he had three daughters: Izabel, Maria and Olívia.

Disciple and friend of Tobias Barreto, Arthur Orlando became prominent inthe Brazilian cultural environment from 1885/1886, when he applied to teach at the Recife Faculty of Law and published his first book,Filocrítica (1886), whose introduction was written by Martins Júnior.

As a public man he stood out in various activities, mainly in the educational, journalistic, political and legal fields.

A brilliant intellectual from a young age, gifted with great legal and philosophical knowledge and proven scholarship, his major concern was Brazilian education. He considered education the primary factor for the development of any nation.

From 1889 to 1892, he was the General Inspector of Public Education of Pernambuco, when he sought to improve education, giving itgreat impetus.

He proposed, among other things, the creation of a school in every settlement with more than 25 school-age children, the abolition of corporal punishment, the end of competition for access to secondary school and the inclusion of the subject“National Literature” for 3rd-Year students inhigh school.

He was also a remarkable senator and federal representative for Pernambuco, serving more than one term.

Journalism, however, washis most constant activity. He was the director and chief editor of the Diario de Pernambuco (1901-1911), editor of A Província(The Province), collaborated with the Jornal do Recife, the RevistaBrasileira(Brazilian Magazine)and the RevistaIlustrada(Illustrated Magazine).  

The latter belonged to his father, writing for it from the age of fourteen.

He actively participated in the cultural life of both Pernambuco and the nation. He was a founding partner of Pernambuco Academy of Letters, member of the Pernambuco Archaeological, Historic and Geographic Institute and the Brazilian Academy of Letters, to which he was elected in 1907, occupying Chair 25.

Among his most important works are: Filocrítica (1886), O meu álbum (My Album)(1891); Ensaios de crítica (Critical Essays) (1904); Propedêutica político-jurídica (Political-legal Propaedeutics)(1904); Novos ensaios (New Essays)(1905); Pan-americanismo (Pan-Americanism)(1906); Porto e cidade do

Recife(Port and city of Recife)(1908) andBrasil, a terra e o homem (Brazil, the Land and Man)(1913).

Suffering from severe sepsis (generalized infection process), he died at 10:40pmon 27 March 1916, in the city of Recife.

Recife, 14 July2004.
Update: august 20, 2009.
Tranlated by Peter Leamy, January 2012.
Update: november 22, 2016.
Update: july 18, 2017.

SOURCES CONSULTED:

ARTHUR Orlando [Foto neste texto]. Disponível em: <http://www.academia.org.br/academicos/artur-orlando>. Acesso em: 22 nov. 2016.

BRITO, Rosa Mendonça de. Filosofia, educação, sociedade e direito na obra de Arthur Orlando da Silva, 1858/1916. Recife: Fundaj. Ed. Massangana, 1980.  116 p.

CHACON, Vamireh. Da Escola do Recife ao código civil: Artur Orlando e sua geração. [Rio de Janeiro]: Organização Simões, [1969]. 362 p.

PAIM, Antônio. Artur Orlando e a Escola do Recife. Estudos Universitários, Recife, v. 15, n. 3-4, p. 5-32, jul./dez. 1975.

HOW TO CITE THIS TEXT:

Source: GASPAR, Lúcia. Arthur Orlando. Pesquisa Escolar Online, Joaquim Nabuco Foudation, Recife. Available at:  <http://basilio.fundaj.gov.br/pesquisaescolar_en/index.php>. Accessed: day month year. Exemple: 6 Aug. 2009.