Diogo de Gouveia was born in Beja. He was the son of Antão de Gouveia, who had settled there.[2] In 1499 Diogo became one of the first Portuguese to study in Paris, at the Collège de Montaigu, benefiting from two scholarships offered by Jan Standonck[3] to King Manuel I as compensation for an attack by French privateers on a Portuguese ship.[4] He studied at the University of Paris, where he became Master of Arts. Ordained priest, he completed the studies at the Sorbonne where, in 1507 he became librarian, having graduated as Doctor of Theology on April 29, 1510.[5][bettersourceneeded] From 1512 to 1521 he was a diplomatic agent of king Manuel I in France, attending complaints from owners of Portuguese ships targeted by privateers.
In 1520 he had the idea of buying the Parisian Collège Sainte-Barbe for the king. Faced with the difficulties posed by owner Robert Dugast, the college was rented and Diogo de Gouveia became its principal, transforming it into a real Portuguese college inside the University of Paris.[6] When king John III was enthroned, he wanted to shape education to match the growing demands of the vast territories ruled by the Portuguese. In 1526, at suggestion of Diogo de Gouveia, he created more than 50 scholarships for Portuguese students in Paris, in order to prepare them in the liberal arts, to be followed by studies in theology. Among these students were André de Gouveia and Diogo de Teive, who came to Sainte-Barbe in 1527.[7]
There studied mainly Portuguese but also the navarrese Francis Xavier in 1525, and Ignatius of Loyola, who listed in the college already at 33, on the grounds of not exerting his influence on his classmates. In 1529, having learned that Loyola had been monopolising attention over school, a furious Gouveia threatened to hit him, in an episode that became famous. That same year George Buchanan became teacher in Saint Barbe.[8]
As an advisor to D. John III, Diogo de Gouveia reported the king in September 1527 about Giovanni da Verrazzano's moves in the Atlantic, of what his letters are a relevant testimony.[9] In 1532 to counter the growing advances of French privateers in Brazilian shores, he suggested along with Cristóvão Jacques, the introduction of Captaincies in Brazil[10]
Between 1529 and 1534, due to his frequent travels, he entrusted André de Gouveia with the direction of the College of Saint Barbe, who opened it to humanist reform ideas, inviting Nicolas Cop to teach there. After Cop's contested inaugural address November 1533, André went to the College of Guienne in Bordeaux and was replaced by Diogo de Gouveia the younger.[11]
In 1537 Diogo de Gouveia held diplomatic missions in France on behalf of D. John III. A year later he wrote to the king enthusiastically endorsing the newly graduated clerics of Saint Barbe to the missions in Asia. After engaging in the papal approval of the Society of Jesus,[12][13] he followed the evolution of the Jesuit missions abroad through the reports of Diogo de Gouveia, the younger.
From 1540 to 1548 he returned to the rectorship of Saint Barbe, as his nephews traveled to Portugal. He was then in a difficult position, as king John III threatened to end Portuguese scholarships abroad, while engaging in founding a college for liberal arts in Portugal,[11] in order to prepare in Portugal prospective college students, sheltered from north European protestant reformation struggles.[11] In 1542 the king founded the Royal College of Arts and Humanities at Coimbra. As he appointed André de Gouveia, who had excelled as principal of the College of Guienne, in Bordeaux.[14] Diogo de Gouveia opposed it, accusing his nephew of Lutheranism, preferring Diogo de Gouveia, the younger with whose reports he had taken solace.
As the Royal College of Arts and Humanities at Coimbra surpassed Saint Barbe as the main Portuguese student's destination, in subsequent years Parisian and Bordalese factions of teachers fought within the university.[14][15]
Diogo de Gouveia returned to Portugal in 1556, where he became Canon of Lisbon Cathedral, having died the following year. He was buried in the crossing of the Cathedral, the now lost epitaph in his tombstone, can be translated as:
Here lies Diogo Gouvea Doctor in Theology & rector of the University of Paris, Canon in this Holy See, who rose to & served five kings of Portugal & four of France & attended & negotiated for the good of Faith & honor of this Kingdom. He died the 8th day of December 1557.[16]
Related Research Articles
Francis Xavier, SJ, venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Navarrese Catholic missionary and saint who co-founded the Society of Jesus and, as a representative of the Portuguese Empire, led the first Christian mission to Japan.
John III, nicknamed The Pious, was the King of Portugal and the Algarves from 1521 until his death in 1557. He was the son of King Manuel I and Maria of Aragon, the third daughter of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. John succeeded his father in 1521 at the age of nineteen.
George Buchanan was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth century Scotland produced." His ideology of resistance to royal usurpation gained widespread acceptance during the Scottish Reformation. Brown says the ease with which King James VII was deposed in 1689 shows the power of Buchananite ideas.
Beja is a city and a municipality in the Alentejo region, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 35,854, in an area of 1,146.44 km2 (442.64 sq mi). The city proper had a population of 21,658 in 2001.
Peter Faber, SJ was a Jesuit priest and theologian, who was also a co-founder of the Society of Jesus, along with Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier. Pope Francis announced his canonization in 2013.
Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, S.J. was a French Jesuit priest, traveller, and historian, often considered the first historian of New France.
D. Pedro Mascarenhas was a Portuguese explorer and colonial administrator. He was the first European to discover the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in 1512. He also encountered the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius in 1512, although he may not have been the first Portuguese explorer to do so; earlier expeditions by Diogo Dias and Afonso de Albuquerque along with Diogo Fernandes Pereira may have encountered the islands. In 1528 explorer Diogo Rodrigues named the islands of Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues the Mascarene Islands, after the name of Mascarenhas.
D. Jerónimo Osório da Fonseca was a Portuguese Roman Catholic humanist bishop, historian and polemicist. An extensive notice of his life and thought (Vita) was written by his nephew, a canon of Évora also named Jerónimo Osório, to introduce his edition of his uncle's Complete Works published in 1592.
The Collège Sainte-Barbe is a former college in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France.
The Collège de Montaigu was one of the constituent colleges of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Paris.
Jan Standonck was a Flemish priest, Scholastic, and reformer.
Nicolau Chantereine was a French sculptor and architect who worked mainly in Portugal and Spain.
Infante Diogo of Viseu (1450–1484) was the second son of Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, and his wife Beatriz, Duchess of Viseu.
The College of Guienne was a school founded in 1533 in Bordeaux. The collège became renowned for the teaching of liberal arts between the years 1537 and 1571, attracting students such as Michel de Montaigne.
Ignatius of Loyola, venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, who, with six companions, founded the religious order of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and became its first Superior General, in Paris in 1541.
The Hôtel de la Païva is a hôtel particulier, a type of large townhouse of France, that was built between 1856 and 1866, at 25 Avenue des Champs-Élysées by the courtesan Esther Lachmann, better known as La Païva. She was born in modest circumstances in the Moscow ghetto, to Polish parents. By successive marriages, she became a soi-disant Portuguese marchioness and a Prussian countess, this last marriage supplying the funds for the hôtel, at which she gave fabulous feasts. Since 1904, the house has been used by the Travellers Club of Paris, a gentlemen's club that was all-male until the 2000s.
André de Gouveia was a Portuguese humanist and pedagogue during the Renaissance.
Diogo de Teive was a Portuguese humanist during the Renaissance.
António de Gouveia was a Portuguese humanist and educator during the Renaissance.
Portuguese in France (Luso-French) refers to people from Portugal who immigrated to or reside in France or French citizens of Portuguese descent.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
