Lisbon and Vienna: The Correspondence of the Countess of Vimieiro and her Circle
2004; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 20; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/port.2004.0002
ISSN2222-4270
Autores Tópico(s)Cultural, Media, and Literary Studies
ResumoLisbonand Vienna:The Correspondence ofthe CountessofVimieiro and herCircle RAQUEL BELLO VÁZQUEZ Withinthe framework of a researchproject into women and the Enlightenment in thesecondhalfoftheeighteenth century in Portugal, theGrupoGalabraisdeveloping a study on Teresade Mello Breyner, the Condessado Vimieiro, also knownas Tirse1- or moreusually'Tirce'. The originof thispseudonym is, we believe,theshepherds Tirsisand TirsiofVirgil andSannazarorespectively.2 Weprefer Tirse.The objectof thisstudyis to compilea recordofthenetwork ofherrelationships and thestrategies (political, cultural, literary, etc.)adoptedbyher. Given the semi-clandestine characterof these strategies, and their implications beyondwhatis considered thestrictly literary, our interest is to tryand understand the relationship betweencultureand power. We cannotlimitourselves to thestudyofherpublished literary output. We musttherefore consider othertypes ofdocuments thatmayshedlight on theindividual or collective strategies oftheproducers and mediators involved, and, forthisreason,hercorrespondence is one of the most important documentary sourceswe have.In thisway,according to Elias Torres,we shouldfocus Nos factores responsáveis da elaboraçãoe transmissão, da mediação talcomoaqui entendida, (maismesmoque nos re-produtores) [é importante] perspectivarmos as produções destes re-produtores ou comoresultado da acçãomediadora deoutros ou, também, e aspectoaindade maiorrelevo, comoparteda estratégia mediadora e programática dosseusfabricantes; [e]pormos emdestaque que,frente à visibilidade efectista resultado dumamundivisão romântica, é à mediação, muitas vezesinvisível que,emcasoscomoeste,devemos acudir.3 Inevitably thisstudyhas had itsdifficulties, due to thepoor stateof preservation of manyof theeighteenth-century documents and because we are dealing with a woman who, because of her circumstances, occupies,despitetheundeniableimportance of herparticipation in the culture and society ofthetime,a place in theshadowsofthehistory of 1Theresearch project isheaded byEliasJ.Torres Feijówith theparticipation ofEvaLoureiro Vilarelhe, RaquelBelloVázquez,AmiaCorticas LeiraandLoairaMartínez Rei. 2BelloVázquez:'Dá uma risadaquandoouvires: transgressom e ocultamento em Teresa de Mello Breyner', presented at / Congresso Internacional Mulheres Más - Percepçãoe Representação da MulherTransgressora no MundoLuso-Hispánico , Universidade Fernando Pessoa,Porto, 26-28Tune 2003. 3Elias Torres Feijó, (2004): 'Ad maiorem gloriam ... feminae: Ilustradas introduzindo modelosno Portugalda segundametadedo século XVIII', /CongressoMulheresMás. 9O RAQUEL BELLO VAZQUEZ literature.4 As will become evident,the factthat she was a woman conditioned MelloBreyner's attitude, justifying a strategy ofconcealment, and focusing herworkon mediation, and avoidingas faras possible publicattention. This strategy also conditions the place she has been granted byliterary critics untilnow. Criticsweremoreconcerned with theeasilyvisibleagentsrather thanwiththestudy oftheinfluence ofthe repertoires usedor thenetwork of relationships in whichtheycouldbe found. A concernfor the ways the repertoires (whetherideological or aesthetic) wereinfiltrated, and thefunction of specificwomenin this processforces us to concentrate on otherwaysofintroducing them(beit intheliterary field, culturally or elsewhere) beyondtheworldofbooks, andthepronouncements oftheir authors. Considering theimportance of otheragentswho functioned as catalysts inthefield, although theymay not have been published,as in the case of Mello Breyner, Leonorde AlmeidaortheDukeofLafões,andnoting thesemi-private nature ofthis documentation (as we willsee,thenumber ofpeoplereadingtheletters couldbe quitehigh)as a wayofpenetrating intotherepertoires, implies acceptingthe fact that ideas circulating at court or among various Europeangroupsof the enlightened could arrivein Portugalwithout benefit ofconventional translation orthrough theimportation offoreign books.Finally, theexistence ofnetworks ofsocialrelationships between menandwomenoftheEnlightenment from variouscountries, resulted in an interchange ofideasand products thatwas notonlyrestricted to one socio-geographic space. Nearly350 letters of the Countessof Vimieirohave been preserved in the BibliotecaPública in Évora and in the Torre do Tombo. The Bibliotecacollectionincludessix letterswrittenby the Countessof Vimieiro to Manuel do Cenáculo,threefromtheCountofVimieiroto Cenáculo,one from theCountess, one from Mello Breyner to a brother, andan ode entitled 'Desafogoda Saudade'.The second,morenumerous, groupis partof theNúcleo da Casa Fronteira-Alorna preserved in the Institutodos ArquivosNacionais-Torredo Tombo. There are three catalogued collections (order numbers 222,223and224),whichcomprise, respectively, 108,132and94 documents. The majority areletters written bytheCountessto theMarquiseof Alorna,herdaughters Leonorand Maria (laterCountessof Ribeira)and to Madame de Thun. No. 224 4See Raquel Bello,Mulher,nobre,ilustrada,dramaturga:Teresade Mello Breyner no sistema literárioportuguês(1788-1795) (unpublishedmaster'sthesis,University of Santiago de Compostela , 2001); Raquel Bello, 'Feminismo e aristocracia no projecto ilustrado dum teatro nacional: Teresa de Mello Breyner',presentedat Vil AIL conference,Brown University, Providence, RI, July2002; and 'Dá uma rizadaquando ouvires...',/ CongressoMulheresMás. THE COUNTESS OF VIMIEIRO AND HER CIRCLE 9I also includespoemsbyTirse.These documents are in varying statesof preservation, whichinsomecasesmakesreading difficult. Those lettersthat are dated were written1770-95, twenty-five fundamental yearsin thehistory of thePortuguese llustraçom(Age of Enlightenment). Theyencompass thefinalyearsofthereign ofDon José andtheentire reign ofDona Maria I, whocametothethrone in1777and was...
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