Azevedo (Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de)

He was born in Vila Franca de Xira on 20 March 1825, the son of António Plácido de Azevedo, a native of Benavente, and Dona Maria Amélia Ribeiro de Azevedo. Originally named José Rodrigues de Azevedo, he changed his name on entering the University, where he studied in the faculty of law, completing the course in 1849.

He then went to Lisbon, where he spent about six years, before moving to this island to take up the chair of oratory, poetics and literature at our lyceum (state secondary school), which he had won in a public competition. Before this he had sought, without success, to be appointed to a post in the judiciary.

Dr Azevedo held this chair with the greatest proficiency and distinction for twenty-six years, retiring in January 1881 to Lisbon, where he settled. For some years he was also teacher of Portuguese and recitation at our lyceum, and in 1856, during the cholera epidemic, he rendered notable services to the city as municipal administrator (administrador do concelho, the government's representative).

He was also a representative (procurador) to the District General Council (Junta Geral) and a member of the District Council (Conselho de Distrito) and of the Administrative Committee (Comissão Administrativa) of the Holy House of Mercy (Santa Casa da Misericórdia) of Funchal. In 1870 he declined the post of secretary-general of the district and the commandery of the Order of Conceição (‘Conception’).

As a member of the Reformist party, Dr Azevedo took an active part in the political struggles in Madeira in 1868, proving himself on that occasion a skilful, tolerant politician of liberal aspirations.

He contributed to many newspapers and was one of the editors of A Discussão and A Madeira. In the first of these periodicals he published a piece of literary criticism on the Bosquejo Histórico de literatura classica, grega, latina e portuguesa by António Cardoso Borges de Figueiredo. He also published, in issues 181 to 183 of this city’s Diário de Noticias, an interesting study entitled A Casa em que Christovâo Colombo habitou na Ilha da Madeira.

The articles ‘Machico’, ‘Machim’, ‘Madeira’ and ‘Maçonaria na Madeira’, published in the Diccionario Universal Portuguêz edited by Fernandes Costa, are by Dr Azevedo. While still quite young he also wrote a drama entitled Miguel de Vasconcellos. Because of this drama, which was never published, he had to carry on a somewhat bitter controversy in the press with the distinguished bibliographer and writer, the late Inocêncio Francisco da Silva.

Dr Azevedo was a distinguished jurist, and in court he often proved an eloquent speaker and a shrewd and skilful debater. His voice was poorly pitched, but he made up for this defect with his fluent command of words and his great knowledge of legal matters.

As a teacher, he was one of the most distinguished and dedicated our lyceum (state secondary school) has ever had, and as a writer he always stood out for his pure, idiomatic prose and the ease with which he handled the language.

Dr Álvaro de Azevedo’s name is inseparably linked with the history of Madeira through the notable and never sufficiently praised service he rendered this archipelago by publishing ‘Longing for the Homeland’, and especially through the learned and most valuable annotations with which he enriched Gaspar Frutuoso’s text (see ‘Longing for the Homeland’). The ‘Ballad Collection of the Madeira Archipelago’ (see that entry), the articles already mentioned, which fill some 100 pages of the great Diccionario Universal Português Ilustrado, the comedy of Madeiran manners A familia do Demerarista and the Almanach para a Ilha da Madeira for the years 1867 and 1868 are further powerful reasons that fully justify this land’s gratitude to the memory of the distinguished lawyer and teacher. Apart from his important and valuable works on Madeira, there is nothing here to recall his cherished memory to future generations. It would be only just for his worthy name to be perpetuated at least on a street corner, since it is not easy, and perhaps not possible, to pay him a more fitting and deserved tribute and homage.

Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo died in Lisbon on 6 January 1898. See Koebel.