Caldeira (João da Silveira)
João da Silveira Caldeira, Madeiran physician and chemist trained abroad, became professor of chemistry at the Military School and head of the Mint in Rio de Janeiro.
We have scant information for the biography of this Madeiran. We conjecture that he was born in the third quarter of the 18th century. He was a physician, but we do not know at which school or faculty he graduated. He devoted himself especially to the study of chemistry, in which he gained distinction, spending some years abroad on work and research in this science. Years later we find him in Rio de Janeiro as professor of chemistry at the Military School of that city, where he also held the post of superintendent of the Mint. In 1826 he published an annotated translation of Vauquelin’s Manual do ensaiador, and around 1843 a work of his entitled Nova nomenclatura portuguesa, latina e francesa, etc. was printed in Rio de Janeiro.
In the Memória Histórica da Faculdade de Philosophia da Universidade de Coimbra, by Joaquim Augusto Simões de Carvalho, we find the following about him: ‘... a highly esteemed chemist, who studied in England and France. He is the author of the memoir on metallic watering, published in the Annaes das Sciências e Artes, and of other work carried out in the chemical laboratory of Paris. Vauquelin and Laugier considered themselves greatly honoured by the friendship of this Portuguese chemist.’ It appears that he took his own life around 1828.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 03Place
Places mentioned · 04
- England
United Kingdom. Where he studied.
England appears in the Elucidário as the first main market for Madeira embroidery and the main importer of Madeiran wicker. It was also the source of most butter consumed in Funchal in the early nineteenth century. It was a chief refuge for liberal emigrants fleeing Miguelist persecution, and several Madeirans studied or served as diplomats there.
- France
Where he studied.
France is a country where several Madeirans fought and died in the First World War, including Gabriel Rocha de Gouveia and João Paulo da Veiga Pestana. It was also a place of study, of exile and of refuge for Madeirans. It was the origin of the expedition behind the Saque dos Franceses and the intended destination of the fugitives in the Machim legend.
- Paris
France. Laboratory where he worked.
The French capital, where Franco de Sousa settled and painted 'Ar livre', and where Juvenal Honório de Ornelas took his medical doctorate in 1834. Padre Luiz Gonçalves da Câmara studied there and met Loyola, and the Barão de Ornelas graduated, practised and died there.
- Rio de Janeiro
Brazil. Where Caldeira taught and headed the Mint.
Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, appears in the Elucidário as the seat of the Portuguese court and as a city where many Madeirans lived, studied, taught, published and died. Among them were Paulo Perestrelo da Câmara, João de Oliveira Sá Camelo Lampreia and João da Silveira Caldeira, who headed the Mint there.
People
People mentioned · 04- João da Silveira Caldeirad. c. 1828
Madeiran chemist who taught at Rio de Janeiro's Military School and ran its Mint; reportedly took his own life around 1828.
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Author of the history of Coimbra's Faculty of Philosophy quoted on Caldeira.
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French chemist said to be Caldeira's friend.
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French chemist whose assayer's manual Caldeira translated and who was his friend.