Ribeiro de Mendonça (Marceliano)

Although he held no higher or university degree and never left the narrow circle in which he always lived, Marceliano Ribeiro de Mendonça achieved a true intellectual supremacy here in Madeira, which no one ever thought of disputing. He owed it to the brilliance of his outstanding talent, his vast learning and his most ardent love of study.

He was born in this city on 18 April 1805, the son of Jerónimo Ribeiro dos Santos and Dona Juliana Rita de Mendonça.

He had completed his secondary schooling – the Aulas do Pátio ('Courtyard Classes', the public secondary classes held in the former Jesuit college), as they were then called – when Miguel I proclaimed himself absolute king and sent to Madeira the notorious and ominous judicial inquiry (devassa). Its net caught so many Madeirans, forcing many of them into exile or into hiding from justice. Marceliano Ribeiro sought safe refuge in the house of a British subject and remained there as a fugitive for six long years, until constitutional government was established in this archipelago in June 1834.

In that sad and enforced retreat, which the subject of our biography put to such good use, he acquired the persevering habit of study that he kept until his death. It was above all there that he enriched his brilliant intellect with the remarkable learning he came to possess. His literary and scientific inclinations led him to the study of the Portuguese and Latin languages, of which he was a consummate master, and to philosophical studies, in which he revealed a superior mind. Ample proof of this lies in the elements of Latin grammar that he published in 1835 and the elements of philosophy that he wrote for the use of his pupils.

Marceliano Ribeiro made his name above all as a teacher, and as such he acquired a great reputation throughout the country. Besides his engaging manners and extremely affable disposition, which quickly won his pupils’ affection, he had the rare gift of knowing how to teach. His exposition was easy and clear, and it drew great brilliance and force from the tone of conviction in which he spoke and the enthusiasm he conveyed in his words. He was a speaker beyond compare with a profound knowledge of the subjects he lectured on, and his students never tired of hearing him, enraptured by the beauty of his expression and the loftiness of his ideas. He taught at the classes of the old Pátio, and when the Funchal Lyceum (Liceu do Funchal) was founded in 1836 he joined the teaching staff of the new establishment, teaching the Portuguese and Latin languages and later holding the chair of philosophy.

Appointed rector of the Lyceum (Liceu) and schools commissioner (comissário dos estudos), he distinguished himself remarkably in these posts, above all through the impetus he gave to the spread of primary education, the new teaching methods he introduced and the scrupulous care with which he selected teachers. His reports in this field are truly exemplary, and some were published in the scientific review O Instituto. To encourage primary teachers in the exercise of their calling, he founded an ‘Associação de Conferencias’ (Lecture Association), in which the subjects most closely concerning popular education were discussed. Given the great zeal and dedication he showed in extending primary education, it may without doubt be said that he was the first person in this archipelago to take a genuine interest in popular education, and this fact alone is enough to make his memory blessed among us.

Marceliano Ribeiro was an eloquent orator of polished language. Among his speeches, the academic orations delivered at the solemn opening of the Lyceum and the public lectures he gave on ‘the beautiful’ stand out.

Here in Madeira he held the posts of president of the Council of Funchal, secretary-general of the civil government building (Governo Civil), rector and teacher of the Lyceum, schools commissioner and member of the district council, besides other public-service commissions.

He contributed extensively and valuably to many Madeiran periodicals and left several works in manuscript. He published Princípios de gramática geral aplicados á língua latina, Filosofia em Coimbra e no Funchal, Método paralelo de leitura e escrita and the historical novel Gaspar Borges, as well as his important reports. He died in Funchal on 5 August 1866, at the age of 61.