Sarmento (Alberto Artur) 1Life, career and scientific work
Sarmento (Alberto Artur)
Biography of Alberto Artur Sarmento (born Funchal 1878), infantry officer, writer and self-taught naturalist who wrote extensively on Madeira's history, geology and fauna and contributed several articles to the Elucidário.
1Life, career and scientific work
He is the son of Artur Adolfo Sarmento and Dona Margarida Henriques Sarmento, and was born in Funchal on 7 July 1878. He attended the former Polytechnic School and Army School, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry on 25 October 1900. He is at present a lieutenant-colonel in the 27th Infantry Regiment (regimento de infantaria n.º 27), in which he has served ever since he came to Madeira. Besides being an elegant and imaginative writer, as the many literary articles he has published in the Funchal newspapers show, notably in the Heraldo da Madeira (‘Madeira Herald’), of which he was one of the editors, he is also one of the Madeirans with the best knowledge of the history, geology and mineralogy of the archipelago, and he has published several valuable writings on the first of these subjects.
On a visit to Deserta Grande (‘great deserted island’) he made some botanical collections there, and his petrological collections from the archipelago are among the most complete known. The Scirpus pungens, variety Sarmento, was named after him: a wild sedge that grows near the chapel of St John the Baptist (São João) and is one of the rarest plants in Madeira.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sarmento is a temporary teacher at the Funchal lyceum (state secondary school) (1921), a knight of the Order of St James (Ordem de São Tiago), an auxiliary member of the former Geographical Society of Le Mans (France), and a corresponding member of the Lisbon Geographical Society (Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa) and of other scientific and literary societies in Portugal and abroad (1921).
2Writings and collaboration
According to one of his most recently published works, he has brought out the following writings:
- As Desertas
- As Selvagens
- O Funchal
- Os alicerces para a história militar da Madeira
- Ascendência, naturalidade e Mudança de nome de João Fernandes Vieira
- As migalhas
- Um ponto de História Pátria
- História Militar da Madeira
- Corografia elementar do arquipélago da Madeira–Noções mínimas
- Homenagem a João Fernandes Vieira
- Madeira–1801-02: 1807-1814
- Um auto na Achada
- Santo António de Lisboa bosquejado na Madeira
- A Madeira e as Praças de Africa
- As Freguesias da Madeira
- Noticia histórico-militar sôbre a Ilha do Porto Santo
- Ecos da «Maria da Fonte» na Madeira
- Moedas, sêlos, Papel Selado e Medalhas na Madeira
- Fasquias da Madeira
- Os peixes dos mares da Madeira (in collaboration with Adolfo César de Noronha)
- As aves do arquipelago da Madeira
- Mamíferos do arquipelago da Madeira
- Subsidio para o estudo das Formigas da Madeira
- Os escravos na Madeira
- Lenda de pedra
- Ensaios históricos da minha Terra
- Ripas da Madeira
- Répteis e Batráquios
- Notas dos documentos sobre a epoca de D. João IV na Madeira
- As pequenas indústrias da Madeira
- Nossa Senhora da Esperança
- Ensaios Históricos = Ilha da Madeira, Redemoinho de fôlhas
- Santo António Pregador–Santo António Militar
- A Princesa do Reino-Unido Portugal Brasil na Ilha da Madeira
- Quadros sem aro
- Vila e Freguesia de S. Vicente
- A propósito do grande Brotero
- Brotero dá parecer sôbre a estufa de Banger na ilha da Madeira; Sobremesa (A),–Três frutos exóticos.
Invited to contribute to the Elucidário Madeirense, he sent us only the articles ‘Doação da Ilha da Madeira’, ‘Donativo’, ‘Ex-libris’, ‘Ferro’, ‘Fortificações’, ‘Fotografia’, ‘Geologia’ and ‘João Fernandes Vieira’, which fill a dozen pages of this work. It is much to be regretted that his contribution was not larger, given the profound knowledge he possesses of every subject bearing on the life of our archipelago, and his highly esteemed merits as a notable writer.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 03Place
Places mentioned · 05
- Chapel of St John the Baptist
Ponta do Sol. Chapel near which the rare sedge named after Sarmento grows.
Chapel still in use.
- Deserta Grande
Santa Cruz · Desertas. Island Sarmento visited, making botanical collections.
The largest island of the Desertas, 490 m high, seasonally visited by hunters, fishers and orchil gatherers. The steamer Lagos ran aground there in 1902, and it was visited by the Prince of Monaco in 1888 and by the Dana scientists. Its landing at Carga da Lapa is 21.5 miles from Funchal.
- Funchal
Birthplace of Sarmento and seat of the lyceum where he taught.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Porto Santo
Subject of one of Sarmento's historical-military studies.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.
- São Vicente
Town and parish studied in one of his works.
São Vicente is described as the largest and most populous parish of northern Madeira and the seat of the only town on the north coast. The Elucidário covers its settlement, church history, localities and landscape, and the deadly landslide of 1929.
People
People mentioned · 06- Alberto Artur Sarmentob. 1878
Madeiran infantry officer, historian and naturalist who is the subject of this entry.
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Co-author with Sarmento of a work on the fishes of Madeiran seas.
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Father of Alberto Artur Sarmento.
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Portuguese botanist who was the subject of two of Sarmento's writings.
- João Fernandes Vieirad. 1681
Madeiran-born figure on whose ancestry and name Sarmento wrote several works and an Elucidário article.
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Mother of Alberto Artur Sarmento.