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THE TEAM
CONTACT
In the same year, he compiled part of the poetic writings of his youth in A harpa do crente [The Believer’s Harp] (1838), a work edited by the above-mentioned Sociedade. Herculano received the support of king consort Fernando II, which assisted in his being appointed director of the Real Biblioteca do Paço da Ajuda [Royal Library of the Ajuda Palace]. This post would provide him with financial stability for the rest of his life while allowing him at the same time to reside in the vicinity of his main place of work. (Santos, “A. Herculano e a Biblioteca da Ajuda” [“A. Herculano and the Ajuda Library”]; Serrão, “A. Herculano”, 434).
With Panorama as his main publication platform, coupled with his easy access to documents and books from the royal libraries, in the late 1830s Herculano launched himself as a versatile historical consciousness agent. He authored a vast number of short essays on historical and historiographical topics, in addition to short sketches of political and cultural figures from different times. However, his educational and recollection work was not confined to the usual patterns of factual writing, and he experimented with the new horizons opened by new historical fiction, already popular in other languages. (Catroga, “A. Herculano e o historicismo romântico” [“A. Herculano and Romantic historicism”], 42-44). In the ten year span between 1838 and 1848, he wrote historical tales which were later collected into Lendas e Narrativas (1851) [Legends and Narratives], besides three broader and more complex historical novels: O bobo [The Jester] (1843; only published as a book in 1878 – if the widely circulated counterfeit edition in Brazil is disregarded), Eurico, o Presbítero [Eurico, the Presbyter] (1843-1844), and O Monge de Cister [ The Monk of Cister] (which he began in 1839-40, but only finished and published in 1848). He also engaged with drama, considerably encouraged by Setembrismo [September Revolt], writing two short historical plays while working collaboratively within the scope of several initiatives of the newly created Conservatório Nacional [National Conservatory] (Cruz, “Política, resistência e arte” [“Politics, resistance and art”], 4-5).
Herculano’s literary, essay and newspaper production dating from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s was mainly written against the background of profound political and social changes. After the Civil War, the clergy’s given position as the main agent of national culture and education began to falter. Herculano, aware of this shift, saw a new window of opportunity to promote new sensibilities and practices on which the values and institutions of the new liberal order could be firmly grounded.
