António Caetano do Amaral (here also referred to as ACA), son of António do Amaral, Guard of the House of India, and Joana Ign a cia do Nascimento, was born in Lisbon in June 1747 and died in that same city in January 1819. From a modest family background, he was yet another case of a man of Humanities who rose socially through merit, although only as far as merit could allow him to rise when not combined with family capital.

According to Mendo Trigoso, his peer and panegyrist at the Academia das Ciências, his ‘talent and stern application’ were apparent from his earliest years. Of weak constitution , modest and shy, and very prone to pious practices, he began his preparatory studies in the humanities , after which he went to the University of Coimbra. He enrolled in the School of Canons in 1767 and graduated in Canons in June 1771, still at the pre-Pombaline University.

In the meantime, the new statutes of the Pombaline Reform were put into effect , and the R eform came into force in the School of Canons from October 1772, bringing with it a new course in ‘Natural, public and universal law, and the law of nations’, which conveyed the positions of jus - naturalism. António Caetano do Amaral, like the rest of the students , had to prove that he had ‘made the most of the years he had already attended’ and had his graduation ceremony in the first year of the R eform in 1773. This graduation ceremony took place in the presence of the dean and reformer Francisco de Lemos Pereira Coutinho and following the Pombal ine R eform guidelines set out in the Compêndio histórico do estado da Universidade [Historical compendium of the state of the University] and the Estatutos da Universidade [ University Statutes] (1772). When he finished his degree , he returned to Lisbon , where he became part of the capital ’ s erudite social networks (according to Mendo Trigoso, ‘he was welcomed, sought after and esteemed by all due to his knowledge and distinguished behaviour’), which allowed him to be chosen as a supernumerary member when the Academia Real das Ciências was founded in 1780.

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