Portuguese author and scholar, born in San Miguel, Azores, on the 24th of February 1843. He studied at the University of Coimbra, receiving the degree of LL.D. in 1868. He became professor of national economy at the Lyceum of Lisbon, and in 1872 professor of literature in the Faculty Superior of Letters founded by Dom Pedro V. He took an active interest in politics, and was among the foremost of Portuguese republicans. He made his literary début as a poet, his compositions being received with favor; among them, Folhas Verdes (1859); A Visão dos Tempos (1862); As Tempestades Sonores (1864). As a positivist philosopher and historian he has published, among other works, Historia Universal and Os Esbocos da Sociologia Descriptiva (1879–82). He is, however, more distinguished for his works on the history of Portuguese literature, and among his many works in this field his chief one is Historia da Litteratura Portugueza (1878). He has also produced a History of Portuguese Law.
