Abstract
The Historiography on 18th Century Portugal has seen the Brazilian born subjects of the Portuguese Crown with growing interest, due to their intense participation in various levels of the administration of the Empire, particularly concerning scientific investigation through naturalist voyages within the Empire, their participation in places of scientific sociability, such as Coimbra University, the Science Academy and the Colégio dos Nobres and their participation in the Portuguese Republic of Letters through the publication of their own texts - in Literature, Science, Philosophy and Religion - or their translation into Portuguese of many books written by authors of the Enlightenment in French and in other European languages. In this text, the aim is to explore the “views on theirselves” these men produced in their heterogeneous group, in their own texts and editorial paratexts, regarding notions like monarchy, nation, science, and the “lights”.
Keywords
written culture; Portuguese Empire; Luso-Brazilian; paratexts