José Anastácio da Cunha
Mathematician and poet, born in Lisbon, Portugal, on 11 May 1744.
Of humble descent, his father, Lourenço da Cunha, was a painter of some fame,
who spent a short period in Rome in order to improve his technique. His mother,
Jacinta Inês was a servant and received elementary education. José Anastácio da
Cunha was educated in Lisbon, at the Convento de Nossa Senhora das
Necessidades, which belonged to the Congregation of the Oratorians. According
to Anastácio da Cunha’s own testimony to the Inquisition, the Oratorians taught
him Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic until the age of 19. As far as Physics and
Mathematics were concerned, he taught himself.
In 1764, he was nominated Lieutenant of the Artillery Regiment of Oporto and was
placed in the parade grounds of Valença do Minho. The Artillery Regiment of
Oporto was made up of a majority of foreign officials, many of them protestant,
who influenced Anastácio da Cunha. He is believed to have adhered to ideals
such as tolerance, deism and rationalism, which integrated his scientific and
poetic production.
Due to his friendship with the British officials, he learnt to speak English fluently
which, together with his knowledge of other languages such as French, Latin,
Greek and Italian, enabled him to translated authors like Voltaire, Pope, Otway,
Horace, Rousseau, Holbach, Helvetius and others. It is thought that it was during
this period that he joined the masonry, by influence of his foreign friends.
In 1769, at the request of Major Simon Frazer,
he wrote
a
memoir on
ballistics, titled Carta Fisico-Mathematica sobre a Tehoria da Polvora em geral e a
determinação do melhor comprimento das peças em particular, where he pointed
out some errors and lack of precision he had found in some works on artillery.
In 1773, the Marquis of Pombal nominated him lector of Geometry at the
University of Coimbra, following the reform of the University carried out in 1772.
Anastácio da Cunha did not find a favourable environment to the development
and application of his skills and after the death of D. José I in 1777, he was
denounced to the Inquisition, imprisoned on 1 July 1778 and accused of being
involved with the British protestants in Valença, of reading Voltaire, Rousseau,
Hobbes and other dangerous authors and of corrupting the younger generations
through his eloquence. He was considered guilty of the accusations and
excommunicated, drawn away from this position at the University, from his titles
and had his possessions confiscated. He was also condemned to participate in an
act of faith and was shut up in the Congregation of the Oratorians in Lisbon, after
which he was deported to the city of Évora for four years. He was also forbidden
to return to Valença and to Coimbra. After two years in the Oratorians, his
sentence was reduced to compulsory residence in the Oratorians.
Between 1778 and 1781, he was forced to dedicate himself to private teaching in
order to survive and in 1783 he was hired by Superintendent Pina Manique for the
Colégio de S. Lucas of the Casa Pia as a Mathematics teacher, having drawn up
the pedagogical programme of the Casa Pia. While at the Casa Pia, he concluded
his work Princípios Mathematicos. Around 1785-86, he lost his position at the
Casa Pia for unknown reasons.
Besides the works mentioned, José Anastacio da Cunha left several other works,
including: Principios mathemáticos para instrucção dos alunos do Colégio de S.
Lucas da Real Casa Pia do Castello de S. Jorge, finished in 1786 a few days
before his death and published in 1790 in Lisbon, Carta Fisico-Mathematica sobre
a Theoria da Polvora em geral e a determinação do melhor comprimento das
peças em particular, drawn up in 1769, but only published in 1838, in Oporto,
Ensaio sobre os Principios de Mechanica, of which there are no known copies,
but which is believed to have been published by Domingos de Sousa Coutinho in
London in 1807. There is only one published version in the magazine O Instituto,
of Coimbra, in 1856, Ensaio sobre as Minas, an unpublished manuscript found in
the District Archive of Braga and published in 1994 in a joint initiative of the
District Archive of Braga and the Department of Mathematics of the University of
Minho. This manuscript was aimed at the instruction of officials of the Artillery
Regiment of Oporto, quartered in the Square of Valença do Minho.
As a poet, he did not publish anything while still alive; his poems were only
published in 1839 by Inocêncio da Silva under the title: Composições poéticas do
Doutor José Anastácio da Cunha.
He died in January 1, 1787, with 43 years of age due to an attack of biliary colic.
Source:
REIS, Fernando – Science in Portugal :characters and episodes.[Consult. 22 April
2010]. Available in WWW: http://cvc.instituto-camoes.pt/ciencia_eng/p7.html
Available books in the Mathematical Library
Em homenagem a José Anastácio da Cunha, 7 de Outubro de 1987. Coimbra : DMFCTUC, 1989. 113 p.
00B30/Em
COLÓQUIO INTERNACIONAL ANASTÁCIO DA CUNHA. O MATEMÁTICO E O POETA,
Lisboa, 1987 - Anastácio da Cunha : 1744/1787 : o matemático e o poeta : actas do
colóquio internacional. Lisboa : IN-CM, 1990 imp.. XXX, 476 p.
01A70/COL
CUNHA, José Anastácio da, ; CIDADE, Hernâni - A obra poética do Dr. José Anastácio
da Cunha. Coimbra : Imprensa da Universidade, 1930. CXLV, 214 p.
01A99/CUN
CUNHA, José Anastácio da - Principios mathematicos. Coimbra : DM/FCTUC, 1987. XXII,
315 p.
01A75/CUN
CUNHA, José Anastácio da - Principes mathématiques. Coimbra : DM/FCTUC, 1987.
XXII, 299 p.
01A75/CUN/trd.fr.
CUNHA, José Anastácio da - Principios mathematicos para instrucçäo dos alumnos do
collegio de Säo Lucas, da Real Casa Pia do Castello de Säo Jorge. Lisboa : na offic. de
Antonio Rodrigues Galhardo, 1790. [1 br.], 315, [1 br.]p.
RB.02.08
RB.02.09
CUNHA, José Anastácio da - Carta fisico-mathematica sobre a theorica da polvora em
geral e a determinaçäo do melhor comprimento das peças em particular. Porto :
Typographia Commercial Portuense, 1838. 33 p.
01A75/CUN.Car