Varnhagen, João Lisboa and historical writing between travels & notes

Abstract

The article addressed aspects of the historiographical work of Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen and João Francisco Lisboa, such as the role of travel in the writing of history in 19th-century Brazil. Based on correspondence and the historiographical work of the two authors, it is possible to observe that the act of traveling was intertwined with the very possibility of writing history, as it allowed for the knowledge of spaces and archives, the making of notes in situ, and, with this, the filling of gaps in the broad knowledge of the national territory and its people, and of the history of the country. In Varnhagen’s production, the importance of travel was evident. Acting as a diplomat, his work as a historian was facilitated by access to archives and libraries in several countries, a fact attested to in comments in letters and in his main work, the História Geral do Brasil (1854-1857). In João Lisboa, it appears mainly in his last years of life, when he assumed the position of official researcher at the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (IHGB) in Portugal, being able to visit other European countries in search of documents related to the history of Brazil. Thus, “seeing” here also functioned as a condition of “knowing”.