Bartholomeu Lourenço de Gusmão

a trajetória intelectual do primeiro cientista brasileiro

Abstract

The unique figure of the Brazilian priest Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão (1685-1724) generally has his name associated solely with the invention of the hot air balloon, as a result his successful aerostatic experiments in the year 1709 in the presence of King John V of Portugal. His fame as inventor, however, was not restricted to the aerostatic invention that earned him the nickname of Flying Priest. Having a knack as an inventor, he also obtained several patents in the fields of hydraulics and pneumatics, besides having been active in the fields of sacred oratory, history, and the decipherment of cryptograms. His biography was made known to a wide audience mainly through the books and articles published by the Brazilian historian Afonso Taunay (1876-1958), in the decades 1930, 40 and 50 of the last century. After Taunay´s research the last extensive work devoted to Father Bartolomeu (A vida e as obras de Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão) was written over four decades ago by the writer Divaldo Freitas (1912-2003). The present work thus aims to gather and unite relevant information on the intellectual trajectory of the Flying Priest, discovered after Divaldo Freitas´ research, emphasizing related topics little researched at present. With this view the historic approach developed herein is contextualized within the scientific and technical progress in course in Europe along the XVIII century.