"Through the calms and contrary winds": The trajectory of Francisco de Mello Franco in Rio De Janero, 1817-1823

Abstract

This paper analyzes the final years of the brazilian physician Francisco de Mello Franco in Brasil between 1817 and 1823. Born in Paracatu, Minas Gerais Mello Franco studied medicine at the University of Coimbra and built a solid career in Lisbon as doctor of the Royal Chamber, member of the Academy of Sciences and author of well-known medical works. After more than 40 years abroad he has left Lisbon to move to Rio de Janeiro as the first doctor of the archduchess Leopoldina on her travel to marry the Prince Pedro de Alcântara. The analysis privileges the sociability networks and political and family articulations that have involved his life in Brazil. It aims to emphasize these issues as inseparable elements of the intellectual trajectory of intelectuals of that time revealing aspects that are often inaccessible to the mere analysis of their works.