Author and poet of Brazilian Arcadianism born in Vila Rica, captaincy of Minas Gerais, who beside the perfectionism of the verses, conveyed in his poetic art a feeling that distinguished him from other arcadians miners. Mestizo and poor, bastard son of musician Inácio da Silva Alvarenga, with the help of friends, at the age of nineteen he went to study Humanities in Rio de Janeiro, and after two years he went to Portugal to start higher studies at the University of Coimbra (1771). There he met and befriended intellectuals such as Basílio da Gama and Alvarenga Peixoto and followed the intense intellectual activity at a time when the Marquis of Pombal carried out the reform of education, breaking the scholastic tradition of the Jesuits and fighting the nobility. He joined Arcadia Ultramarina under the name Alcindo Palmireno and published the poem O Deserter (1774).
He completed his course (1776), published The Temple of Neptune (1777), written in honor of the acclamation of D. Maria I, and returned to Rio de Janeiro (1777). He began to practice law in Brazil and opened a course in rhetoric and poetics (1782) and was appointed royal professor by Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa, viceroy. Under the government of Marquês do Lavradio, protector of the sciences and arts, he became a member of the Scientific Society of Rio de Janeiro. Still sponsored by Vasconcelos and Sousa, he opened the Literary Society of Rio de Janeiro (1786), which soon became a club of democratic ideas. Accused of worshiping the French revolutionary ideas and of subversion against the Portuguese Crown, by denunciation of Friar Raimundo and of the rabula José Bernardo da Silveira Frade, was arrested at the behest of the Count of Resende, then viceroy, who ordered the closure of the Literary Society of Rio de Janeiro and the incarceration of the its partners.
He remained in prison for two years and eight months, subject to a rigorous and humiliating investigation, entrusted to Judge Antônio Diniz da Cruz e Silva, who had already served in the investigation of the Inconfidência Mineira. Released (1797) by order of d. Maria I, given the lack of conclusive evidence for her conviction, published the first edition of Glaura: Poemas eróticos, at Oficina Nunesiana, Lisbon (1799). He returned to teaching and collaborated (1813), together with his companion from the Literary Society of Rio de Janeiro, Mariano José Pereira da Fonseca, future Marquis of Maricá, in O Patriota (1813-1814). With the founding of O Patriota, he became one of the first Brazilian journalists. He died on November 1st, in Rio, single, leaving no descendants. Other important publications were Desertor das Letras (1774), The American Grotto (1779) and the poem À Artes (1788) and the second edition of Glaura: Poemas eróticos (1801) at Oficina Nunesiana, Lisbon.
Source: Biographies - Academic Unit of Civil Engineering / UFCG
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VILARINHO, Sabrina. "Manuel Inácio da Silva Alvarenga"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/manuel-inacio-da-silva-alvarenga.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.