Thomaz de Mello Breyner: excerpts and views of a diary

Abstract

Thomaz de Mello Breyner was born in Lisbon in 1866, the son of Francisco de Mello Breyner, 2nd Count of Mafra. Acting as family physician at the court of Dom Carlos I of Portugal, Breyner gave a interesting first-hand account of the last years of Portuguese monarchy, interwoven with records of his clinical labor and domestic life. After writing the first two books narrating his childhood and adolescence, he passed away in Lisbon in 1933, at the age of 67 years, without completing his memories. Breyner’s descendants include the poet and writer Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, but he is often remembered for his testimony about the changes that occurred in Portugal, particularly in medicine and policy, at the end of the XIX Century and start of the XX Century. However, the literary atributtes of his writings was overshadowed by its historial value. The aim of this paper is to comment historical and biographical aspects in his memories, foccusing especially on Diário de um monárquico: 1908-1910 (1993).

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/abriluff.2017n19a427