Considered lost by most of the academic community, the original manuscript of “Clavis Prophetarum” (Key to the Prophets), the main political-philosophical treatise authored by Father António Vieira (1608-1697), was located by a group of researchers from Portugal and from Italy.
The work, whose whereabouts were unknown for more than 300 years, was found by Ana Travassos Valdez, a specialist in apocalyptic literature and the Jesuit’s work, during a visit to the library of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome for a conference.
Given the exceptionality of the material, the Portuguese historian said that she even doubted the authenticity of the manuscript. After carrying out research and restoration, a process that took three years, the document was presented to the public at a ceremony in Lisbon on Monday (30).
“After hundreds of hours of transcription and analysis by several laboratories and experts, there is no longer any doubt. It is the ‘Clavis’ original,” said Valdez. “The myth that the original doesn’t exist is gone. It’s here, and the work to unlock its secrets has just begun.”
The “Clavis Prophetarum” was originally written in Latin by António Vieira, who worked on the work for more than four decades. In his last years of life, already in very poor health, the priest even dictated parts of the text — he died without finishing it. Universalist in character, the treaty speaks of justice and peace and the construction of conditions that would lead to the positive evolution of society. With more than 300 pages, divided into three volumes, the document was known through a series of copies and translations.
One of the greatest specialists in the work of António Vieira, literature professor Arnaldo do Espírito Santo joined Valdez to verify the authenticity of the material and to interpret the work.
For him, who is a professor emeritus at the University of Lisbon, the importance of the material is not only the fact that it is original, but also the possibility of consulting the document in its entirety. “The manuscript has many marginal notes. The copies selected some of the notes.”
In addition to these marginal notes, during the analysis process the specialists discovered that some of the pages were pasted on top of others, evidencing the changes in the content of the work, which faced censorship by the Holy Inquisition. The work, which had the collaboration of specialists from the Gregorian University, ended up being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. For almost two years, Portuguese researchers could not see the document in person.
Thanks to a thorough digitization work, the duo managed to gain access to the manuscript and continue the interpretation process. The idea is that the content will soon be available to other researchers, and the publication of commented editions in Portuguese and English is also planned.
Through his series of sermons, António Vieira, also a diplomat and philosopher, gained the status of one of the greats of Portuguese writing. Born in Lisbon in February 1608, he moved with his family to Brazil at the age of six. He completed his studies at a seminary in Salvador and, in 1634, was ordained a priest.
He returned to Portugal in 1641, when the first news arrived that the country had freed itself from Spanish rule. He quickly gained the trust of the new king, Dom João 4º, and gained political and diplomatic functions. The talent for oratory was already evident, as well as a series of controversial opinions at the time, such as the defense of Jews and criticism of the Holy Inquisition. In 1653, he returned to Brazil and began to work mainly in the catechization of Brazilian Indians.
Many of his sermons and sermons were critical of the enslavement of indigenous people, which earned him considerable antipathy among certain political sectors and, above all, landowners. In a new season in Europe, he ended up sentenced to prison by the Holy Inquisition, in 1665, precisely for the content of his works. In 1668, he managed to have his sentence annulled and, later, he would be rehabilitated.
António Vieira died in Salvador, aged 89, in July 1697. In parallel to the relative defense of the indigenous people, some historians claim that the priest was condescending to the forced labor of Africans. “Father António Vieira attributed the slave trade to a great miracle of Nossa Senhora do Rosário, because, according to him, taken from barbarism and paganism in Africa, the captives would have the grace to be saved by Catholicism in Brazil”, writes Laurentino Gomes in his book “Escravidão”, from 2019.
In June 2020, in the wave of protests against figures associated with slavery, a statue in honor of the religious in the center of the capital Lisbon was vandalized. The monument was painted with red paint and had the word “decolonize” written on its base.
