<ref name=”16 February 1947 Jornal do Commercio”>{{cite news|last=Magalhães|first=Basílio de|author-link=Basílio de Magalhães|date=16 February 1947|title=CURSO DE TUPÍ ANTIGO|language=Portuguese|trans-title=COURSE OF OLD TUPI|page=3|work=[[Jornal do Commercio]]|url=http://memoria.bn.br/docreader/364568_13/34272|access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref>
<ref name=”16 February 1947 Jornal do Commercio”>{{cite news|last=Magalhães|first=Basílio de|author-link=Basílio de Magalhães|date=16 February 1947|title=CURSO DE TUPÍ ANTIGO|language=Portuguese|trans-title=COURSE OF OLD TUPI|page=3|work=[[Jornal do Commercio]]|url=http://memoria.bn.br/docreader/364568_13/34272|access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref>
<ref name=”January 2025 Vida Doméstica”>{{cite news|date=January 1955|title=NOSSA SENHORA DE COPACABANA VOLTA À SUA IGREJA|trans-title=OUR LADY OF COPACABANA RETURNS TO HER CHURCH|url=http://memoria.bn.gov.br/DocReader/830305/54443|url-status=live|access-date=10 December 2025|work=Vida Doméstica|pages=32|language=Portuguese}}</ref>
<ref name=”January 2025 Vida Doméstica”>{{cite news|date=January 1955|title=NOSSA SENHORA DE COPACABANA VOLTA À SUA IGREJA|trans-title=OUR LADY OF COPACABANA RETURNS TO HER CHURCH|url=http://memoria.bn.gov.br/DocReader/830305/54443|access-date=10 December 2025|work=Vida Doméstica|pages=32|language=Portuguese}}</ref>
<ref name=”10 June 1956 A Cruz”>{{cite news|date=10 June 1956|title=MOVIMENTO LITERARIO|trans-title=LITERARY MOVEMENT|url=http://memoria.bn.br/docreader/829706/10460|access-date=10 December 2023|work=A Cruz|page=3|language=Portuguese}}</ref>
<ref name=”10 June 1956 A Cruz”>{{cite news|date=10 June 1956|title=MOVIMENTO LITERARIO|trans-title=LITERARY MOVEMENT|url=http://memoria.bn.br/docreader/829706/10460|access-date=10 December 2023|work=A Cruz|page=3|language=Portuguese}}</ref>
Brazilian priest and Tupinologist (1910–1970)
|
Antônio Lemos Barbosa |
|
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | (1910-09-15)15 September 1910 |
| Died | 5 September 1970(1970-09-05) (aged 59) |
| Notable work | Curso de tupi antigo: gramática, exercícios, textos |
Antônio Lemos Barbosa (15 September 1910 – 5 September 1970) was a Brazilian priest, notably recognized for his contributions to Tupinology, that is, the study of Old Tupi.[3][4]
Biography
Antônio Lemos Barbosa was born on 15 September 1910, in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, being the second of four children. His father, Luís Ferreira Barbosa, was a teacher at the house of his grandfather; there, Luís met Júlia Lemos Barbosa (née Lemos), who died when Barbosa was 11 years old, during the birth of the couple’s fifth child, who also died.[2][3][6]
Barbosa took a humanities course at then Jesuit-led Diocesan Seminary of Campanha. He pursued studies for seven years, from 1927 to 1934, at the Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned doctoral degrees in Philosophy and Theology and a bachelor’s degree in canon law.[2] He was ordained priest by Marchetti Selvaggiani on 25 July 1934. Barbosa celebrated his first Low Mass in the Catacombs of Domitilla, and his first High Mass at the Pontifical Pio Brazilian College.[2] He also took a linguistics course at the Biblical Institute.
Barbosa served as professor of Ethnography and Indigenous Languages (specifically Old Tupi) at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio).[2] In 1956, after more than ten years of work, he published the book Curso de tupi antigo: gramática, exercícios, textos (lit. ‘Course of Old Tupi: grammar, exercises, texts‘), which received favorable reviews from contemporary critics.[8] Basílio de Magalhães, for instance, declared the work constituted a “didactic revolution”.[9] It is considered that the work contains “interesting insights”, but also that one of its weaknesses lies in the made-up, non-attested examples; it is deemed more reasonable that the description of a dead language contains only attested examples. Starting in the 1950s, in 1951 and 1970, Barbosa published two short Old Tupi vocabularies, while acknowledging the need to publish a dictionary of that language. In 2013, Eduardo de Almeida Navarro considered them the only serious and reliable works that had existed in the genre.
Barbosa assisted in the reconstruction of the Paróquia da Ressurreição, whose first headquarters was located where the Fort Copacabana is today, dedicating himself to it from 1947 until his death in 1970 and lefting two properties for its construction. For it, he also received the support of Brazil’s then first lady, Jandira Café, as well as other contemporary figures, such as Eurico Gaspar Dutra, Eduardo Gomes, Amorim do Valle, and Juarez Távora.[12][13] In 1954, Barbosa became its rector. After his death, Eduardo Koaik was appointed to lead it.[13]
Death
Barbosa died on 5 September 1970, after being hospitalized for two months at Casa de Saúde São José.[3][14] His death is regarded as premature for having prevented him from fulfilling his wish to write an Old Tupi dictionary similar to Antonio Ruiz de Montoya‘s Tesoro de la lengua guaraní.
Works
- Barbosa, Antônio Lemos (1937). “O locativo tupi na toponímia brasileira” [The Tupi locative in the Brazilian toponymy]. Revista do Arquivo Municipal (in Portuguese). 38. São Paulo: 57–60. Archived from the original on 15 August 2025.
- Barbosa, Antônio Lemos (1940). “Teodoro Sampaio e Hans Staden” [Teodoro Sampaio and Hans Staden]. Revista do Arquivo Municipal (in Portuguese). 67. São Paulo: 223–236. Archived from the original on 15 August 2025.
- Barbosa, Antônio Lemos (1941). “Juká: o paradigma da conjugação tupí” [Juká: the paradigm of the Tupi conjugation]. Revista Filológica (in Portuguese). 2 (12). Rio de Janeiro: 74–84. Archived from the original on 15 August 2025.
- Dom Pedro II (1945). Barbosa, Antônio Lemos (ed.). “Quelques notes sur la langue tupí” [Some notes on the Tupi language]. Anuário do Museu Imperial (in French and Portuguese). 6. Petrópolis: 169–188. Archived from the original on 13 August 2025.
- Barbosa, Antônio Lemos (1951). Pequeno vocabulário tupi-português [Small Tupi–Portuguese vocabulary] (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro: Livraria São José. Archived from the original on 13 August 2025.
- Barbosa, Antônio Lemos (1956). Curso de tupi antigo: gramática, exercícios, textos [Course of Old Tupi: grammar, exercises, texts] (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro: Livraria São José. Archived from the original on 18 August 2025.
- Barbosa, Antônio Lemos (1970). Pequeno vocabulário português-tupi [Small Portuguese–Tupi vocabulary] (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro: Livraria São José. Archived from the original on 14 August 2025.
