"President of Portugal" Teófilo Braga Hand Signed 3X4 Official Card For Sale

Up for sale the "President of Portugal" Teófilo Braga Hand Signed 3X4 Official Card.

February 1843 – 28 January 1924) was a Portuguese writer, playwright, politician and the leader

of the Republican Provisional Government after the overthrow of King Manuel II, as well of the First Portuguese Republic, after the resignation

of President Manuel de Arriaga. Teófilo

Braga was born in the Azores, in São José, Ponta Delgada, his father was Joaquim Manuel Fernandes Braga

who probably a descendant of one of King João V’s illegitimate

children, most likely António of Braganza who was a Doctor in Theology, knight of Order of Christ and

known for one of 3 Children of Palhavã. His

mother was Maria José da Câmara e Albuquerque, from the island of Santa Maria, another

descendant of Portuguese nobility because she was probably traced to Infanta D. Urraca, who was the one of King Afonso III’s

illegitimate children, as the genealogist Ferreira Serpa has shown. Teófilo was

the 13th descendant of Diogo Gonçalves de

Travassos, father of D. Pedro who married Violente Velho Cabral,

sister of the Commander of Almourol, Gonçalo Velho, and descendant of Cristovão Falcão, a poet and

Count of Avranches. His mother had seven children (Teófilo being the youngest),

of which three died during infancy, the others being Luís, João Fernandes and

Maria José. Teófilo's father became a widower when Teófilo was only three years

old (his mother died at the age of 31 years). Originally, his father was an

artillery lieutenant and commander in Mosteiros, and quit the

army after the Concession of Evoramonte,

and without means, he established a nautical school and mathematics in Ponta

Delgada, eventually finding a job at the local secondary school in Ponta

Delgada. Two years later, the older Braga wed a woman

(Ricarda Joaquina Marfim Pereira) with a decidedly bad attitude to the young

boy, fathering two daughters with Ricarda (Maria da

Glória and Maria do Espírito Santo). The child took refuge in literature, and

specifically in the public library in Ponta Delgada or at the home of the

Viscount of Praia, where his father (for a time) was a private tutor to the

Viscount's daughters. It was in the Ribeira Grande newspaper A

Estrela Oriental (The Oriental Star), edited by

former-pharmacist Francisco Maria Supico (a native of Lousã), that his first naive poem A Canção do

Guerreiro ("A Song of the Warrior"), in a patriotic tone,

dedicated to his brother João Fernandes Braga was published. He followed these

with O Meteoro and O Santelmo. At the age of 15 in

1859, in an edition paid for by the Viscount of Praia, he published a book of

verses entitled Folhas Verdes ("Green Leaves") and

edited by the newspaper A Ilha (The Island); it was a

timid imitation of Folhas Caídas (Fallen Leaves) by

noted author Almeida Garrett. He

revealed a tenacity and combative nature and was known to have been disciplined

during his time at his secondary school in Ponta Delgada (where his father was

teacher) for disparaging remarks made to his teacher. At the end of secondary

school Teófilo hoped for future prospects, even informing his father of his

intention to leave São Miguel and travel

to America for a professional career (likely as a typographer or merchant). But his father suggested expanding his studies

at the University of Coimbra, mindful of his child's lack of abilities in his

preferred fields. Therefore, Teófilo Braga, student, arrived in Coimbra in April

1861, with hopes of achieving a doctorate in Theology or Law; after a year, in

which he repeated his prerequisite entrance qualifications, he joined the

Faculty of Law at the University. His first lodging would be at the home of

Filipe de Quental (1824–1892), professor of Medicine and paternal uncle of the

author Antero de Quental.