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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Portuguese Literature |
 | | Verney criticized the obsolete educational methods and exposed the literary and scientific decadence in the "Verdadeiro Methodo de Educar", while the various Academies and Arcadias, wiser than their predecessors, worked for purity of style and diction, and translated the best foreign classics. |
 | | The Academy of History, established by John V in 1720 in imitation of the French Academy, published fifteen volumes of learned "Memoirs" and laid the foundations for a critical study of the annals of Portugal, among its members being Caetano de Sousa, author of the volumious "Historia da Casa Real", and the bibliographer Barbosa Machado. |
 | | The Royal Academy of Sciences, founded in 1780, continued the work and placed literary criticism on a sounder basis, but the principal exponents of belles-lettres belonged to the Arcadias. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/12307a.htm (4354 words) |
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