Science, patronage, and academies in early seventeenth-century Portugal: The scientific academy of the nobleman and university professor André de Almada

Abstract

This paper revisits the historiography of seventeenth-century scientific academies by analyzing an informal academy established in Coimbra (Portugal) by André de Almada, a nobleman and professor of theology at the University of Coimbra. By promoting this academy and sponsoring the publication of science books, Almada stimulated research on astronomy and animated links of patronage, which included not only members of the universities but also the community of astronomers and astrologers active in Lisbon. This paper challenges the traditional view of academic societies as innovative institutions opposed to the old-fashioned universities and provides an insight into the complex relationship established between patronage, the institutional settings, and the practices of science in a country wherein science was poorly institutionalized and political power increasingly centralized.