Filipe de Quental

Azorean Romantic poet, from the generation formed around Castilho during his stay in São Miguel (1847-1850). Second son of an entailed estate (his father was the poet André da Ponte de Quental da Câmara e Sousa, part of Bocage's circle at the end of the 18th century), he lived until about 30 years old in Ponta Delgada without a lucrative occupation, distinguishing himself among his contemporaries by his somewhat eccentric nature and his «first-rate comic recollections» that left a «legend in the city's local news» (J. de Castilho, Memórias de Castilho, V). He then decided to pursue studies in Coimbra, where he had the opportunity to display his comic talent on the stage of the Teatro Académico and, moreover, became extremely popular among students for his eccentricities, cheerful bohemianism, irreverence, and witty remarks, which made him «the funniest man of all academic generations» (Teófilo Braga). He graduated in Philosophy (1861) and earned a doctorate in Medicine (1863), just one year before his nephew Antero de Quental graduated in Law. He was a substitute professor of Medicine. He frequented Castilho's house in Ponta Delgada and was one of his most diligent collaborators in various cultural initiatives, including the founding of the Sociedade dos Amigos das Letras e das Artes in 1848. He followed a versification course given by that poet in 1849 and published several poems in the Micaelense press, mainly in the Revista dos Açores, where most of the exponents of Azorean Romanticism converged. However, he did not manage to collect his verses in a book. In volume, he only published an academic dissertation on the issue of rice cultivation: Dissertação Inaugural para o Acto de Conclusões Magnas, Coimbra, 1863.