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U.Porto Memory

Grand Hall of the University of Porto - Portrait Gallery

	Duarte Leite Mathematician, historian, university teacher and Republican Portrait by Abel Salazar

Biography of Duarte Leite (1864-1950)

Duarte Leite Pereira da Silva was born in Porto on August 1864. He was the son of Rafael Leite Pereira da Silva, captain in the Merchant Navy, and Isabel Maria da Soledade. He was the grandson, on his mother’s side, of a British consul.
He began his studies in Porto, pursued them in Brazil and completed high school in Lisbon, at the Jesuit College in Campolide.
At the University of Coimbra, he excelled in the Mathematics course (1880-1885). At the Faculty of Law, in this university, studied Political Economics and, at the Faculty of Philosophy, he studied Zoology and Agriculture.

After completing his studies, he was admitted as a teacher at the Polytechnic Academy of Porto, to teach the 4th chair (Descriptive Geometry) by decree of 4 March 1886 and royal writ of 15 April of the same year. He took up office on 11 March 1886. Three years later, Duarte Leite began to teach the 5th chair (Astronomy and Geodesy), as determined by decree of 14 February 1889.
In 1910, he was transferred to the 3rd chair and became part of the 2nd group, 1st Department of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. In 1918, the Faculty Board awarded him the doctorate degree in Mathematical Sciences.

Alongside the academic life, Duarte Leite was also involved in politics. In 1897, he founded the Republican Circle of Social Studies with Basílio Teles, Xavier Esteves, José Nunes da Ponte and Afonso Costa. He also joined the Board of the Portuguese Republican Party (1897-1899) and was a parliament member of the Porto City Council during the presidency of Jacinto Magalhães (1907-1910).

Duarte Leite was also a publicist. In Porto, he collaborated in "A Voz Pública" ((1906-1907), founded and directed "A Pátria" (1909), published articles in "O Primeiro de Janeiro" from 1931 on, and wrote for "Seara Nova".

He held several political posts, such as President of the Porto Trade Assembly (1910) and member of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Railway Company, between 1910 and 1911.

In 1892 he became a member of the Masonic lodge "União Latina", in Porto, under the name of Confucius, and went undercover in 1893.

After the proclamation of the Republic, he held several political posts without compromising his distance in relation to the Republican parties. He was Minister of Finance (between 3 September and 12 November 1911), head of the Government and Minister of Home Affairs (between 16 June 1912 and 9 January 1913) and Senator for Porto (1915-1917 and 1918-1919). He ran for the presidential elections of 24 August 1911, receiving 4 votes), of 29 May 1915 (one vote), of 6 August 1915 (twenty votes in the first ballot and 19 in the second ballot), of 6 August 1919 (one vote), of 6 August 1923 (three votes in the first ballot and one vote in the second ballot) and of 11 December 1925 (thirty three votes in the first ballot and five votes in the second ballot).

Duarte Leite was also an historian. We owe it to him the informed reports on the history of Portuguese discoveries, along with António Sérgio and Jaime Cortesão. He collaborated in "História da Colonização Portuguesa do Brasil", directed by Carlos Malheiro Dias, in the 3rd Chapter of Volume I (1921) and in the 9th and 13th chapters of Volume II (1923). He also authored such works as "Descobridores do Brasil" (2 vols., Porto, 1931) and "Acerca da Crónica dos Feitos da Guiné" (Lisboa, 1941). Vitorino Magalhães Godinho collected and annotated in the book "História dos Descobrimentos: colectânea de esparsos" (2 vols., Lisboa 1958-1959) many of the studies of Duarte Leite.

Duarte Leite participated in the tribute to Rodrigues de Freitas, in 1897, at the Ateneu Comercial do Porto. He gave the eulogy to Gomes Teixeira at the University of Porto, on 8 February 1933 – the text was published in Volume 18 of "Anais da Faculdade de Ciências do Porto".

Between 1914 and 1931, he was the Portuguese ambassador in Rio de Janeiro. In 1931, retired from this position as he reached the age limit, and returned to Portugal to live in Meinedo, Lousada. He maintained contact with Portuguese and foreign scientists and intellectuals.

Duarte Leite was married to Maria Eulália Falcão Leite, and they had four children: Isabel de Oliveira, Emília Pimentel, Maria Eulália Fernandes Costa and Rafael Leite.

A renowned scientist, teacher, journalist, politician and Republican diplomat, publicist and researcher of colonial history and the expansion, Duarte Leite died on 29 September 1950 at the age of 86, at the Boavista Health Center, in Porto, with his wife and friend Eduardo Santos Silva by his side. At his request, he had a civil funeral: the hearse left the Association of Journalists and Men of the Arts of Porto. He was buried in the Prado do Repouso Cemetery in the city of Porto.

Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2012. Scientific Review by Jorge Fernandes Alves (FLUP)