José Hermano Saraiva GCIH • GCIP (3 October 1919 – 20 July 2012) was a Portuguese

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

. He was most known as a television personality in Portugal, having been the author and presenter of several documentary series of historical divulgation from 1971 to 2003 on the Portuguese television.

Biography

Hermano Saraiva was a professor of

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

and

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

. He was

Minister of Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

of Portugal between 1968 and 1970 and

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

between 1972 and 1974, during the Estado Novo dictatorship. He lectured in the'' Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Política Ultramarina'' at the '' Universidade Técnica de Lisboa'', and in private teaching institutes. Saraiva is most famous in Portugal, but also among Portuguese communities around the world, on account of his television programs on the

History of Portugal The history of Portugal can be traced from circa 400,000 years ago, when the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by ''Homo heidelbergensis''. The Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, which lasted almost two centuries, led to the es ...

, broadcast by RTP. He was a member of the Sciences Academy of Lisbon, Portuguese Academy of History and São Paulo Historical Institute in Brazil. Hermano Saraiva was distinguished with the ''Grã-Cruz of the Order of Public Instruction'', ''Grã-Cruz of the Order of Prince Henry'', the ''Grã-Cruz of the Order of Barão do Rio Branco'' of

, the ''Grã-Cruz of the Ordem do Mérito do Trabalho'' and the ''Comendador da Real Ordem de Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Vila Viçosa''. He enjoyed wide popularity and success as a television communicator whose television programs devoted to the

, namely ''O Tempo e a Alma'' (1971), ''Gente de Paz'' (1978) and ''Horizontes da Memória'' (1996-2003) on RTP state-run television channels, reached a large audience among the Portuguese population and the Portuguese expat communities outside Portugal.

Personal life

Hermano Saraiva was born in

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

, the third of the six sons of José Leonardo Venâncio Saraiva (born 1 April 1881, erudite and well known professor, Mayor of Leiria and Head Master of Liceu Passos Manuel in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

) and wife Maria da Ressurreição Baptista Saraiva. Amongst his siblings is António José Saraiva, a known researcher in the area of

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, and his

nephew In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of an individual's sibling or sibling-in-law. A niece is female and a nephew is male, and they would call their parents' siblings aunt or uncle ...

José António Saraiva worked as a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. One of his maternal

uncle An uncle is usually defined as a male relative who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent, as well as the parent of the cousins. Uncles who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. The female counterpart of an un ...

s was the last living Portuguese veteran of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Saraiva married Maria de Lourdes de Bettencourt de Sá Nogueira (born 16 May 1918), daughter of Rodrigo de Sá Nogueira (born 3 December 1892, a

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

and great-nephew of Bernardo de Sá Nogueira de Figueiredo, 1st Marquess of Sá da Bandeira) and wife Maria Luísa Rodrigues de Bettencourt (married 20 November 1915), fathering five children. Saraiva died, aged 92, in

Palmela Palmela () is a town and municipality in Portugal. As of 2011, the population was 62,831, covering an area of 465.12 km². The municipality is located in the Lisboa Region and Setúbal District, about south of Lisbon. The municipal holiday ...

Bibliography

Memoirs: * Academic lectures published by the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa: * ''Testemunho Social e Condenação de Gil Vicente'' (1976) * ''A Revolução de Fernão Lopes'' (1977) * ''Elementos para uma nova biografia de Camões'' (1978) * ''Proposta de uma Cronologia para a lírica de Camões'' (1981–82) * ''Evocação de António Cândido'' (1988) * ''No Centenário de Simão Bolívar'' (1984) * ''A crise geral e a Aljubarrota de Froyssart'' (1988) Works on teaching: * ''Notas para uma didáctica assistencial'' (1964) * ''Aos Estudantes'' (1969) * ''A Pedagogia do Livro'' (1972) * ''O Futuro da Pedagogia'' (1974) * ''Aspirações e contradições da Pedagogia contemporânea'' (1970) Legal works: * ''O problema do Contrato'' (1949) * ''A revisão constitucional e a eleição do Chefe do Estado'' (1959) * ''Non-self-governing territories and The United Nation Charter'' (1960) * ''Lições de Introdução ao Direito'' (1962–63) * ''A Crise do Direito'' (1964) * ''Apostilha Crítica ao Projecto do Código Civil'' (1966) * ''A Lei e o Direito'' (1967) History works: * ''Uma carta do Infante D. Henrique'' (1948) * ''As razões de um Centenário'' (1954) * ''História Concisa de Portugal'' (1976, translated in Spanish, Italian, German, Bulgarian, Polish and Chinese) * ''História de Portugal'', 3 Vols – Director and co-author (1981) * ''O Tempo e a Alma'', 2 Vols (1986) * ''Breve História de Portugal'' (1996) * ''Portugal – Os Últimos 100 anos'' (1996) * ''Portugal – a Companion History'' (1997) Contributions for the History of the Portuguese People: * ''Outras maneiras de ver'' (1979) * ''Vida Ignorada de Camões'' (1980) * ''Raiz madrugada'' (1981) * ''Ditos Portugueses dignos de memória'' (1994) * ''A memória das Cidades'' (1999) * ..

Television shows

* O Tempo e a Alma ( RTP)
A Alma e a Gente
( RTP) * Horizontes da Memória ( RTP)
A Bruma da Memória
( RTP) * Coisas do Mundo ( Rádio e Televisão de Portugal)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saraiva, Jose Hermano 1919 births 2012 deaths People from Leiria 20th-century Portuguese historians Golden Globes (Portugal) winners Education ministers of Portugal Ambassadors of Portugal to Brazil University of Lisbon alumni Academic staff of the University of Lisbon Academic staff of the Technical University of Lisbon