The Revista do Rio de Janeiro (1876-1877: scientific popularization, positivist project, education

Abstract

The nineteenth century was the scene of a great expansion of periodicals in the country, when numerous magazines, such as scientific-literary magazines, appeared especially directed to the general public, and many of them to children and young people, workers and women. In this context, education was a central concern, when it sought to restructure its base with the purpose of teaching science, considered the engine of the main transformations in industry and public health. The Revista do Rio de Janeiro, created in Rio de Janeiro in 1876, with Serafim José Alves as its first editor (Bahia, 1820-1895?), Represented an important tool of the 19th century press aimed at the popularization of sciences, for the cultivation of sciences and to increase Brazilian education. This article aims to present the role of this journal in the context of the popularization of knowledge in Rio de Janeiro in the second half of the 19th century. Our starting point in this study is the identification of its editors, writers, and collaborators, of the vulgarizers of knowledge, responsible for Revista do Rio de Janeiro. Sharing the words of Jean-François Sirinelli (1986), we understand the magazines as a meeting place for individual trajectories, social and intellectual trajectories, with the role of shaping the intellectual field through mechanisms of adhesion and exclusion. In addition to social and intellectual relations, activity and movement behind the scenes of the publication, we are concerned with knowing and presenting the themes and published scientific content, in order to understand their role in popularizing the sciences.