The Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro as a planner of history (1850-1889)

Abstract

This article intends to investigate, starting from an analysis of the minutesof the sessions of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (IHGB) published inits periodical between 1850 and 1889, the limits for the writing of the history of thepresent in the nineteenth century. The association and its members usually disqualifiedthis practice, based on a modern notion of history, which allied temporal detachmentand impartiality, and because of the political contingencies of the context itself. In bothcases, the key of the “tribunal of posterity” appeared as central to this policy of concealingor archiving narratives about contemporary events. On the other hand, over the years,episodes previously considered recent and therefore prohibited in the territory of historycould be discussed with the seriousness demanded by the members of the Institute.Comments about the Revolução Pernambucana (1817) and the Revolução Farroupillha(1835-1845) contained in the Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro areproblematized to understand how this complex process occurred.