Vaqueirinho Republic !
Here are some
clues for a better understanding of the spirit of the republics and their
genesis.
Historical
perspective of Coimbra´s Republics
Artur Ribeiro *
"Coimbra´s Republics" are perhaps the oldest and most genuine of the Portuguese university institutions, referring to its roots in medieval times and the act of establishment of "General Study" in Coimbra.
From the royal diploma of February 15, 1309, inspired by the "Charta
Magna Privilegiorum" which enshrines the vast privileges and perks granted
to students, highlights the Historical perspective of Coimbra´s Republics
feeling of D. Dinis's concern
in providing accommodation and supplies in the supplies of students and masters
of the University. In Coimbra, as in most of the university centers of Medieval
Europe, the scarcity of houses to rent increased the reluctance of owners to
rent them to students for a "fair income".
The solicitude of monarchs to remedy such shortcomings is well evident in
the many diplomas and royal letters that refer to the subject. D. Dinis
himself, by diploma of 1309, promotes the construction of houses in the Area of
Almedina intended to be rented to students and, likewise, encourages the owners
of houses to rent them and rebuild or repair those that are ruinous, for the
same purpose.
In the face of such insufficient accommodation and also, in the face of the
proverbial lean scholarship of the student, they have the logic and reason,
admit that such houses, once given income, would be shared, each and every one,
by several schoolchildren. On the other hand, if, according to the royal
diplomas, students had privileged access to the acquisition of groceries —
meat, fish, bread and other essential goods — we believe that they would take
advantage of these privileges well. And if they shared the same address with
other fellow disciples, easier and less costly would also be to share the meals
made with the groceries acquired individually or collectively.
If such economic aspects are fundamental in
the incipient genesis of these small community cells of students, they will be
no less psychological, cultural, social and moral aspects. Uprooted from the
family environment and their social environment of origin, the students of
Coimbra would think of the best formula to mitigate such inconveniences and,
according to logic, will have adhered spontaneously to community living,
compensatory at all levels. Life in common attenuates the situation of
uprooting, becomes more pleasant by the conviviality it enables, creates bonds
of solidarity and interdependence that lead to the defense of rights and
physical and moral integrity, against external and adverse intrusions, and also
allows the exchange of knowledge and experiences among community members. This
is our perspective on the genesis of the "Republics".
And, if it is true that the appealing "Republic" is recent, going
back to the beginning st. 19th century, it is no less true that this unique way
of living community, with all the evolution of centuries, has arrived, since
the time of the primitive "General Study", to our day.
When D. João III assumed the purpose of definitively establishing the
University in Coimbra, he too took all the steps to give the students the
necessary abode and the supplies enough, so that his life in Coimbra, without
other concerns, could be voted on to study and reflection. As to the measures
taken for this purpose, the royal charters of 12 July, 25 October, 8 November
1537 and 18 July 1541 are very enlightening.
The monarch not only encourages the construction of houses granting wide
exemptions of fora, fees and taxes, but he himself took the initiative to have
twelve addresses built in what would become the new street of S. Sebastião.
Now, the architecture of such houses, with eleven divisions (including a common
room) spread over two floors, having a small backyard with cistern, attached,
highlights the concern to provide addresses of the community type, where it
would be possible to accommodate eight to ten students. And the room for
community uses such as meals and the conviviality of tenants, which is still
the most important part of the house, in the current "Republics" was
not forgotten.
If the embryonic phase of the "Republics" dates back to the
Dionysian times, it is D. João III who, in some way, with these buildings, will
establish the "first republics", that is, communities of students who
share the same house, enjoying a level playing field and eventually sharing the
same meal. It is also with D. João III, that new possibilities for
accommodation and community life appear in Coimbra. We are talking about the
schools that, always accompanied by royal solicitude, begin to proliferate in the
city at this time. If, in general, they were the property of Religious Orders,
for their members to come to study at the University, there were also the
Colleges of Military Orders and colleges for poor and secular clerics. The
colleges absorbed, in addition to their own members, many other students who,
for the most part, did not have enough resources to study.
If tradition is built by habits and customs that are rooted over time and
if the use and custom are rooted in the repetition of certain actions, it was
with the advent of the colleges that many of the practices of the
administration of a "Republic" were born.
Since the Dionysian times, some students have been active as a taxman for a
bodeon who aimed at fair income. Many students with limited resources were
admitted to the schools to provide services to the collegiate community where
they were assigned by family members. They lived, as a general rule, in the
worst accommodations and would perform multiple tasks, on a turnover and
alongside other younger schoolchildren, such as serving at the table, fixing
dishes, lighting candles, making beds, sweeping the house, tidying rooms,
baking bread, etc.. Perhaps they would also manage the pantry, the shopping,
the cafeteria, the kitchen, etc., as assistants of the schoolgirls.
All these tasks and assignments will have greatly influenced how to
organize, manage, distribute tasks and make self-managed student communities
work.
On this subject, and advancing in time, Ribeiro Sanches, in 1763, traces to
us the following picture: "Every two or three students have one love, one
and sometimes three servants;(...)". This author will be referring to
small communities of schoolchildren with a certain economic power because,
other communities there would be in which the number of students would be much
higher. A careful analysis of registration records gives us an average of five
residents this season in cases of shared housing. However, Ribeiro Sanches
introduces a new element, the figure of the "loves" who will be very
close to the servant or "servant" of the "Republics" of the
twentieth century.
There are several authors who point to the emergence of the "Coimbrãs
Republics" for the early nineteenth century; among them are Teófilo Braga,
Borges de Figueiredo and Amílcar Ferreira de Castro. Indeed, if we think only
of the appealing "Republic", it will have arisen at that time, going
back to the vintista revolution and, more particularly, to the implementation
of the Decree of May 28, 1834, by Joaquim de António de Aguiar.
In fact, with the extinction of university colleges and other religiously
inspired institutions, a serious blow was made in academic accommodation,
significantly reducing the provision of abode for students and teachers,
because the decree of extinction was not accompanied by any policy of rehousing
or offer of alternatives. In this way, the number of students looking for
accommodation has grown exponentially and has also increased, with this, not
only the number of homes rented to students, but, particularly, the number of
schoolchildren per home. Some of these communities have integrated from eight
to eleven elements.
It is no wonder, therefore, that this is the time on which the researchers
who point to this period as the birth of the "Republics" are most often addressed, in order to
alleviate the housing crisis. However, it tells common sense to think that
these student communities cannot have been spontaneously generated at a given
time and for the specific reason that marked it.
The entire internal
organization of a "Republic", the group spirit, the type of community
domestic economy and all the other specificities inherent to the
"Republics" do not arise by spontaneous generation, but by the
accumulation of experiences based on the use, custom and tradition built over
centuries.
What was said of the times of D. Dinis and his successors, from the time of
D. João III, etc., is fundamental to understand all the evolution that occurred
until the nineteenth century, within the framework of these student family
cells. Let us say that this season has to mark some new elements in the
evolution of the "Republics": With the decrease in the supply of
housing, the number of communities of schoolchildren living in rented houses
increases; the number of members of each community also has a trend increase;
the internal organization, undergoes some readjustments derived from the new
times; the name of "Republic" appears, very appropriate also at the
time, and that should come from the fact that these family communities have a
government similar to that of the Republican states.
In its essential aspects it can be said that despite all the evolution of Portuguese society and, concomitantly, of the traditional academic society of Coimbra, the "Coimbra Republics" maintained the characteristics that presided over their origins and, for centuries abroad, others acquired, fruits of use, custom and tradition, constituting, as a whole, a building based on the organization, in the operation, in particularity and in plurality. It is all this ambience of "Life in the Republic" that we saw already in the twentieth century and that comes to be disturbed in its existence at the end of the forties.
A new and rude blow is struck over student housing at this time. The demolition of much of the "Alta" for the construction of the new buildings of the "University City" became such a serious situation that, in February 1948, it was ordered to suspend the order that determined the urgent eviction of all the houses of the "Alta" The demolition of much of the "Alta" for the construction of the new buildings of the "University City" became such a serious situation that, in February 1948, it was ordered to suspend the order that determined the urgent eviction of all the houses of the "Alta" where students resided. It's just that without immediate alternatives, how could students, in the middle of the year, find new homes where they could transfer. The same had happened with the Decree of Joaquim António de Aguiar.
The housing stock did not excel in excess. On the contrary, the shortcomings were quite visible. It was in this context and in the face of the serious problems faced by the students that the "Council of Republics" means a body, not of guardianship, but of agglutination around the "Ideal Repúblico", which would seek to respond to the difficulties of the "Republics" as a whole. But, from the camartelo of the "Alta" and some dispersion provoked by it, the public ideal prevailed and, I will almost say, strengthened.
After the storm, new "Republics" came to be founded, or
was this not the most traditional way of academic life and the safest bulwark
of its traditions.
Currently there are about thirty "Republics" existing in Coimbra.
And, if times have changed and Portuguese society has undergone great
transformations, these academic communities, evolving though, have remained
identical to themselves, constituting a kind of class within the academic
class, with their own problems, their own spirit and their specific interests.
Fonte:
https://www.uc.pt/rualarga/anteriores/19/16
REPÚBLICAS
DE COIMBRA
(tema do trabalho de bacharelato - 2007)
https://is.muni.cz/th/110008/ff_b/Republicas_de_Coimbra.doc.pdf
Definition of Republics
As for the definition of Republics, there is no concrete definition that
defines exactly and specifically their existence, but the following
characteristics are those that we can find in various sources relating to the
Republics trying to explain their essential:
- The Republic is
the set of students living in a domestic community, varying their number,
between six and twelve individuals;
- The Republic is
the community of students living in self-management and on their own communing
from the same house, from the same table, from the same spirit and lifestyle;
- The Republic,
in addition to designating the residence, also indicates the unity constituted
by the young people who live in it;
- The Republic
consists of a group of students and one or two employees;
They settle in a house and, at the end of each month, check how much they
must pay each, divided the expense among all. Every week, in other cases every
month, the "government" changes hands; each student is obliged to
take charge when it is his turn;
- Republics have
always been the most traditional form of academic life and the safest bulwark
of their traditions...
The Name Republic
"A Republic is a form of government where representative, usually
called president, is chosen by the people to be the head of the state and may
or may not accumulate with the executive branch. The form of election is
usually held by secret free vote, at regular intervals varying by
country."
(...) the word republic comes from the Latin Res publishes and means public
thing."
Another existing reason for this designation Republic states that this name
is inspired by the very meaning of the nominal locution Rés Publica, (which
means what belongs to all) explaining the main idea of the Republics.
Source/Link:
https://is.muni.cz/th/110008/ff_b/Republicas_de_Coimbra.doc.pdf
Republica
Prá-Kys-Tão
No sabemos muy bien que es esto, pero apatrullando
nos hemos encontrado el consulado de la república de Prakystao.
Como no tenemos npi de que es eso, nos
acercamos a preguntar…
– oigan, esto de la republica Prakystao, que carallo es ?, cortan ustedes cabezas ?
pa leer la pancarta, hay que zoomear sin miedo !
Source/Link:
https://lasbragasdemariantonieta.wordpress.com/2019/05/06/republica-pra-kys-tao/
Additional Link(s):
http://republicasdecoimbra.weebly.com/galerias.html
ΦΦΦ
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