page_title: Missal of the Academy of Sciences
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Missal of the Academy of Sciences / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Depiction of the Convent and Hospital of Jesus (Convento e Hospital de Jesus), in Lisbon, in an early 18th-century tile panel depicting a view of city. Currently in the National Tile Museum (Museu Nacional do Azulejo), in Lisbon, Portugal. Português: Representação do Convento e Hospital de Jesus, em Lisboa, num painel de azulejos do início do século XVIII com uma vista panorâmica da cidade. Actualmente no Museu Nacional do Azulejo, em Lisboa, Portugal.
context_page_description: The Missal of the Academy of Sciences is a notable Portuguese 17th-century Roman Pontifical codex, profusely illuminated by Estêvão Gonçalves Neto.
  Originally commissioned for João Manuel de Ataíde, at the time Bishop of Viseu, its iconographic programme reflects the ideas of the Counter-Reformation. Bishop Ataíde had it deposited in the library of the Convent of Our Lady of Jesus in Lisbon and, since 1834, it has belonged to the collection of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.
  It is widely considered the finest specimen of Portuguese miniature, and has been called by historian Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão a "veritable masterpiece of the national genius".
context_section_description: The work can be dated to c. 1616-1622, based on the several signatures that feature on the most important miniatures in the codex. Not much information about Estêvão Gonçalves Neto, the author of the illuminated missal, is available; however, it is known that he was, around 1610, chaplain to the Bishop of Viseu, João Manuel de Ataíde, only to become later Abbot of Cerejo, in Pinhel, near Guarda (1613–1618), and, later still, became a canon of the Viseu Cathedral on 8 October 1622. Whenever his signatures on the Missal do not feature a date, they invariably feature his ecclesiastical office at the time (from "STEPH. GL̃Z. ABBAS SEREIIENSIS" to "STE. CANON. VISEN"), which allows to date them with some degree of certainty.
  The codex was originally presented by Gonçalves Neto to Bishop Ataíde, whose coat of arms — that of the powerful Manuel family, Counts of Atalaia, under a bishop's green galero with six tassels on each side — features prominently on the frontispiece. At some point, the bishop had the book deposited in the library of the Convent of Our Lady of Jesus in Lisbon, of his founding and patronage.
  Following the dissolution of the monasteries and the nationalisation of their assets in 1834, the convent became the seat of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences; the Missal, along with the rest of the books in the library of the convent, became the property of the Academy of Sciences, and remains to this day in the library of the former convent.
  The Missal seems to have resurfaced in the 19th century, and is briefly referenced in some works about Portuguese art, such as Almeida Garrett's essay that accompanies his libertine poem O Retrato de Vénus (1821), Cirilo Volkmar Machado's Colecção de Memórias (1823), Francisco de São Luís Saraiva's Lista de Alguns Artistas Portugueses (1839), and Atanazy Raczyński's Les Arts en Portugal (1846). However, it was only following the International Exposition of 1867, when it was exhibited in Paris, that it rose to greater prominence: it caused such sensation that a faithful chromolithographic facsimile was soon after published by popular demand, following a public subscription that included nearly all the crowned heads and art academies in Europe. This facsimile, published by the Parisian firm Maciá & Cie. on behalf of the Portuguese government and with the approval of the vice-president of the Academy of Sciences, the Marquis of Ávila and Bolama, was dedicated to Ferdinand II of Portugal, himself a noted artist and connoisseur.
  The Missal last left the confines of the Academy of Sciences in 2016 for a monographic exhibition on Estêvão Gonçalves Neto in the National Museum of Ancient Art, "Estêvão Gonçalves Neto: The Last Illuminator"; Artur Anselmo, President of the Academy, has since made public the decision not to lend the Missal for exhibitions again, owing to its great value.
caption: The Convent of Jesus, as it appeared in the early 18th century (Great Panorama of Lisbon, Gabriel del Barco, National Azulejo Museum)
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