A Portuguese manor in rural Brazil or The saga of the enlightened Dom Frei Cipriano and the garden of the former episcopal palace in the late eighteenth century

This is a reconstruction of the career of bishop Cipriano de São José and the historical garden he built for his palace in Mariana, Minas Gerais, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The grounds, which, like most of their counterparts in Minas Gerais, contained an orchard and kitchen garden, underwent a major reform to fit the mold of the classical European garden. Orderly and showing aesthetic concern, they were an admirable space at the end of the colonial period, representing as they did the enlightened metropolitan elite’s growing interest in natural history and botany. A variety of documental sources were used to reconstruct the history of the grounds and the career of the person behind their design, the enlightened Dom Frei Cipriano de São José.

A t a time when the importance of green areas for assuring quality of life in today's ever more densely populated cities is gaining new recognition, the perceptions and comments contained in accounts by foreign travelers who visited Brazil in the nineteenth century are crucial for the restoration and conservation of gardens, kitchen gardens, private and public parks, and for the study of local vegetation.With the launch of Manual de intervenções em jardins históricos (Manual for interventions in historical gardens) in 2005, the Brazilian Institute for Historical and Artistic Heritage (Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional -Iphan, in Portuguese) is underlining the importance of protecting historical spaces previously deemed of secondary importance.With this new acknowledgement of the importance of historical gardens, especially those attached to private properties, which are rarely included in revitalization and conservation projects, they have attained a new level of perceived historical value, making them targets of specific initiatives and policies by heritage protection entities (Delphim, 2005). 1  The vegetation in the Americas fascinated the Portuguese, Dutch and French and the many other peoples that contributed to the history of Brazil during its colonial period and even after it gained independence.Expressions such as 'exotic', 'lush' and 'tropical treasure' are repeatedly used in travelers' accounts, ranging from Pero Vaz de Caminha to the canvases of Franz Post, as well as the extant travel journals of foreigners who came to Brazil's shores throughout the nineteenth century.
One traveler in particular, Frenchman Auguste de Saint-Hilaire, a botanist and entomologist who spent some time in the south and longer in the southeast of Brazil, was not only overwhelmed by the wealth of plant life and minerals in Brazil, but also spent time describing the gardens he saw in the towns and villages he visited in the early 1800s.With an eye for detail, this Frenchman, just like many of his counterparts, was engaged in the process of natural history research in vogue in the Europe of his day, inspiring them to set off on expeditions to different corners of the globe, especially the New World.In the case of Portugal's American colonies, when the Portuguese royal family moved to Rio de Janeiro (1808), the ports were opened up to friendly nations, providing a new incentive for scientific expeditions, especially after Prince Pedro married Austrian Archduchess Caroline Josefa Leopoldine.Having grown up in one of Europe's most illustrious courts, Brazil's future Empress was a devoted student of the natural sciences, striking up associations with some of the leading researchers of her day, including José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva. 2  In this article, the course taken by the gardens of the former Bishops' Palace in Mariana, Minas Gerais, is retraced, as is that of the person behind it, the Most Reverend Dom Frei Cipriano de São José, who governed from 1797 to 1817.Fragments and allusions to these topics were gathered from different documental sources, including letters, pictures, travelers' accounts, inventories, cook books, expense ledgers, and even the books on natural history and botany that belonged to the prelate and currently belong to Museum of Book (Museu do Livro), in Mariana.

The gardens in Minas Gerais and the foreigner's-eye view
Many were the travelers who followed in the footsteps of the Portuguese monarchs when they dropped anchor in Rio de Janeiro, and several were prepared to scale the mountains towards the former province of Minas Gerais.This captaincy had become famous for the discovery of gold and precious stones in its lands in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.Travelers' journals contain descriptions of the region, especially its animal and plant life and minerals.They also contain valuable observations about the formation of villages, their founding, population, administration, public buildings, monuments and public services, such as the water supply.They also describe private properties and the behavior and customs of the locals.
This was the backdrop to the visit by botanist and entomologist Saint-Hilaire (1975) 3 to province of Minas Gerais between 1816 and 1818.His writings about its residents' habits and behaviors are a precious historical record.Whenever he reached a town, he would describe the private homes there, paying particular attention to their grounds.
As in other areas of Brazil, the facades of town houses were adjoined, or else were separated by rock or clay brick walls.Behind the houses, however, there was much more space, often including extensive gardens, which generally contained a mix of flower beds, orchard and kitchen garden and were used to breed small animals.This was an attempt to transfer the common habit of growing crops in rural properties, smallholdings and farms to the town environment.According to Freyre (2002), the owners of town houses often reproduced the gardens, orchards and kitchen gardens commonly found in rural mansions, especially in the nineteenth century.
In his visit to different towns and villages in Minas Gerais, Saint-Hilaire (1975) noted that the houses almost always had gardens.Their kitchen gardens and orchards were a source fresh fruit and vegetables and medicinal herbs, which was particularly useful on the days when there were no street hawkers selling fruit and vegetables, or women carrying baskets laden with vegetables for sale.Although these houses usually had back gardens, they were often "disorganized and unsymmetrical" as noted the French naturalist.He described the gardens of Vila Rica, the provincial seat of government, as defying written description, built as they were "on a long chain of hills that border Ouro Preto river that forms its meanderings."According to Saint-Hilaire's account (1975, p.70; free translation from this edition), Most have a small, long, narrow garden that is very poorly tended.These gardens are bordered by a low wall that is normally covered with a huge quantity of ferns, grasses, moss, and usually form a series of terraces, one above the other, which on occasion combine to present a mass of greenery such as one does not see in our temperate climes.The views of these houses, in the midst of arid peaks and dense clumps of plants, are as varied as they are picturesque ... Far removed from the traveler's ideal, the grounds attached to the houses in Minas Gerais had priorities that went beyond mere aesthetics.For instance, it was to the gardens that the women -who rarely frequented the reception rooms -would go when visitors were received, especially outsiders.Saint-Hilaire (1975, p.96) comments that they inhabited the entrails of the houses, which men would rarely visit: "the gardens, which are always behind the houses, are a poor compensation for the women's captivity and, like the kitchens, are strictly off limits to outsiders" (Saint-Hilaire (1975, p.96; free translation from this edition).Freyre (2002, p.899) notes: "the gardens of Brazilian houses, while preserving Portuguese traditions, never had the strictness of their French or Italian counterparts; with a sense of usefulness and humanness outweighing any aesthetic.They were irregular, varied, full of surprises.This variety seems to have been learnt from the Chinese: it may have been the Portuguese who brought the Chinese garden fashion to Europe." 4  In areas further removed from the Vila Rica and Mariana, which formed the mining heart of the province, the gardens seem to have been better tended and increasingly numerous, such as at the old village of Tejuco, even if they continued to defy symmetry and showed little aesthetic sensibility (Saint-Hilaire, 1974, p.28).The Cartesian perspective of this particular traveler, with his taste for classical, ordered lines, contrasts with that of other foreigners, who were awestruck by the terraced gardens stretching up the hillsides.One of the first visitors (1809-1810) after the arrival of the Portuguese court in Rio was John Mawe, who describes the Minas Gerais gardens, especially those in Vila Rica, in quite different terms: The gardens here are laid out with great taste, and from the peculiarity of their construction present a curious spectacle.As there is scarcely a piece of level ground, even ten yards square, on the whole side of the mountain, the defect has been remedied by cutting spaces one above another at regular distances, and supporting them by low walls, the top of one being on a level with base of that next above it.An easy flight of steps leads from one level to the other.These terraces seemed to me to be the very kingdom of Flora, for never did I before see such a profusion of delicate flowers.Here were also excellent vegetables of every kind, such as artichokes, asparagus, spinach, cabbage, kidney-beans, and potatoes.There are many indigenous fruits which might be much improved by a better system of horticulture.The peach appears to be the only exotic fruit which has been hitherto introduced; it flourishes amazingly (Mawe, 1812, p.167-168).
Covering a great expanse of land, Minas Gerais was also home to a great variety of plant life, which could be encountered in its most far-flung parts.In a village called Barbacena, our traveler saw vines, peach trees, flowers from Europe such as carnations, scabiouses and pansies, and of course plenty of room given over for vegetables.The provincial capital, Vila Rica, which stood on high ground and often had cold, cloudy weather, was criss-crossed by gardens with orange trees, banana trees, coffee plants, leafy vegetables (especially kale) and some copses of Araucarias, while the most prestigious flowers were the carnation and the Bengal rose.In Mariana, which stood at a lower altitude than neighboring Vila Rica, there was a greater variety of fruits, especially pineapples, which grew naturally on the hillsides.Rocha (1995, p.96) confirms the variety of fruits in the episcopal town of Mariana in his Geografia histórica da capitania de Minas Gerais (Historical geography of the captaincy of Minas Gerais), noting that "[the city] Is healthy, the airs are temperate and it produces much fruit, such as: bananas, pineapples, papayas and oranges".Saint-Hilaire (1975) clearly saw the Minas Gerais landscape as being predominated by gardens which suffered from a dearth of regularity and order that were bordered by whitewashed stone or clay brick walls.They were not put off by the relief, spreading upwards from the foot of the hills, gaining a fine bird's-eye view over the towns and villages: houses which harbored different fruit trees, flowers and vegetables in exotic and flavorsome profusion in their gardens.

A quest for organized, aesthetic space: the gardens of the former Bishops' Palace in Mariana
On the route from Vila Rica to Mariana, at the entrance to the town from São Pedro hill in 1817, Saint-Hilaire (1975, p.79) was struck by the most beautiful garden he had seen in Minas Gerais, belonging to the Bishop's Palace.It was quite unlike the gardens he had seen at the foot of the mountains and on the hills of the towns he had been through.Indeed, it was the grounds of the episcopal palace that drew the visitor rather than the building itself, which was "very long, with nothing of note, whose interior contains the main living quarters and two wings."But he also wrote in his journal: "I have been praising its gardens and truly from the nearby high ground it seemed to me to have a regular design and be larger and better tended than all the others I have seen in the rest of the province" (p.59; free translation from this edition).
However, our foreigner was unable to visit the haven he had so appreciated from the nearby hills because the bishop had died shortly before and the clergymen, posted at the windows of the palace, refused him admission.If he wished to enter, he would have to request permission from the bishop who was the acting governor.At that moment Saint-Hilaire was not carrying the passport he had been given by the governor, which would have granted him access to the premises.Saint-Hilaire's (1975) emphasis on the regular lines and orderliness of the palace gardens in comparison with the other gardens he had seen on his travels nonetheless offers valuable information, which is not overlooked by later travelers, such as Burmeister (1980) and Luccock (1975), who make reference to the fine landscape.
While Saint-Hilaire was denied access to the palace, there was another who did indeed record its fine grounds in detail.Father José Joaquim Viegas de Menezes painted two watercolors on paper in 1809, which, while depicting the palace, give precedence to its small private grounds, demonstrating their relative importance over and above the building itself.Alongside a third watercolor entitled Prospecto da cidade de Mariana (Prospect of the town of Mariana), they once hung in the rich interior of the palace and now belong to the collection at the city's Museum of Sacred Art (Museu de Arte Sacra).
This bishops' residence, also known as the episcopal palace, was first occupied as such in the 1750s, when the first bishop of Mariana was transferred from the palace in which he had lived in the center of the town since he was ordained in 1748.The new residence had been donated by a parishioner, and became the official residence of Dom Frei Manuel da Cruz until his death in 1764.The building stood on the outskirts of the municipal seat and had extensive grounds overlooking Seminário stream (formerly Intendência stream) with its small bridge leading to Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte seminary, where the province's clergy were educated.In February 1749, upon its donation by "wealthy landowner and miner" José de Torres Quintanilha, the property comprised "a country house with seven houses belonging to it on Olaria Road in this Town, which face part of the road with the public highway that goes from this Town to the parish of Guarapiranga and other parts; and back onto the stream that flows behind Intendência, and are contiguous to the lands of the Council, or whomever they are bound to border," (deeds of donation registered on February 27, 1749, cited in Trindade, 1953, p.374).
The Olaria Mansion (Chácara da Olaria), as it was called, was donated by Quintanilha to the Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte seminary, which the first bishop of Mariana was soon to found, with the wish that the benefactor could live there and that after his death three masses for his soul would be held each week in perpetuity at the institution's chapel.It soon became known as the Olaria Palace or even the New Palace, in reference to the building in the center of the town formerly occupied by the bishop in his early years.Like all rural properties, the manor, which became the official residence of the first bishop of the captaincy of Minas Gerais, had "all the thorny fruit trees and other kinds to be found in the grounds, vegetable patches and such like" (Trindade, 1953, p.374).It can be concluded that it was much like all the other dwellings that Saint-Hilaire (1975) saw on his travels around Minas Gerais.
After the death of Dom Frei Manuel da Cruz in 1764, the residence stood empty for 16 years before being occupied by his successor, who took office through the mediation of his proxy in August 1779 and was instated as the bishop the following year.Dom Frei Domingos da Encarnação Pontével, born in the urban parish of Santarém, Portugal, brought fresh ideas to the diocese, while also carrying on the formative work undertaken by Dom Frei Manuel da Cruz in expanding and consolidating the role of the seminary in providing initial instruction for the captaincy's clergy.In material terms, aside from the reforms and building of new wings for the institution, he paid special attention to the episcopal palace.
In his influential book Arquidiocese de Mariana (The archdiocese of Mariana), Father Trindade (1929) mentions the expense ledgers kept at Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte seminary, to which the Olaria Mansion was linked, stating that several payments were made to stonemasons, carpenters, painters and other workers responsible for extending the palace.In his first two years at the head of the diocese, the new bishop hired the services of master stonemason and carpenter José Pereira Arouca 5 to repair the seminary.In 1782, he was again hired to repair the frontispiece of the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte, annexed to the institution.It was in February of this year that the "first payment for the new extension of the Palace" was recorded (Livro de contas..., fl.13v).This process, which began in 1782, continued at great cost for another three years.In 1789 and 1791, Arouca was again paid for construction work at the palace.With his labor and that of the many slaves he owned, the building was extended, especially the fine, ornamented right-hand part, using large blocks of stone to decorate the floor, the foundations and richly worked verandas.
In June 1792, ten years later, there is an entry for payment to José Pereira Arouca for whitewashing services, followed by another entry the following month, which is the last record of payment to him, suggesting that the main part of the work had been finished and that painting the building marked the last stage of the reforms.
The expense ledgers for the building works in the palace show that it was during the government of Dom Frei Domingos da Encarnação Pontével (1777-1793) of the Order of the Preachers that the stately home underwent its most radical transformations, and that part if not all of the extension and reform work was paid for directly by the bishop.Underneath the list of expenses there appears a donation for the same sum as the expenses from 'His Grace' in the list of the institution's revenues.In the expense ledger for October 1784, for instance, the seminary administrator paid "José Pereira Arouca 1,176 eighths [of gold] and 7 vinténs for the extension of the palace," while in the revenues listed straight after the expenses there is the following entry: "that His Grace gave 1,176 eighths [of gold] and 7 vinténs as a donation to the Seminary" (Livro de contas..., fl.29v) i.e. the same amount as was paid to the stonemason.This shows the link between the episcopal residence and the seminary.Since the time of the government of the first bishop, Manuel da Cruz, it had been common practice to pay rent for the palace to the institution's administrator which went towards its upkeep.
The extensions and reforms instigated by Dom Frei Domingos were probably not only for the palace building.Improvements must also have been made to the grounds, which at this time had a kitchen garden and orchard.Certainly, the skilled José Pereira Arouca would have taken care to channel the different waters that flowed through the grounds and its expanded gardens, for the area still tends to be boggy.It is recorded that José Pereira Arouca was responsible for "landfilling and digging ditches round the orchard" (Trindade, 1953, p.391).
Two years later, the administration of Dom Domingos came to an end when he died at his second residence in Vila Rica.While the episcopal palace awaited the arrival of his successor, the gardens -probably the orange orchard and other fruit trees, and the kitchen garden -still bore fruit until August 1794.One month later, a black man was hired -it was not stated whether he was a slave or a freedman -to work in the "palace gardens", and again in the rainy period from November of that year to January 1795, this time with the detail that for "the labor by a negro to weed the Palace gardens", three eighths and three quarters was paid (Livro de contas..., fls.120, 122v).
It was Franciscan monk Dom Frei Cipriano de São José, of the Reformed Order of St. Peter of Alcântara, from Nossa Senhora da Serra da Arrábida monastery, who instigated the embellishment of the gardens, creating a fine geometric garden and building other improvements.Among the considerable baggage he brought from Lisbon, there was pottery, liturgical objects, apricots, furniture and carriages, many of which were gifts from the Portuguese court on the order of Queen Maria I and her son.Those who entered the palace chapel at the end of his administration would have seen four large images of Our Lady, St. Francis, St. Peter of Alcantara and St. John, alongside ones of St. Cipriano and Jesus on the Cross, as well as several paintings (Inventário..., 1817, fl.6v).The signs of worship of the hermit saint, St. Peter of Alcantara, the Franciscan symbol of the monks of Arrábida, as well as the saints linked to his name, are evidence of the care also taken with the house itself and the devotion to the sacred pantheon of the Franciscan priest.When Dom Frei Cipriano was appointed bishop of Mariana in October 1799, he put his efforts into improving both the palace and its gardens.
Before he crossed the Atlantic and upon being ordained in Lisbon in 1798, the bishop wrote to the secretary of the Overseas Council (Conselho Ultramarino), Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, saying he was up-to-date on the state of his diocese and was making his preparations for the journey (Cipriano de São José, 29 nov.1797, fl.1).He reported that after the death of Domingos Pontével, all the furniture and books from the palace library had been confiscated and sold by the Judge of the Deceased and Absent (Juízo dos Defuntos e Ausentes), and asked the Overseas Council for permission for them to be repurchased and put back in the palace.
With this in mind, I have started to undertake the necessary preparations, not just for my own person, and journey, which are many, and of great cost; but also for my house in Mariana; for it is told to me with certainty, that all the furniture from my Predecessor has been removed, and taken away from it, leaving me with nothing but walls, and floors.
The remaining things that I need are under order to be ready by the end of October ... (Cipriano de São José, 3 ago.1798, fl.1v).
As such, when the bishop reached Mariana the following year, it was with a large amount of luggage.Even today, many of the pieces he took, especially the Chinese porcelain, are held by the archdiocese collection and can be viewed at the Museum of Sacred Art of Mariana.
The objects brought by Cipriano and the building work undertaken on his house led scholars such as historian Diogo de Vasconcelos (1935) to state that "it was the Most Reverend Cipriano who extended the palace and had the extensive grounds decorated with gardens, fonts and artworks," (cited in Trindade, 1953, p.163), a thesis that was later corrected by Father Trindade, who, in his study of the ecclesiastical documents, discovered that the Franciscan bishop had not been responsible for extending the buildings, but just for adapting its grounds.Dom Cipriano was renowned for his sobriety and exemplary manners.He had refined tastes and enjoyed good food, as can be seen from his portrait.He took office just before turning 56.He had a wealth of furniture, oriental porcelain, silverware, paintings, sculptures, maps and globes installed in the palace, expanded the library considerably, and had the walls of the private chapel covered with works of art.Like a nobleman, he had portraits of his predecessors and himself painted on the walls of the main wing, probably by his artist and friend Father Viegas, who also painted the watercolors of the palace.He also had two highly ornate carriages.Alongside the members of his order who accompanied him to Brazil, Cipriano's household included a servant responsible for ceremonial functions and for accompanying officials to his presence.
José Carrato (1963, p.131) neatly sums up the noble figure of the bishop of Mariana: "This ecclesiastical prince of the eighteenth century could not have better expressed his affinity with a generation that was rediscovering nature, if not but to have taken the liberty of having his own 'walled garden', his grounds.And he did indeed so, in all its beauty and exuberance, as recorded by his friend and companion Father Viegas de Menezes It would not be wrong to state that the improvements to the grounds of the official residence went beyond continuing the physical reforms undertaken by his predecessor, Dom Domingos.The newly instated bishop was of a generation enamored of natural history, especially botanical learning.When he was ordained, Cipriano was to meet one of the most important botanists of the Portuguese Empire, Father Joaquim Veloso de Miranda.Born in the mid 1700s in the village of Inficionado (today Santa Rita Durão), within the diocese of Mariana, the priest was from a local mining and landowning family.Brother Santa Rita Durão (1722-1784), known for his authorship of the poem "Caramuru" published in 1781, was his nephew.When he became a priest, Joaquim Veloso went to the city to pursue his studies, where he graduated in canonic law to follow in the footsteps of his uncle and many other of his countrymen from wealthy backgrounds.
Father Veloso de Miranda reached Coimbra in the throes of the university reform instigated by the Marquis of Pombal in 1772.There, he came into contact with future naturalists, especially Domingos Vandelli 6 , and discovered a fascination for natural history, a field in which he would become a leading researcher, giving up his study of canonic law.He took a degree in the arts and became a doctor of philosophy in 1778, staying on at Coimbra as a substitute lecturer in natural sciences and chemistry.He pursued several lines of research in the area, including Brasiliensium plantarum fasciculus and Descriptio animalum quorundam brasiliensium, and soon became a member of the Royal Academy of Science of Lisbon.
Years later, Joaquim Veloso de Miranda returned to Brazil, although he kept up his cultural and scientific exchange with the Imperial capital.His close contact with Domingos Vandelli was acknowledged when the Italian scholar named one of the plants studied by Father Joaquim after him (vellosia), as published in Vandelli's 1788 work, Florae lusitanicae et brasiliensis specimen (Trindade, 1943, p.345-346).
In Minas Gerais, Joaquim Veloso de Miranda kept up his research into botany and chemistry, and was put in charge of "making collections of natural objects for the Royal Museum" (cited Veiga, 1998, p.708) by Queen Maria I.The museum was in the Ajuda botanic garden and was run by Vandelli.Miranda became one of the most eminent of clergymen in Minas Gerais in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.He was an illustrious gentleman, a researcher who explored the country to study and form a collection of animal and plant species and daily objects used by the indigenous peoples, which he sent to the Court "in three large cases and in one most of the birds and other animals that the aforementioned naturalist has been able to acquire and dissect" (Carrato, 1968, p.189).
A member of the Minas Gerais church, Father Veloso de Miranda engaged in several natural history studies, as was common in his day.In a quest to apprehend the economic potential of the colony's natural resources, he went beyond the remit of the botanist and collector to carry out experiments on minerals and crops with a view to filling gaps in the availability of products, and also with an eye to developing the region's economy.He was also a member of the Royal Academy of Science of Lisbon, instrumental in the Portuguese Empire's political reform, whose charter stated that "the first step of a nation is to know the lands it inhabits, what they contain, what they produce, and what they are capable of" (cited in Segawa, 1983, p.149).After 1772, the members of the University of Coimbra and the academy accounted for the majority of the ruling elite during the Viradeira period, under Queen Maria I.
When he took office in Mariana Cathedral in 1799, Cipriano de São José met Father Joaquim Veloso, who had recently been appointed secretary to the government of the Minas Gerais captaincy. 7In Igreja, iluminismo e escolas mineiras coloniais (Church, enlightenment and schools in colonial Minas Gerais), Carrato (1968, p.189) reports that in the grounds behind his residence in Vila Rica, "on Rua de São José, not far from the Contos, [Mirando had] his tea plantation brought from India."The governor of the captaincy, Bernardo José de Lorena, commissioned the botanist to set up a botanic garden for Vila Rica, following the orders of the Prince Regent in 1799 (Lorena, 20 nov. 1799). Carrato (1971, p.25) states that it was Joaquim Veloso de Miranda himself who planned the Vila Rica botanic garden, citing a topographic map dated 1799 he found in the Overseas Archives in Lisbon (Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino), and could also have been active in the project to reform the gardens of the episcopal palace.
The first botanic garden to be created in Brazil had been on the initiative of Count Maurício de Nassau in Recife, Pernambuco, during the Dutch occupation of the northeast.He had the garden and Friburgo palace built between 1637 and 1644, but the initiative fell by the wayside when the administration of the Dutch Republic came to an end.A policy of creating botanic gardens in Portugal's American colonies was only introduced in the late eighteenth century 8 , when instructions were sent to have ones established in Belém, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Olinda, Ouro Preto, Goiás and São Paulo.The first of these was in Belém, created in 1796, which became a leading agent in the scientific exchange needed to organize and plant different species.In neighboring French Guyana, botany had already been consolidated a century earlier with Habitation Royale des Épiceries, better known as Jardin La Gabrielle (Dean, 1998), providing several plant species for the botanic garden of Grão-Pará that were later sent to other Portuguese-Brazilian institutions, including the gardens in Olinda and Rio de Janeiro (Sanjad, 2001, p.3).
In the mid to late 1700s, Portugal's reformist policies were marked by the introduction of botanic gardens in Portugal and later in Brazil, the main aim being to take advantage of the empire's natural resources to develop Portugal's economy.As a consequence, the Portuguese state started to channel its efforts into natural science as of the middle of the century, especially when Sebastião de Carvalho e Melo was appointed the Emperor's minister, and later when Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho was appointed Minister and Secretary of State for the Navy and Overseas Domains (1796-1799) during the reign of Maria I. Other initiatives to boost the economic and scientific development of the Portuguese state were the university reform in Coimbra (1772), which included a new course in natural philosophy, whose leading exponent was naturalist Domingos Vandelli, the creation of the Royal Academy of Science of Lisbon (1779) and other government initiatives (Varela, 2006).
The select scholarly elite who studied at Coimbra included a certain number of scholars born in Brazil, including Father Joaquim Veloso de Miranda, José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, José Álvares Maciel, Manuel da Câmara and Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira.
The last of these was appointed by the Crown, on the advice of Vandelli, to undertake a voyage that resulted in the publication of Viagem filosófica às capitanias do Grão Pará, Rio Negro, Mato Grosso e Cuiabá (Philosophical travels to the captaincies of Grão Pará, Rio Negro, Mato Grosso and Cuiabá) (Pádua, 2004), while Doctor Joaquim Veloso de Miranda, also a naturalist, took on varied duties in the captaincy of Minas Gerais.The Portuguese Empire depended on Brazilian Portuguese educated at Coimbra to administrate the state and introduce its reformist policies.
Studies into Brazil's landscape history reveal that the Vila Rica gardens near the Treasury Office (Casa dos Contos) were expanded and reformed in the following century, around 1825 (Segawa, 1983, p.157), as part of the Imperial policy for the newly independent state of Brazil.
Dom Frei Cipriano's interest in natural landscape, which marked him out as a thinking man of his day, can be seen clearly from the library at the Mariana palace.Just five days after his death, the executor started the painstaking work of listing the contents of the mansion, which included several tomes on natural history and botany from the library.It is no surprise when we look at the inventory that the first books listed are on botany.Just a few of the many titles are: Dictionnaire élémentaire de botanique, by Bulliard; Description des plantes de l'Amerique, by Charles Plumier; Observationum botanicorum, by Nicolai Jacquin; A alographia dos alkalis fixos, by Father José Mariano Veloso; Histoire des plantes, by Fusée-Auble; Elementa botanica, by Necker; Rei Herbariae, by Tournefort; and Species plantarum, by Carolus Linnaeus.The library also contained several volumes of Systema naturae by Lineu, a leading botanist who created the natural system and the system of the theory of 'natural economy', by which he defended the importance of all species for environmental balance.Systema naturae was crucial for identifying and classifying plant species (Inventário..., 1817, fls.23v-40).As an administrator of a large diocese and agricultural properties, knowledge of botany and cultivation techniques must have been of use to the bishop.His academic learning also served him well when he provisionally took over the government of the captaincy.
When in Portugal, Dom Frei Cipriano had lived in a Franciscan monastery with extensive natural gardens on the southern slopes of the fine Arrábida mountains between Setúbal and Azeitão near Lisbon.The spectacular mountains are a landmark for the metropolitan region, diving into the ocean waters with a view of Tejo in the background.The so-called Old Convent (Convento Velho), which was actually small, rustic caves in the rocks, had been founded as early as the sixteenth century at the site of a chapel dating back to the thirteenth century.The former cells of the chapel formed the structure for the compound, which was considerably extended in the seventeenth century.It was in these unique dwellings cut into terraces on the mountainside and adjoined by stairways, with chapels, cells, refectory, small gardens and fonts linked by steps and patios that the future bishop of Mariana and his brethren lived, contemplating the work of nature.Brother Cipriano's feelings are expressed clearly in one of his letters to the Overseas Council, which was responsible for all matters concerning Portugal's colonies.Writing to the Minister of State, he said: "Your Excellency knows, that I did not seek out the position of Bishop of Mariana, nor did I pursue honors or riches, I lived contentedly, and at peace in the state, which I undertook.It was Your Majesty who was assigned to appoint me and not heeding my entreaties, which I humbly set forth, and respect, I subjected myself as a faithful vassal, to Royal Orders, and I am the obedient Bishop of Mariana" (Cipriano de São José, 25 out.1798, fl.1).
Previously, the friar had been surrounded by the landscape of the monastery of his order on the outskirts of Lisbon, which he left when he preached at the Royal Chapel of Bemposta and when he taught at São Pedro de Alcântara convent school in the district of Alcântara, Lisbon, which was also connected to the brethren.The old monastery on Arríbida served as a template for many others in Portugal and even for the splendid Mafra palace convent, built by João V, which diverged from the simplicity and unpretentiousness of the original model.The first Franciscans from the mountain range defended and preached a monastic life of contemplation, the privation of worldly goods and isolation (Ferreira, Benito, 2006).Brother Cipriano, however, was of refined habits.
Upon leaving his homeland and after the sea voyage and overland travels through Rio de Janeiro to his diocese in Minas Gerais, Cipriano took several months to reform his mansion.It was only after six months in Mariana that the newly ordained bishop wrote his first letter to Prince Regent João VI.

Sir
Your Royal Highness is addressed by the Bishop of Mariana, who, upon his arrival at his residence on the first day of November of seventeen hundred and ninety-nine, was unable immediately to execute Your Highness's Royal Orders concerning the duties incumbent upon the person of the of Bishop, this for many reasons.First; because the Episcopal House, which immediately after the death of the Previous Prelate, had been stripped [?] of all its furniture by the Department of the Deceased and Absent [Junta dos Defuntos e Ausentes], was still in great disarray; crammed with Officials, and workers, and for this reason incapable of being lived in with decency, or with the peace of spirit so necessary to he who governs (Cipriano de São José, 25 maio 1800, fl.1).
The residence went through major reforms in order to receive the bishop with the dignity and comfort required for the tasks of administrating such a large diocese.The building repairs were succeeded by repairs to the library premises and continued, especially in 1802, when the "stonemason [known as] Quinta", whose full name was Francisco Alves Quinta, received on June 18th payment for his services in the palace (Livro de contas..., fl.188v).It was probably between 1801 and 1809 -the date of the watercolors by Father Viegas de Menezes -that the garden was landscaped and embellished, including the Samaritan font sculpted in soapstone and, according to Vasconcelos (1947), dating 1802, which was probably set in the grounds by the master stonemason Francisco Quinta.
The watercolors by Father Viegas are visual documents which guide us through the beauty of the spacious grounds.On walking down three steps from the residence's veranda, we come across a small classical garden with eight geometric flowerbeds lined with curbstones and in the middle a font, which could be octagonal, with a "high spout"; the area was surrounded by a box hedge (Figure 2).On the right-hand side, some tall coconut palms stand out from the midst of a clump of low-growing trees.Vasconcelos (1935, p.86) states: "the walls were clothed in ivy and the paths decorated with symbolic figures, which gave the rose bushes and lilies a poetic tone of Mythological antiquity."

Moacir Rodrigo de Castro Maia
As one turns left out of the central walkway, one goes through a copse of small and medium-sized trees and into another area, where the ground is uneven and which has eight geometrical flower beds and a large font in the middle (Figure 3).These may have contained vegetables and flowers that would also have been used to highlight different colors, as was common in some French-inspired gardens.

The course of Frei Cipriano's scholarly garden: from neglect to revival
The grounds of the manor house formerly owned by Quintanilha were ideal for growing and conserving plants and especially for building and ornamenting a classical garden, since they had the advantage of many natural water sources coming from the hill where São Pedro church stood.In order to take advantage of these, a font was built near the second garden in one of its recesses.The bishop had a sculpture made out of soapstone, portraying a passage from the Bible about the Samaritan woman, which is presumed to be by Aleijadinho.It was to this beautiful, secluded spot that the bishop would retire to recite the Breviary and get away from the hustle and bustle of his duties."The lush date palms and the leafy creeping plants, whose roots reach down to the dampness of the well, offset the distant arid, rocky hillsides where the town can be seen.Around this font, one can smell the aroma of the violets and strawberries that remain from the time of Frei Cipriano," notes Vasconcelos (1935, p.86).
It was another Vasconcelos (1947), author of Breviário histórico e turístico da cidade de Mariana (Historical and tourist book of the town of Mariana), who brings us priceless descriptions in the chapters on the Old Bishops' Palace and the Samaritan Well, even though he was there at a time when the former palace was already in a state of decline.Vasconcelos (1947) wrote his tourist guide at a time when the old town buildings were being listed by the national heritage protection service (formerly Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, or Sphan; now Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, or Iphan 9 ).
The building, which had been improved at the end of the eighteenth century under the orders of Dom Frei Domingos and the work by Dom Frei Cipriano, stumbled between periods of upkeep and neglect during the 1800s, especially when there was no bishop (1817-1820, 1835-1844, 1875-1877, 1896-1897).It seems to have undergone some reforms, and also received new furniture donated by the provincial government of Minas Gerais for a visit by Pedro II to Mariana in 1881, during the period of Antônio Maria Correa de Sá e Benevides as the bishop (Correspondência..., [1881]).It was in its gardens, more precisely in its font, that the Emperor bathed while he was in the town. 10By the early twentieth century, the state of decline had become even more marked.Dom Silvério Gomes Pimenta (the first archbishop) had to cover the considerable costs of the diocese when the empire came to an end and the republican period brought in new reforms, putting an end to the state sponsorship of the church.
Under the inspiration of the urban developments in Brazil in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Helvécio Gomes de Oliveira, who took office as archbishop in 1922, built a new residence alongside São Pedro church, which he called Vila Getsemani.He ordered a major reform to be made of the derelict, old, insalubrious former Bishops' Palace of Mariana so it could house the Municipal Archdiocese School, inspired by the Pedro II schools established in Rio de Janeiro. 11Thus, by the "skilled, magical hand of a Monsignor Nogueira" (Trindade, 1929(Trindade, , p.1454) and in keeping with modern demands of education and hygiene, the former mansion of the Bishops of Mariana is also completely transformed and adapted for such an edifying end, Moacir Rodrigo de Castro Maia complete with well-ventilated, well-lit dormitories on the upper floor, airy, sunlit classrooms for lessons on the lower floor, as well as spacious outdoor areas for the pupils' recreation.This is all crowned by the fine Chapel, which was built from the Throne room and the former guest rooms and adjacent hallways, thanks to the magical wand of Monsignor Nogueira who knows how to turn old buildings into truly modern constructions, as is presently the building of the Archdiocese School of Mariana ... (Boletim Ecclesiástico, abr. 1928, p.114).
First published in 1932, Mariana, a novel by Lima Júnior (1966), portrays the former town precisely at the time when Helvécio Gomes de Oliveira first arrived.The small town which was home to poet Alphonsus de Guimarães 12 is depicted in the book with the same air as by the symbolist poet: melancholy, run-down, conservative, downcast.The Bishops' Palace is portrayed thus by one of the characters in the novel: "In a valley below the town is the archiepiscopal palace.How hideous!An unrefined, outdated building with no architectural design and thick, blackened walls ..." (p.91-92). 13Offset against this vision of stagnation of the former town and its buildings comes the arrival of the archbishop, heralding the winds of modernity envisaged for Brazil in the 1920s.Vasconcelos's (1947) text was written at a time when the former Bishops' Palace was "in ocium cum dignitate and seems doomed to ruin" (p.69-74).Later, the building housed the archdiocese's printing works, which published not only ecclesiastical pamphlets, but the renowned Folhinha de Mariana with its weather forecasts.Meanwhile, Vasconcelos's predictions about the prospects for the building came true when part of it collapsed at the end of the 1990s.In a photograph of the recently built Maior São José seminary from some time between the late 1930s and early 1940s, below the center of the image, the former Bishops' Palace can be glimpsed between the trees, with a low wall closing off a small patio just behind the veranda (Figure 4).All the fine walls that had bordered the gardens are gone, while the Samaritan font, which stood there neglected "for over a century, given over to the elements" and strangled "by the vegetation was ... [transferred] in a timely manner by Father Helvécio to the front garden of Maior seminary, where it will rightly" remain (Vasconcelos, 1947, p.75).
The painting by Aleijadinho was kept at São José seminary, marking the entrance hall of the imposing building constructed by the new archbishop, with its "columns of reinforced concrete that serve as a frame, completely out of keeping with the backdrop and the composition of such a fine mural", which "unfortunately, exposed as it is, to the irreverence of vandalism, its extremely fine reliefs had been spoilt, often serving as a target for the thoughtless 'stone-throws' of lizard pursuers" (Vasconcelos, 1947, p.75).With pieces of masonry missing and minor deformations, the work was listed as national heritage in the book of Fine Arts held by Sphan (today's Iphan) on December 19th 1949.After the creation of the Museum of Sacred Art of Mariana, the Samaritan font was transferred there in 1962 and now stands in the museum's entrance hall (Souza, 1984, p.171).
Water is a founding element in the formation and upkeep of a garden landscape.Not only does it literally sustain plant and animal life, but it also metaphorically represents the spring of life, purification.Biblically and ritually speaking, the water of baptism both cleanses and gives life.With this transcendental, magical force, the representation of the font in the Christian world is often recalled in the story of the Samaritan woman: "When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Will you give me a drink?'; 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life'" (João,4,. The Samaritan font is a reference that is often found in religious spaces and also in private houses.In the Arrábida monastery, where Dom Frei Cipriano lived, there is a fine font built below the church, which served as "a cool retreat and place for meditation".In "1715, [year] in which the best known sources and celebrated rivers [of Portugal] dried up", it "always remained" (Ferreira, Benito, 2006, p.131-132).It is surprising, perhaps, to think that the fine font at the Portuguese monastery, decorated with designs using pebbles and shells, which even today attracts visitors, should have reappeared at Dom Cipriano's new residence.But it would be wrong to imagine that this particular theme for the font in Minas Gerais was the monk's idea.Antônio Francisco Lisboa, or Aleijadinho, who is believed to have sculpted the soapstone font at the Bishops' Palace, probably also produced a number of other works inspired by the same story for private homes and churches in Minas Gerais. 14For instance, the fine workings of the pulpit (on the Epistle side) in Nossa Senhora do Carmo de Sabará church depict the story of Christ and the Samaritan woman in the central section (Jorge, 1984).
Besides devoting himself to his work in the Portuguese manor in Brazilian lands, apparently rarely leaving his episcopal palace, Dom Frei Cipriano spent his free time in his library, researching botany and tending to his refuge.It was thanks to his great interest in botany that he was sought out by Colonel Antônio Veloso de Miranda shortly after the death of his brother, renowned scholar Father Joaquim Veloso de Miranda, to offer him some books from his collection.Among the precious works said to have been left for Dom Cipriano to peruse were Dicionário dos termos técnicos de história natural by acclaimed botanist Domingos Vandelli; and Flora lusitanica; Dictionnaire de jardinier français and Quinografia portuguesa by another eminent botanist, Father José Mariano, himself from Minas Gerais (Inventário..., 1817, fls.84v-85v). 15 The bishop's zealous studies and the care he took of his grounds can be traced back to the time he lived in the monastery near Lisbon.In another letter to the Overseas Minister, Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, during his preparations for the Atlantic crossing, he mentions a request: "in the same aforementioned letter I also reminded you of the land, or plots of land, for me occupy myself with care during the time off from my main duties ... Monastery on March 5th [1799].Father Cypriano Bishop of Mariana" (Cipriano de São José, March 5th, 1799, fl.1).Luckily, he was able to fulfill his desire in the New World in his residential palace, where he lived, governed and remained to the end of his days.The reserved style in which he was depicted probably reflects his dedication to studies, as the illustrious gentleman he was, under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment in his education in the capital of the Portuguese Empire.
Between 2004 and 2007 -two hundred years after it was built -the former episcopal palace of Mariana was restored, uncovering some remnants of the classical gardens that drew the attention of travelers in times past, including Saint-Hilaire.On July 4th 2007, the Federal University of Ouro Preto encountered several archaeological finds in the main garden, such as a low wall, flagstones and some steps.Shortly afterwards, in the area that bordered the second garden, a fine irrigation channel, flagstones and font were encountered.On July 10th of the same year, the directors of the university's institute of humanities and social sciences officially notified Iphan about the findings in the grounds of the restored palace (Ofício do diretor..., 10 jul. 2007).

Final considerations
When Auguste Saint-Hilaire visited Minas Gerais province in 1817, his Cartesian aesthetic sensibilities were offended by the landscape he encountered on his travels across Brazil.The Episcopal Palace of Mariana, or rather, its gardens, stood out from their surroundings in the old mining town.In noting the beauty and area of land it occupied on the outskirts of the municipal seat, the foreign naturalist went beyond just focusing on the physical dimensions of the area to reveal something more about the person behind its design and his generation.The French botanist identified in these private grounds a concern with regularity and symmetry and a desire to order natural and artistic elements.The bishop was from a generation which was enamored of natural history, especially botany.
The fact that Dom Frei Cipriano, bishop of Mariana, was a keen student of botany can be seen from the books in his extensive library and from his contact with botanist and priest Joaquim Veloso de Miranda.Ultimately, the reformulation of the palace grounds, turning it from a simple country home into a landmark in the Minas landscape, with the construction of a fine, expressive, erudite garden, is the supreme example of his links to his generation's quest for scholarly reform and its rediscovery of the importance of nature.His private garden, a place of refuge and contemplation, placed him amongst the highest, most engaged members of the Court of Queluz during the government of Maria I.
After the death of Cipriano de São José in 1817, the year in which Saint-Hilaire visited Brazil, the area entered a period of decline, the result of several years without the presence of a bishop.The palace gardens gradually became overgrown in the nineteenth century, returning to what they had been previously: a "colonial garden' with its "fruit trees and other kinds to be found in the grounds, vegetable patches and such like".The death of the garden also represents the death of the reformist ideals that marked the administration of Dom Frei Cipriano.
With the discovery of fragments of the landscaped grounds of the episcopal palace, research into the history of the garden could contribute towards a reconstruction of the period and safeguard the existing remains.The preservation of green areas, which is so important for the quality of life in towns and cities, and the legacy of the scholarly bishop, Cipriano, justify the protection of the extensive grounds attached to the former Bishops' Palace of Mariana.

NOTES
1 It is generally accepted that it was as of the early 1980s, when Fundação Pró-Memória in Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro was created, that Brazil's historical gardens started to be the object of specific public policies drawn up by Iphan, "with criteria analogous to those adopted for the preservation of other cultural assets" (Delphim, 2005, p.8), reflecting international efforts to protect gardens, as set out in The Florence Charter of 1982.
2 José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva was born in Santos and lived most of his life in Europe.He graduated from the University of Coimbra after the 1772 reform instigated by the Marquis of Pombal.He was strongly influenced by Italian naturalist Domingos Vandelli.Under the patronage of the Portuguese state, he carried out in-depth studies in mineralogy, traveling to many European countries over a period of some ten years.His legacy is not only the contribution he made to the process of political autonomy of Brazil, but a number of studies into natural history, especially those which address environmental issues (Pádua, 2000).
3 Auguste de Saint-Hilaire was born in Orleans, France, in 1779, where he died in 1853. 4All quotations from works and documents in Portuguese have been freely translated into English.
5 José Pereira Arouca was Portuguese.He became the main constructor of the 'baroque landscape' in Mariana in the second half of the eighteenth century.A master stonemason and carpenter, he built fine religious buildings, palaces, private homes, and several public works.He was also hired to appraise the services rendered by other craftsmen (Veiga, 1999;Vasconcelos, 1947). 6Italian naturalist Domingos Vandelli (1735-1816) was one of the leading intellectuals behind the reform of Coimbra University put forward by Marquis de Pombal and later led the project to create the Lisbon Academy of Science.He was a member of several academies in Europe and Director of the Real Museu and Jardim Botânico do Palácio da Ajuda.

A
Figure 1: The Most Reverend Dom Frei Cipriano de São José, undated, author unknown.Photograph by Márcio Eustáquio de Souza (Museu de Arte Sacra de Mariana)

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: "Prospecto da Chácara da Casa da Residência Episcopal vista da janela do meio da mesma Casa no seu reverso, donde se vê também o Seminário e parte da Cidade de Mariana" (View of the Episcopal Residence seen from its back window, from which can also be seen the Seminary and part of the town of Mariana), reproduction of a watercolor by José Joaquim Viegas de Menezes, dated 1809.Original at Museu Arquidiocesano de Mariana(Campos, 1985, p.48)

Figure 4 :
Figure 4: Former Bishops' Palace in Mariana with Maior São José seminary in the background, undated, author unknown (private collection of Maria da Glória Celestino)