In the 19th century Brazil, a historiographical regime with scientific purposes turned ineluctable the question about conditions of possibility for national historical writing. No less crucial than this, the inquiry on how should be the historian also has crossed the debate. The article analyses figurations which defined qualities and specific competences for the historical studies, especially on men of letters' biographies, published in the Revista of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, in the 19th century.
historiography; historian; Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro