STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

Ana Simões, Maria Paula Diogo, Ana Carneiro, Citizen of the world. A scientific biography of Abbé Correia da Serra (University of California, Berkeley: Institute of Governmental Studies Press, 2012), translation of Ana Simões, Maria Paula Diogo, Ana Carneiro, Cidadão do Mundo. Uma biografia científica do Abade Correia da Serra (Porto: Porto Editora, 2006)

Jose Correia da Serra (1751-1823), known as Abbé Correia da Serra, is a paradigmatic case of a citizen of the world. A man of science of Portuguese nationality he saw himself as a member of a borderless community, the Republic of Letters.
Correia da Serra was a botanical innovator and a transitional figure at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century. His life and work are intertwined: often persecuted in Portugal due to his links to the freemasons, he travelled in Italy and Spain and lived in Italy, England, and France where he befriended renowned naturalists and engaged with them in lively scientific and philosophical discussions. He then moved to the USA where he lived for eight years and became involved in the consolidation of local scientific communities. The Abbé was thrilled with the possibilities the new country had to offer. He established a lasting relationship with Thomas Jefferson and imprinted a mark on the American scientific community. Jefferson referred to his Portuguese friend as the best digest of science in books, men, and things that I have ever met; other American intellectuals called him our Socrates; or the Franklin of Portugal. The memory and impact of Correia da Serra's stay in the US still lives today in the Abbé's room, in Monticello.