José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage

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José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (1823, Funchal, Madeira - 1907, Lisbon, Portugal) was a Portuguese zoologist and politician. He was the curator of Zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Lisbon. He published numerous works on mammals, birds, and fishes. In the 1880's he became the Minister of the Navy and later the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Portugal. The zoology collection at the Lisbon Museum is called the Bocage Museum in his honor.

Bocage studied at the University of Coimbra from 1839 to 1846. He became lecturer of the chair of Zoology at the University of Lisbon in 1851, where he taught for more than 30 years. In 1858, he became also the scientific director and curator of Zoology of the Natural History Museum of the Polytechnic School. which was established as a support for the chair.

His work at the Museum consisted in acquiring, describing and coordinating collections, many of which arrived from the Portuguese colonies in Africa, such as Angola, Mozambique, etc., sent by noted naturalists such as José Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta (1832-1897). For this purpose, Bocage standardized the procedures for collecting, preparing and sending specimens to the Museum in his book “Instrucções Practicas sobre o Modo de Colligir, Preparar e Remetter Productos Zoológicos para o Museu de Lisboa” (1862). In 1860 he succeeded in getting back some collections which were removed from the Museum during the Napoleonic invasion of Portugal, which include precious specimens collected by the French naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844) in Brazil.

In 1875 he was elected Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon. He retired from educational and scientific activities in 1880 but remained director of the Museum until he devoted his remaining life to politics, first as the Minister of Navy and Ultramarine Possessions and later as MInister of Foreign Affairs, from 1883 to 1886.

Bocage published more than 200 taxonomic papers about mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and many others. He was responsible for identifying many new species, which he named according to the naturalist who found them (for example, dozens of new species received the anchietae apod).

José Vicente was a second cousin of the famous poet Manuel Maria Barbosa de Bocage (1765-1805). In April 10, 1905, a governmental decree renamed the zoological section of the National Museum of Lisbon as the "Museu José Vicente Barboza du Bocage".

[edit] Selected works

A ornitologia dos Açores, 1866
Aves das possessões portuguesas d’ Africa occidental que existem no Museu de Lisboa, da 1ª à 24ª lista, 1868 a 1882
Lista dos répteis das possessões portuguesas d’ Africa occidental que existem no Museu de Lisboa, 1866
Notice sur un batracien nouveau du Portugal, 1864
Diagnose de algumas espécies inéditas da família Squalidae que frequentam os nossos mares, 1864
Peixes plagiostomos, 1866
Ornithologie d’ Angola, 1881 and 1877
Herpethologie d’ Angola et du Congo, 1895.

[edit] References

Almaça, C.,1987. A Zoologia e a Antropologia na Escola Politécnica e na Faculdade de Ciências (até 1983). In: Fac.Ciências da Univ.Lisboa. Passado/Presente e Perspectivas Futuras, 150º aniversário da Escola Politécnica, 75º aniv.Fac. Ciências, 293-312.
Burnay E., 1903. Comemorações Sociaes – O conselheiro Barboza du Bocage. Boletim da Sociedade de Geographia de Lisboa, 21ª. Série, nº7:245-253.
Osório, B., 1915. Elogio Histórico do Illustre Naturalista e Professor J.V.Barboza du Bocage. Memórias do Museu Bocage: 1-42