Alvares, Manuel

Ribeira Brava (Archipelago of Madeira), 1526 – Évora, December 30, 1583. He was a Portuguese teacher, grammarian and humanist. In his hometown he likely began studies for priesthood, for at 12 years old he received minor orders. In 1546, at 20, he entered the Society of Jesus, at the College of Coimbra. He studied Humanities, Philosophy and Theology, but it was as a teacher of Latin, Greek and Hebrew that he distinguished himself, in Lisbon, where he began teaching in 1553-55, in Coimbra, where he took his last vows in 1560, and in Évora, where he passed away. He was Rector in Coimbra, in Lisbon and in Évora, and also Superior of the Professed House of St. Roque. St. Ignatius is said to have called him his Friar Juniper, alluding to his moral virtues.

At a highly-demanding time for the teachers of Humanities, whose knowledge had yet to overcome the mistrust of those who taught Arts and Theology, Manuel Álvares was one of those teachers who brought immense prestige to the Colleges of the Society in Portugal, at the first foundations of schools in Lisbon (C. of Santo Antão) and in Coimbra (C. of Arts). His name appears alongside with Cipriano Soares (1524–93), Pedro Perpinhão (1530–66) and Miguel Venegas (1529- post 1589), as the first generation of teachers in both Colleges, so much that it was him to whom the Superiors commissioned the De Institutione Grammaticae Libri Tres (1572).