José Bonifácio de Andrade e Silva (June 13, 1763 – April 6, 1838), Brazilian statesman and naturalist, was born at Santos, São Paulo.

In 1800 he was appointed professor of geology at Coimbra, and soon after inspector-general of the Portuguese mines; and in 1812 he was made perpetual secretary of the Academy of Lisbon. Returning to Brazil in 1819, he urged Dom Pedro I to resist the recall of the Lisbon court, and was appointed one of his ministers in 1821.

When the independence of Brazil was declared, Bonifácio was made minister of the interior and of foreign affairs; and when it was established, he was again elected by the Constituent Assembly, but his democratic principles resulted in his dismissal from office, July 1823.

On the dissolution of the Assembly in November, he was arrested and banished to France, where he lived in exile near Bordeaux till, in 1829, he was permitted to return to Brazil. But being again arrested in 1833, and tried for intriguing on behalf of Dom Pedro I, he passed the rest of his days in retirement at Niterói.

Petalite, a material which contains lithium, was first discovered by him toward the end of the 1700s on a trip to Sweden.

References

1763 births | 1838 deaths | Brazilian politicians | Brazilian geologists | Brazilian mineralogists | Portuguese-Brazilians

José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva | José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva | José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva