João de Deus

João de Deus de Nogueira Ramos (8 March 1830 – 11 January 1896), better known as João de Deus, was a Portuguese poet, pedagogue and editor who turned his attention to Portuguese educational problems and wrote the famous didactic book Cartilha Maternal (1876), used to teach the Portuguese language across the country during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Biography

He was born in São Bartolomeu de Messines, Silves, in the Portuguese province of Algarve, son of Pedro José Ramos (son of José dos Ramos and wife Joaquina Maria) and wife Isabel Gertrudes Martins (daughter of Manuel Martins and wife Gertrudes Angélica). Matriculating in the faculty of law at the University of Coimbra, he did not proceed to his degree but settled in the city, dedicating himself wholly to the composition of verses, which circulated among professors and undergraduates in manuscript copies.

In the volume of his art, as in the conduct of life, he practised a rigorous self-control. He printed nothing previous to 1855, and the first of his poems to appear in a separate form was A Lata, in 1860. In 1862 he left Coimbra for Beja, where he was appointed editor of O Bejense, the chief newspaper in the province of Alentejo, and four years later he edited the Folha do Sul. As the pungent satirical verses entitled Eleições prove, he was not an ardent politician, and, though he was returned as deputy for the constituency of Silves on 5 April 1868, he acted independently of all political parties and when general elections were called the following year, he did not seek renewal of his mandate. The renunciation implied in the act, which cut him off from all advancement, is in accord with nearly all that is known of his lofty character.