Tautosakos darbai 71, 2026, p. 114–126
ISSN 1392-2831 | eISSN 2783-6827
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51554/TD.26.71.06

Voices of Wisdom: The Portuguese Example of José Leite de Vasconcellos

Marinela Soares
Associação Internacional de Paremiologia/International Association of Paremiology (AIP-IAP)
runo_mari@yahoo.com

Rui Soares
Associação Internacional de Paremiologia/International Association of Paremiology (AIP-IAP)
aipiap.tavira@gmail.com

ABSTRACT. Marking memories from decades and decades is giving voice to proverbial wisdom at a local, regional, national and international level. During this time, continued activities in the field of paremiology were defined with a desire for rapprochement between generations, based on the maturity of concepts and the creativity that this theme involves.

This article aims to demonstrate how individuals dedicated to preserving cultural heritage by documenting customs, habits and cultural experiences contribute to their preservation and help reveal and comprehend the national worldview. It focuses primarily on the work of the Portuguese philologist, archaeologist and ethnographer José Leite de Vasconcellos (1858–1941). As well as his contributions to linguistics, ethnography, and paremiology his work was characterised by a profound national consciousness, as he applied the achievements of universal science to the Portuguese countryside. This opened up new perspectives for science in Portugal.

Just like other figures of that time, the works of Vasconcellos show that understanding, disseminating and applying the wisdom of people contributes to the construction of a fairer and more balanced society, bridging the duality between the empirical and the scientific. With commitment and guidance, traditional paremiological concepts can be disseminated and realised, based on the hope of a favourable outcome, as Kazys Grigas did.

KEYWORDS: paremiology, proverbs, wisdom, José Leite de Vasconcellos.

Išminties balsai: portugalo José Leite de Vasconcellos pavyzdys

SANTRAUKA. Patarlės įamžina daugelio dešimtmečių atmintį ir perteikia išsaugotą senąją vietos, regiono, tautos ir bendrą daugelio tautų išmintį. Mūsų laikais tęsiant darbus paremiologijos srityje, remiantis brandžiomis idėjomis ir atsiveriančiomis paremiologinės veiklos galimybėmis, siekiama suartinti kartas.

Šio straipsnio tikslas – parodyti, kaip asmenys, kurie, siekdami įamžinti kultūros paveldą, fiksuoja papročius, praktikas ir kultūrinę patirtį, prisideda prie jų išsaugojimo ir padeda atskleisti bei suprasti tautos pasaulėžiūrą. Straipsnyje daugiausia dėmesio skiriama portugalų filologo, archeologo ir etnografo José Leite de Vasconcelloso (1858–1941) darbams. Šis tyrėjas ne tik reikšmingai prisidėjo prie kalbotyros, etnografijos ir paremiologijos plėtros, bet ir, pasižymėdamas giliu nacionaliniu sąmoningumu, Portugalijos kaimiškąsias vietoves tyrė taikydamas universalius mokslo laimėjimus. Toks Vasconcelloso požiūris atvėrė naujas Portugalijos mokslo perspektyvas.

Kaip ir kitų to meto asmenybių, Vasconcellos darbai rodo, kad tautos išminties supratimas, sklaida ir taikymas padeda kurti teisingesnę ir darnesnę visuomenę, empiriką suartinti su mokslu. Atsidavimas ir nuoseklus darbas padeda skleisti ir įgyvendinti tradicinę patarlių išmintį, tikintis palankaus rezultato, kaip darė ir Kazys Grigas.

RAKTAŽODŽIAI: paremiologija, patarlės, išmintis, José Leite de Vasconcellos.

Received: 01/04/2025. Accepted: 30/04/2026

Copyright © Marinela Soares, Rui Soares, 2026. Published by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

“BEM COMEÇADO É MEIO ACABADO” (WELL BEGUN IS HALF FINISHED)

This exploratory article aims to contribute to the understanding of principal ethnographer José Leite de Vasconcellos, who lived through the latter half of the 19^th century and the first half of the 20^th century. The importance and role of paremiology are enormous both in the philological and cultural fields. At all times, from Aristotle and Socrates to Camões and Gil Vicente, the use of proverbs, maxims and aphorisms expressed in short phrases has been common, seeking to transmit teachings as fruits of experience already acquired. With commitment, and assuming a guide, paths are crossed so that traditional paremiological concepts are disseminated and can operate based on the hope of a favourable path, as did paremiologist Kazys Grigas.

The Portuguese language is extremely rich and has great power expressing cultural manifestations of knowledge of things through practice and observation of the analysis of the moral qualities of individuals over the years. Our aim is to add knowledge and encouragement as much as possible, for the benefit of a civilising scenario. In addition to adding value, it is also a question of literacy, a key aspect today. Hugues de Varine in his book As raízes do futuro: o patrimônio a serviço do desenvolvimento local (2012) said that heritage (whether intangible or tangible) should be at the service of local development (that is, of the community). In truth, it is a stimulus for personal appreciation and a contribution to better global understanding. Let us focus on some of the wise voices that are pillars of Portuguese language studies and paremiology. We can mention some of these voices as José Leite de Vasconcellos (1858–1941) and Alexandre de Carvalho Costa (1908–1986), among others.

“AS PALAVRAS VOAM E OS ESCRITOS FICAM” (WORDS FLY BUT WRITING REMAINS)

José Leite de Vasconcellos was a linguist, philologist, archaeologist, ethnographer, professor and doctor. He was one of the most important Portuguese researchers of his time, with a collection of works on ethnology and philology that are part of the official collections in the National Library and the Ethnology Museum in Lisbon. He was the founder of several scientific journals, publishing dozens of scientific articles and several volumes, including a collection of proverbs and similar expressions, such as Ensaios Ethnographicos (1910, 1911), Etnografia Portuguesa (1958, 1980), and Filologia Barranquenha (1955, 1981).

Having spent his early years of life and youth in rural areas in the north of Portugal, Vasconcellos was exposed to local traditions and customs. As Santos Cruz writes,

Vasconcellos devoted his life mainly to philology. He obtained a doctorate from the University of Paris in 1901 and worked at the National Library for over twenty years. He devoted himself to creating a museum dedicated to the study of the origins and traditions of the Portuguese people, the Museu Etnográfico Português (currently the Museu Nacional de Arqueologia). Considered the founder of Portuguese dialectology, he developed the first study of the Mirandese language, which was published in 1882 under the title O Dialecto Mirandez (1882). This study was later expanded and published as a two-volume work entitled Estudos de Filologia Mirandesa (1900–1901). Years passed and it was in 1999 that Mirandese became a recognised language in Portugal, the country’s second official language. This is justified above all by the preservation of the Mirandese language, which was mainly due to the geography and isolation of the so-called Terras de Miranda. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) places it within the Asturian-Leonese context.

As a paremiologist, Vasconcellos’ studies served as inspiration and guidance to several linguists, who dedicated themselves to continuing the work of research and description of Portuguese dialects as well as the proverbial expressions that accompanied them. We can say that the popular wisdom contained in proverbs reflects the cultural values of a people or a country: they are the mirror of each territory. Vasconcellos considered the proverb as nothing more than advice, a suggestion, a practical rule that left the individual with complete freedom to follow it or not.

Vasconcellos highlighted cultural manifestations such as folk songs, superstitions and religious traditions, which are part of Portuguese history and culture. His work was so profound that, for example, in his 10 published volumes of Etnografia Portuguesa. Tentame de Sistematização the Portuguese people and traditional Portuguese life, with its defects and virtues, from the north to the south of the country, are described in detail, in their origins and in their speech, in their differences and similarities, highlighting popular wisdom (proverbs, sayings, annexins) and conveying it so well.

From a very young age, he would write down in his notebook everything he saw and heard about his people, without knowing exactly what to do with it. When he came into contact, around 1876, with the European scientific movement in the form of ethnography and philology, he published his first study on the subject, the Ensaios Etnográficos series and, subsequently, Etnografia Portuguesa. And further on in his narrative about the Algarve and the Algarveans, he says that:

And he adds: “a very hard-working people [...] with a cheerful disposition, always singing lively and characteristic songs, which are in complete harmony with the joy of the Algarve landscape”³ (ibid.: 590).

The character of our people in popular lyricism is revealed by the Fernanda de Matos Cunha in her work Notas Etnográficas sobre Barcelos (1932). Here is an example of naive love song from old songbooks:

Or, on longing:

Or, even on the feeling of personal dignity, which is reflected in the form of roundels:

Vasconcellos then published, in 1928, the first volume of the vast collection of Opúsculos, submitting the variety to a general arrangement by subject and volume, and to a logical arrangement by subject within each one. We know that Vasconcellos’ literary legacy was superabundant. It is very curious to say that at a certain stage of his writing in Book II The Portuguese People (O Povo Português), which appears in Etnografia Portuguesa. Tentame de Sistematização, there is a concern to characterise the Portuguese using proverbs, adages, phrases and funny sayings, or aphorisms. Let us illustrate these situations with several references to the Portuguese, who are a very imaginative people and who say:

The poetic character of the Portuguese is manifested by a propensity for such. However, this poetic feeling causes nostalgia in those who emigrate from reality to dreams, although it could, in our opinion, transform reality into a dream. Vasconcellos continues in this assessment by giving testimony, in general, that the Portuguese are sad and melancholic, although in Minho it is true that they sing a lot, because “Quem canta, seus males espanta!” (He who sings, drives away his ills!). Thus, the expressions that continue to be used to describe the characteristics of Portuguese wisdom are enlightening, such as ‘the gentleness of our customs’. Further on, the author goes on to mention other characteristics of the Portuguese people, including loyalty, honour and respect, with related proverbs mentioned: “Antes pobre honrado que rico ladrão” (Better poor and honourable than rich and a thief; Costa 2004: 59), and another much more vehement proverb, “Homem honrado, antes morto que injuriado” (Better an honourable man dead than an insulted man; ibid.: 169). However, when referring to the proverb “Palavra de homem honrado não volta atrás” (An honourable man’s word cannot be taken back, ibid.: 282), Vasconcellos relates that, when he was a boy, there was an elderly lady who lived by the nobility’s code of honour and refused to sign a document, saying that her word was enough. Honour (and in this case the word), in itself already an added value, suggests the following proverb: “Honra e proveito não cabe em saco estreito” (Honour and profit do not fit in a narrow bag; ibid.: 170). It is also interesting to note here that, in addition to other concepts that defined the Portuguese people a century ago, we recall the literary and other relations that linked Portugal to Spain, in which the previous proverb in Spanish, “Honra y provecho no cabe en un cesto” (Por. Honra e proveito não cabem no mesmo saco; ibid.: 170), or another that is similar to Portuguese, “Honra y provecho no cabe en un saco” (Honra e proveito não cabem no mesmo saco; ibid.) can be translated as, Honor and profit do not belong together.

Some proverbial expressions that relate the beard worn by men at the time with honour also appear in our literature, taken from the 19^th century, such as: “Queixadas sem barbas não merecem ser honradas” (Bearded men do not deserve to be honoured; Machado 2005: 492) or, “Homem que não tem barba não tem vergonha” (ibid.: 269), A man with a beard has nothing to be ashamed of.

At the time during the 18^th, 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the loyalty of the Portuguese to their sovereigns was unique, as Vasconcellos describes in his books on Etnografia Portuguesa, or in articles published in the Revista Lusitana, which he founded. However, in his The Lusíads, in Song 5, stanza 72, Luís Vaz de Camões, the Portuguese National Poet writes about the loyalty of the Portuguese and is quoted in Etnografia Portuguesa by Vasconcellos (Vasconcellos 1958: 499). This can be summed up in the two proverbs: “É mais leal dar do que receber” (It is more loyal to give than to receive; Carrusca: 76) or in a slightly different version “Não há coisa mais leal que o coração” (There is nothing more loyal than the heart; ibid.), and “O que o coração sente a voz não mente” (What the heart feels the voice does not lie; ibid.). These proverbs cover topics that you can find in Camões’ epic poem The Lusiads, and nothing better translates the traditional respect and loyalty of the Portuguese people than the proverb, Loyalty gives traitors opportunity, or their attachment to their Lusitanian land and courage, which goes back to ancient times. The following verses by Camões are a good example of this:

or, even

Some proverbs, found in Costa’s O livro dos Provérbios Portugueses, summarise what was said previously: “A coragem é a luz da adversidade” (Courage is the light of adversity), “Mais vale ter coragem do que ilusão” (It is better to have courage than illusion), “Quem tem coragem, tem vantagem” (Whoever has courage has an advantage; Costa 2004: 529).

The traditional proverb “Telha de igreja sempre goteja” (Church tiles always leak; Vasconcellos 1958: 527) illustrates the influence of the Catholic religion on the religiosity of the Portuguese people and adds literary value to Camões’ epic poem The Lusíads (Song Two, Song Three; 1997: 25–76) as an example of this characteristic.

Vasconcellos also mentions in his studies about the public treasury that it had Jewish experts at its service as fiscal and financial agents of the Crown. Great lords, knights, infants, abbots, masters, commanders hired them as inspectors, stewards, receivers and accountants of houses and religious corporations.

Taking into account what tradition and literary information have taught us over time, we can say that trades and professions were widely practiced in the Middle Ages, with tailoring being the most prominent in the trades among the Jews who had settled in Portugal. For example, Mr. Latão, Hebrew tailor to King D. Afonso V and Mr. Abraão, tailor to King D. João II, stood out. The first great Portuguese playwright, as well as a renowned poet, Gil Vicente (1465–1536), who is considered the father of Portuguese theatre, or even of Iberian theatre, since he also wrote in Castilian (sharing the paternity of Spanish dramaturgy with Juan del Encina), wrote verses with great irony about the craft of tailoring in his Farsa da Lusitânia, an excerpt of which is available here:

And proverbs also appear with some mockery of the profession: “Alfaiate de encruzilhada cose sem agulha, nem linha nem nada” (A crossroads tailor sews without a needle, thread or anything), “Alfaiate pobre, a agulha se lhe dobre” (A poor tailor, his needle bends), and “Alfaiate sem dedal, cose pouco e isso mal” (A tailor without a thimble, sews little and that badly; Costa 2004: 52).

Other professions also emerged at the time, such as Jewish shoemakers and blacksmiths, who were well paid, which caused a certain amount of commotion among non-Jews. Hence, Duarte, the 11^th king of Portugal and the Algarve (1433–1438), while still an infante, determined that the masters of their crafts would be protected by the law of the kingdom and should be respected for the jobs they practiced. Therefore, as a way of valuing artisanal professions some proverbs emerged at this time, of which we give the following examples: a shoemaker who began working in the king’s house in the city of Guarda, “Os sapateiros olham para os sapatos” (Shoemakers look at shoes)⁴, “Coisa boa não é para sapateiro” (It’s not a good thing for a shoemaker; ibid.: 808); or, if Belarmim Cachado, a Jewish blacksmith and farrier, was hired in the municipality of Loulé, we can add some more proverbs, “A boda de ferreiro, cada qual com o seu dinheiro” (A blacksmith’s wedding, each with his own money), “Batendo ferro é que se fica ferreiro” (It’s by striking iron that one becomes a blacksmith), “No ferro quente, bater de repente” (When the iron is hot, strike suddenly; ibid.: 608). And it didn’t stop there, because another person was privileged with permission to build a mill, receiving a quarter of the income he derived from it, while in Tavira, in Atalaia, Abraão Peco was privileged with half a watermill. Some proverbial expressions continued to appear, such as, “De longe vai a água ao moinho” (From afar the water goes to the mill), “O moinho faz-se para moer” (The mill is built to grind) and “Quem vai ao moinho enfarinha-se” (He who goes to the mill gets flour; ibid.: 714).

Even laughter is pointed out as a phenomenon that indicates the degree of civilisation common to most peoples, stating that the Portuguese people, although not overly playful, laugh frequently, and the nature of their humour is neither coarse nor, we would say, substantial. For example, the population and its geographical location are mentioned:

As a note, we should add that Nisa was a prominent place in the municipality, it was there that taxes and other tax charges were paid; and that the people did not like very much to pay these taxes but had to comply, hence a comical song about the situation.

Situations of laughter also arose with the Church, in phrases such as: “Tem duas caras como feijão frade” (It has two faces like black-eyed peas), which was a common saying in the Algarve, Alentejo and Lisbon because ‘friar’ has the double meaning of church brother, i.e. member of a religious order, and legume. “Leva vida de frade” (He leads the life of a friar) means that the person in question leads a good life, without worries. Many proverbial phrases, such as adages, were part of the colloquial vocabulary, for example: O rio passado, o santo não lembrado (The river passed, the saint not remembered) means that after something is overcome easily, we do not remember those who helped us; Rogar o santo até passar o barranco (Pray to the saint until we get over the ravine; ibid.: 527) means that when we want to overcome an obstacle, we always remember someone who can help us, but afterwards everything is forgotten, even the person who helped; Para baixo todos os santos ajudam (Down below all the saints help) means that when everything is easy, everyone helps (when you go downhill, everyone helps because it is much easier than going uphill).

In Vasconcellos’ works, other aspects of the life of the Portuguese people are emphasised through proverbial expressions and phrases, not only everyday life, as mentioned above, but also passivity, patience and fatalism, originating from very remote and varied peoples, among which, without exception, was the Portuguese people. Some records are brought to light: “O homem põe e Deus dispõe” (Man proposes and God disposes), which reflects the religious idea that it is of little use to act in a certain way when God (the Divine) will decide differently. Other examples reveal the fatalism of a people who depended on proverbial sayings: “Quem nasceu para ser pobre a rico nunca chegará” (He who was born to be poor will never become rich), “Quem nasce para ser pobre, até na boda lhe chove” (He who is born to be poor, even at the wedding it rains), “O que tem de acontecer tem muita força” (What has to happen has great strength), “Deus que lhe assinalou, algum defeito lhe encontrou” (God who marked him, found some defect in him), “Há sempre um testo para uma panela” (There is always a test for a pot), “Quem quis casar, sempre casou” (He who wanted to get married, always got married), “Não morreu lá, porque não tinha de morrer” (He did not die there, because he did not have to die), “Casamento e mortalha no céu se Talha” (Marriage and a shroud are carved in heaven; ibid.: 536–537).

Songs are currently used that show how the people believe in the impossibility of changing the course of fate, which they describe as “destiny”, saying that “Tempo mudado, mudado o conselho” (Time has changed, the advice has changed):

“NO FEITO, ESTÁ O PROVEITO” (IN THE DEED, THERE IS BENEFIT)

There is much to be written about José Leite de Vasconcellos, who left a remarkable body of work in the areas of ethnography and linguistics, among others. Furthermore, his work was characterised by a profound national sense due to the application of the achievements of universal science to the Portuguese countryside, with his work opening up new perspectives for science in Portugal.

His entire ethnographic legacy is dedicated to the Portuguese cause, with records of various kinds that spanned the entire country. However, it is to the Algarve that we have referred to most frequently, since it is in this region that the Interdisciplinary Colloquiums on Proverbs have been held annually for 19 years, from 2007 to the present day. Vasconcellos said: “[...] in the Algarve, where loquacity is proverbial and where, in truth, the natives are not capable of being silent for a minute”⁵ (ibid.: 588). Jose Leite de Vasconcellos died in Lisbon on May 17, 1941.

However, we could bring to light other Portuguese linguists who were specialists in tradition, and there would be much to describe, although that would be another article and would not fit here. We will finish with just one more record of a professor who is not well known, but whose rigorous work puts him among the best and which the AIP-IAP will one day publish for deserved dissemination: Alexandre de Carvalho Costa (1908–1986), He was a professor, linguist, researcher, paremiographer and paremiologist who made a wide collection of proverbial phrases conscientiously studied in his 14 volumes of Entretinimentos Etnográficos e Filológicos (from 1965 to 1977) and published in an orderly and systematic form with interpretative reviews. The following quote is relevant today: “The cult of language [...] is quite faded. It is urgent that the lamp be rekindled, within the Sanctuary, so that the Fatherland may regain its pride”⁶ (Costa 1981 1.1: 19–20).

The AIP-IAP has the duty and obligation to promote and disseminate this subject within the area of paremiology. Hence, making de Carvalho Costa’s legacy, and that of others, known worldwide is of great importance. Culture must be a matrix of development, because we believe that without culture there will be no evolution. Proverbs, this intangible cultural heritage, must be preserved, valued and transmitted to future generations as a testimony of human experience and aspiration in order to sustain creativity in all its diversity and establish a true dialogue between cultures.

“O que há de ser há de ser” (What will be, will be), says the proverbial wisdom contained in Gil Vicente’s Farsa da Lusitânia, from the 16^th century (see Patrício 2021: 679).

We can say by way of conclusion: Care was taken with boldness to delicately and carefully record situations, behaviours and languages so that these memories could portray over time the wisdom that a people demonstrate and could represent in their community, in their country. José Leite de Vasconcellos was an excellent example in his leadership, and even today his scholarship is not only appreciated, it represents added value in the collection of Portuguese ethnography, and elsewhere.

The primary sources can be found at the Museum of Ethnology, Tombo Tower, National Library. The proverbial expressions are found scattered throughout the various volumes of Ensaios Etnógraficos, found in the aforementioned institutions.

REFERENCES

Camões Luís Vaz de 1997. The Lusíads, Oxford University Press.

Costa Alexandre de Carvalho 1981. Gente de Portugal: sua linguagem – seus costumes 1.1: A–D, Portalegre: Edição da Assembleia Distrital de Portalegre.

Costa José Ricardo Marques 2004. O livro dos provérbios portugueses: recolha e organização alfabética e temática, 2^a ed., Lisboa: Editorial Presença.

Cruz Francisco Ignacio dos Santos 1843. Ensaio Sobre a Topographia Medica de Lisboa, ou Consideraçoens Especiaes Relativas A’ Sua Historia 2, Lisboa: Typographia de M. J. Coelho.

Cunha Fernanda de Matos 1932. Notas Etnográficas sôbre Barcelos, Pôrto: Imprensa Portuguesa.

Machado José Pedro 2005. O grande livro dos provérbios, 3ª ed., Portugal, Cruz Quebrada: Editorial Notícias.

Patrício Lurdes 2021. Exemplos Antigos. Paremiologia e fraseologia do ´Século XVI: provérbios, ditados, adágios, anexins, rifões e outros ditos e sentenças quinhentistas, Lisboa: Câmara Municipal de Tavira/Centro de Estudos de Teatro da Faculdade de letras da Universidade de Lisboa.

Varine Hugues de 2012. As raízes do futuro: o patrimônio a serviço do desenvolvimento local, Porto Alegre: Medianiz.

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Vasconcellos J. Leite de 1900–1901. Estudos de Phiilologia Mirandesa 1–2, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional.

Vasconcellos J. Leite de 1910. Ensaios Ethnographicos 4, Lisboa: Livraria Clássica Editora.

Vasconcellos J. Leite de 1911. Ensaios Ethnographicos 1, 2^a ed., Espozende: Livraria Espósendense Editora.

Vasconcellos J. Leite de 1958. Etnografia Portuguesa. Tentame de Sistematização 4, Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda.

Vasconcellos J. Leite de 1980. Etnografia Portuguesa. Tentame de Sistematização 2, 2^a ed., Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda.

Vasconcellos J. Leite de 1981. Filologia Barranquenha. Apontamentos para o seu estudo, Edição fac-similada da Edição de 1955, Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda.

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