author
Luis Figueira
1573–1643
A Jesuit missionary, linguist, and explorer, Luís Figueira helped preserve knowledge of Old Tupi through one of the earliest grammars of the language. His life unfolded across Brazil’s colonial missions, from Bahia and Pernambuco to Maranhão and the Amazon.
1 Audiobook
Arte da grammatica da lingua do Brasil
by Luis Figueira
About the author
Luís Figueira was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary who traveled to Brazil in 1602. He studied Old Tupi through his work with Indigenous communities and fellow missionaries, experiences that shaped his best-known book, Arte da Língua Brasílica, first published in 1621.
Figueira took part in missions across northeastern Brazil and helped establish the Jesuit mission of Maranhão. He also recorded his experiences in accounts of missionary expeditions, offering valuable—if colonial-era—evidence about the languages, peoples, and landscapes encountered by Europeans in Brazil.
In 1643, while returning to Brazil with other Jesuits, Figueira survived a shipwreck near Marajó Island but remained behind to assist other survivors. He was later killed by members of the Aruã people. Catalog records commonly identify him as Luís Figueira (1573–1643), while some biographical sources give his birth year as 1574 or 1576.