ALEIXO MANUEL DA COSTA ‘S 100TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY:
Aleixo Manuel da Costa, born in the villlage of Penha de França (Goa), on March 18, 1909, was the son of Luís Filipe Manuel da Costa, from Curtorim, and of Inês Preciosa Mendanha. Aleixo joined the old Biblioteca Nacional Vasco da Gama (presently the Central Library) in 1930 and became the Curator in 1949. He retired in 1967 at the age of 58. During this tenure of nearly four decades, Aleixo da Costa made an impressive collection of some 11 thousand publications by Goans, written in 14 languages. He has compiled the bibliographical and biographical data of over 2,000 Goan writers, representing the period from 1702 to 1961. This major compilation, Dicionário de Literatura Goesa was published in Portuguese in 1997 by Fundação Oriente in collaboration with the Instituto Cultural de Macau. This thre-volume Dictionary, covering publications from 1702 to 1950, has been acclaimed as a “wonderful bibliographic repository for those who want to undertake a study of the political, social, economic and religious life of Goa’s distant past”. A fourth volume, covering publications from 1951 to 1961, is expected to be published in the coming years. The four volumes represent 20 years of hard work of collecting information from books, from the authors themselves, a large number of them established outside the Indian continent, and using typewriters as the only tool available in “those” years. The book was first published by the Agência -Geral do Ultramar in Portugal in 1967 with the title Literatura Goesa- Apontamentos bio-bibliográficos para a sua história. This single-volume book of 476 pages covered the authors with surnames from A to E. The initiative to write the Dictionary came as a result of a large number of enquiries from Indian and world scholars looking for Goan cultural and intelectual index. Working in the Central Library, which collected a large number of books by Goan writers and interested himself in the topic, Aleixo da Costa managed to put together an unique collection of information on the Goan literature. But the Central Library was definitely not the only source of information. He started his search for information first with A Gazeta de Goa, published in 1821 in the first printing press in Goa. Going from newspapers to old books he chased everything that could lead him to finding information on Goa and its writers. The search for the information went beyond the Indian borders and he received support from libraries from Portugal, the Vatican, Spain, London and others. Dr. Alexandre Lobato, a historian from Monta (Portugal), who was on a special mission in Goa in the 1950s consulted Aleixo da Costa for specific information on Goa. This information was available directly from his files. Impressed by the quality of the work and having realized its importance for the future generations, Dr. Lobato took with him one of the files and presented it to Dr. Rev. Silva Rego, responsible for the management of Agência Geral do Ultramar, with a request to help publication of the complete work. This resulted in the publication of Literatura Goesa-Apontamentos bio-bibliográficos para a sua história in 1967. The situation of the April 25, 1975, blocked progress on the rest of the volumes. Dr. Artur Teodoro de Matos, who was aware of the importance and of the quality of the work was successful in convincing Dr. Carlos Monjardino and Dr. João de Deus Ramos, both members of the Administrative Board of Fundação Oriente, to continue with the publication process. Fundação Oriente in close collaboration with the Instituto Cultural de Macau published the Dicionário de Literatura Goesa in December 1997. Aleixo da Costa is the author of a study on A Sociedade Goesa Cristã no século XIX, a compilation on Perfis de Goeses de Antanho vistos pelos seus contemporâneos and a writing on Memória sobre as famílias Goesas. He was also the author of two volumes of Índices of Boletim do Instituto Vasco da Gama, has collaborated in the Grande Enciclopédia Portuguesa e Brasileira with an article on Dr. Jaime Ribeiro, a writer, as well as in the work on Armas e inscrições do Forte de Baçaim, the author of which is Bráz A. Fernandes. The 1994 Vincent Xavier Verediano Award has been conferred on Aleixo Manuel da Costa, in recognition of “his lifelong contribution to Goa’s Bibliographical Heritage”. Instituted in 1989, the objective of the award is “to promote the well being of mankind through individual advancement in the field of art, music, literature, science, medicine or humanities”. Aleixo da Costa died on the April 20, 2000 at the age of 91. I do thank his son Amilcar Da Costa for the details and for his appreciation.
Scribbling 