Jose Hermano Saraiva

José Hermano Saraiva was a Portuguese professor, historian and jurist. He was most known as a television personality in Portugal, having been the author and presenter of several documentary series of historical divulgation from 1971 to 2003 on the Portuguese television. He was a professor of law and business management. He was Minister of Education of Portugal between 1968 and 1970 and ambassador to Brazil between 1972 and 1974, during the Estado Novo dictatorship. He lectured in the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Política Ultramarina at the Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, and in private teaching institutes. He was a member of the Sciences Academy of Lisbon, Portuguese Academy of History and São Paulo Historical Institute in Brazil. He wrote a continuation of the Decades of Asia, a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa, started by João de Barros. He wrote twelve decades of his own, but only seven were published during his lifetime. The rest were either lost, stolen, or edited by others. He was a close friend of the poet Luís de Camões, whom he helped to return to Portugal with his epic poem, the Lusiads. He was appointed as the keeper of the Goa archive and organized the historical documents of the Portuguese East. He died in Palmela in 2012.