Mulleres na Lexicografía / Women in Lexicography

Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos (née Karoline Michaelis)

German, Latin, Portuguese, and other European/Classical Languages

1851 (Berlin, Prussia (now Germany)) - 1925 (Porto, Portugal) Born to an academic family, Carolina received secondary education until the age of 16. As women back then were not allowed to study at universities, she was homeschooled until 25 years old by a family friend. During those years of homeschooling, she mastered several romance languages and classic languages. At the age of 20, she was already interpreting for the Ministry of Interior Affairs. Due to discussion of a Portuguese translation of Goethe’s work «Faust», her future husband, Joaquim António da Fonseca Vasconcelos (1849 - 1536), a Portuguese historian and art critic, courted her all the way to Berlin. Following their marriage, the couple relocated together to Portugal. In her new home country, Carolina continued to devote herself to languages. Even when she was pregnant, one could often find her doing research in libraries. Meanwhile, she also started mail correspondence with Portuguese intellectuals for academic discussions. A great collection of these postal correspondence is still archived at University of Coimbra, Portugal.

In 1911, she was nominated to be a lecturer for German language at University of Lisbon. One year later, in 1912, she transferred to University of Coimbra, becoming the first female professor at a Portuguese university. The same year, she also became nominated for the prestigious Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, one of the first two women to receive this honour (together with Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho). As far as lexicography is concerned, she assisted her sister Henriette in the publishing of numerous bilingual dictionaries, now published by Brazilian publisher «editora Melhoramentos». Until her death in 1925, she had engaged for feministic causes as well.

1. Dicionário Etimológico das Línguas Hispânicas (undated). No reliable resources can be identified for this publication. 2. Dicionários Michaelis A collaboration of Carolina and her sister Henriette. Available for several European languages and Japanese. Web presence: https://michaelis.uol.com.br/

Michaëlis dictionaries, a series of dictionaries published by Editora Melhoramentos Ltda. A sample of «Michaelis Dicionário de Expressões Idiomáticas Inglês-Português» (2016) can be previewed on Google Book (Last accessed: 14 Nov 2022).

● Several streets were named after her for tribute, including Lisbon (1972) and Carolina’s hometown of Berlin (2005). In addition, a secondary school in Porto and the metro station nearby also carry her name.

Bibliography: ● Cambraia, César N. (2015). Das edições de Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos: teoria da crítica textual na prática. In: Condé, Valéria G. et al. (Eds.) (2015). Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos: Uma Homenagem. NEHiLP/FFLCH/USP. ● Carolina Michaëlis. (2022, October 29). In Wikipedia. https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Micha%C3%ABlis Lexicographic works: ● Carolina’s dictionaries. Editora Melhoramentos Ltda. https://michaelis.uol.com.br/ ● Nash, Mark G. & Willians Ramos Ferreira. (2016). Michaelis Dicionário de Expressões Idiomáticas Inglês-Português, Editora Melhoramentos. https://books.google.es/books?id=boS6DQAAQBAJ&dq=micha%C3%ABlis+dicionario&source=gbs_navlinks_s Photos: ● Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carolina_Micha%C3%ABlis.jpg ● Nash, Mark G. & Willians Ramos Ferreira. (2016). Michaelis Dicionário de Expressões Idiomáticas Inglês-Português, Editora Melhoramentos. https://books.google.es/books?id=boS6DQAAQBAJ&dq=micha%C3%ABlis+dicionario&source=gbs_navlinks_s

U-Tong Sih

Lola Mosquera Sánchez