Vicente Cândido Figueira de Saboia (Viscount of Saboia)

Vicente Cândido Figueira de Saboia was born in the city of Sobral in the State of Ceará on April 13, 1835, to Lieutenant Colonel José Baltasar Aughery de Saboia and Joaquina Figueira de Mello Saboia. He married Luísa Marcondes Jobim, a Rio Grande do Sul State native and daughter of Senator José Martins da Cruz Jobim (one of the founders of the ANM) and of Maria Amália Marcondes, on April 6, 1861, in Rio de Janeiro. The couple had five children. 

As a young man, he studied medicine at the now closed College of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro (current Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ), graduating in 1858 after submitting a final paper titled “Urethral Stricting in Men.”

He joined the Imperial Academy of Medicine in 1863, upon successfully submitting a dissertation called “Essay on the Treatment of Gonorrhea.” He was sworn in on August 14, 1863, and later served as President of the Academia Nacional de Medicina (National Academy of Medicine – ANM) from 1891 to 1892. In October 1908, in celebration of the centenary of the first medical school in Brazil, the Academy decided to forge commemorative gold, silver and bronze medals bearing the effigy of the surgeon. He is now honored as the Patron of Chair Number 63. 

Dr. Saboia was also appointed as a Full Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Rio de Janeiro College of Medicine, then proceeded to lead the institution from 1881 to 1889. The following year, he became a Permanent Physician of the Royal Imperial Chamber and a Commander of the Imperial Order of Christ. 

In his literary endeavors, Dr. Vicente Cândido Figueira de Saboia wrote numerous scientific papers, with one of the highlights being the memorable “Tratado de Obstetrícia” (“Treatise on Obstetrics”). Translated into French, the book became a staple in medical schools in Montpellier, France, and Louvain, Belgium. However, his most notorious publication remains the “Reforma do Ensino Médico no Brasil” (“The Reform of Medical Education in Brazil”). During the final years of his life, the physician, scholar, and writer pursued increasingly philosophical interests, leading to a book on materialism and spiritualism called “Vida Psíquica do Homem” (“The Psychic Life of Man”). 

Tasked by the government to devise a comprehensive plan for completely reforming Brazil’s higher education, the Visconde de Saboia, or Viscount of Saboia, submitted a detailed project that became the cornerstone for an April 19, 1879-issued decree establishing public, open-access schools. 

Dr. Vicente Cândido de Figueira Saboia passed away on March 18, 1909, in the city of Petrópolis in the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Three years later, in 1912, the College of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro posthumously honored him with the Visconde de Saboia (Viscount of Saboia) title, which is granted yearly to the author of the best doctoral thesis on obstetrics. Additionally, a statue of Saboia was inaugurated in 2007 at the Sobral Campus building of the Federal University of Ceará’s medical school. A year later, the faculty of the institution created the Viscount of Saboia Medal to acknowledge the efforts of individuals who provide significant contributions to the fields of medicine and medical education. 

The memory of Dr. Saboia also lives on with a street named after him in the neighborhood of Cavalcanti in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Acad. Francisco Sampaio