Joseph of Anchieta
Spanish Jesuit missionary
- Lived
- 1534–1597
- Country
- Spain
Updated September 2026
About Joseph of Anchieta
José de Anchieta y Díaz de Clavijo, SJ was a Spanish missionary to the Portuguese colony of Brazil in the second half of the 16th century. A highly influential figure in Brazil's history in the first century after its European discovery, Anchieta was one of the founders of São Paulo in 1554 and of Rio de Janeiro in 1565. He is the first playwright, the first grammarian and the first poet born in the Canary Islands, and is considered the father of Brazilian literature.
Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers. Last updated September 2026.