In prose it was not an age of great writers, but of research and learning. The Lisbon _Academia Real das Sciencias_,[654] founded by the Duque de Lafões, met for the first time in 1780, and was not slow in inaugurating the work which has won for it the gratitude of all who care for the language or literature of Portugal. D. ANTONIO CAETANO DE SOUSA (1674-1759) had published his valuable _Provas da Historia Genealogica_ (1739-48) in seven volumes, and the learned _curé_ of Santo Adrião de Sever, DIOGO BARBOSA MACHADO (1682-1772), had spent a long life in bibliographical study and compiled his indispensable and magnificent _Bibliotheca Lusitana_ (1741-59) with a generous inaccuracy which is attractive in the minute pedantry of a later age. The scarcely less famous _Vocabulario Portuguez_ of RAPHAEL BLUTEAU (1638-1734), who was born of French parents in London but spent over fifty years in Portugal, began to appear in 1712. The work of research was now carried on, among others by FRANCISCO JOSÉ FREIRE (1719-73); FREI JOAQUIM DE SANTA ROSA DE VITERBO (1744-1822); the librarian ANTONIO RIBEIRO DOS SANTOS (1745-1818); D. FRANCISCO ALEXANDRE LOBO (1763-1844), Bishop of Viseu; CARDINAL SARAIVA (1766-1845), Patriarch of Lisbon; and FREI FORTUNATO DE S. BOAVENTURA (1778-1844). Critics of poetry were LUIS ANTONIO VERNEY (1713-92), Archdeacon of Evora, ‘El Barbadiño’, whose criticisms in his _Verdadeiro Methodo de Estudar_ (2 vols., 1746) are severe, even harsh; FRANCISCO DIAS GOMES (1745-95), whom Herculano called _o nosso celebre critico_, and who was indeed a better critic than poet, as may be seen in the notes and poems of his _Obras Poeticas_ (1799); and MIGUEL DE COUTO GUERREIRO (_c._ 1720-93), who showed good sense in the twenty-six rhymed rules of his _Tratado da Versificaçam Portugueza_ (1784).