Forty writers, known as the "immortals", make up the Brazilian Academy of Letters (Academia Brasileira de Letras). Each holds a numbered chair for life, and a new member is elected by the academy's vote only when a chair falls vacant. Every chair carries a Patron, one of 40 great Brazilian writers who were already dead when the academy was founded, and each chair is linked to its founder, its successive holders and its Patron. At official meetings the academicians wear gilded gala uniforms with swords, called the fardão.
The novelist Machado de Assis, its first president, declared the academy founded in December 1896, and it began operating in July 1897. Although it is not a public institution and its rulings are not binding, it is regarded as the foremost authority on Portuguese in Brazil. Its Orthographic Vocabulary of the Portuguese Language effectively defines which words count as correct Brazilian Portuguese.
No audio tours yet
Visited Brazilian Academy of Letters? Make the first audio tour: AI helps with the stops, scripts and narration.
Wikipedia