[...] He is a social scientist who is also a writer with a rare power of expression, distinguished by his precision or accuracy of words [...] His knowledge corresponds to the Camões ideal: it is not only theoretical but formed by experience. [...]
Gilberto Freyre, preface, Os artesãos do Padre Cícero (Artisans of Padre Cícero), 1967.
Sylvio de Lyra Rabello was born in the city of Aliança, Pernambuco, on 29 November 1899, to the merchant Heliodoro de Paula Ferreira Rabello and schoolteacher Joaquina Gomes de Lyra.
His maternal grandfather, Henrique de Paula Ferreira, also a merchant, was conductor of the Goiana city marching band.
He studied at the German School in Ponte d’Uchoa, and at Gymnasium Pernambucano, graduating in Law and Social Sciences from the Recife Faculty of Law in 1922.
While still a student, he worked in a representation office and taught in private schools.
He joined the Recife newspaper A Notícia, where along with Luiz Delgado, he was responsible for the newspaper threads.
He was district attorney in Petrolina, Pernambuco, and also contributed to A Província, a newspaper run by Gilberto Freyre at the time. His collaboration was limited primarily to issues in education, especially those of child psychology.
He held various positions, including that of Professor of Psychology at the Education Institute of Pernambuco (1926) and at the Faculty of Philosophy of the then University of Recife, today the Federal University of Pernambuco (1950); Director of the Department of Education of Pernambuco (1948); Secretary of Education and Culture of Pernambuco (1949-1950) in the Barbosa Lima Sobrinho government, and Director of the Department of Social Psychology of Joaquim Nabuco Institute, today the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation (1966-1972).
He also held the position of Director General of the Regional Department of the National Service of Commercial Learning (SENAC) in Pernambuco from 1947 to 1962.
His professional career was devoted primarily to the fields of education and psychology. In the 1960s, he was a permanent member of the Tropicology Seminar, as a social psychologist.
Scientist, teacher, scholar and social psychologist, Sylvio Rabello is the author of several books and journal articles, among which the following stand out: Os Testes Decrolianos de desenho (Decroly Drawing Tests) (Recife, 1931), Características do desenho infantil: contribuição para o estudo psicológico da criança brasileira (Characteristics of Children’s Drawing: contribution to the psychological study of Brazilian children) (Recife, 1933), A percepção das cores e das formas entre crianças de 3 a 11 anos (The Perception of Colours and Shapes Among 3-11 Years Old Children) (Recife, 1934), Pesquisa sobre noção do tempo entre crianças de 3 e 10 anos (Research on the Notion of Time Among Children Aged 3 to 10 Years) (Recife, 1935), Psicologia do desenho infantil (Psychology of Children’s Drawing) (São Paulo, 1935) Representação do tempo na criança (Representation of Time in Children) (São Paulo, 1937), Psicologia da infância (Childhood Psychology) (São Paulo, 1937), A originalidade da psicologia (The Originality of Psychology) (Recife, 1939), Farias Brito ou uma aventura do espírito (Farias Brito or an Adventure of the Spirit) (Rio de Janeiro, 1940), Ensaio sobre a psicologia metafísica de Farias Brito (Essay on the Metaphysical Psychology of Farias Brito) (Recife, 1940), Itinerário de Sylvio Romero (Itinerary of Sylvio Romero) (Rio de Janeiro, 1944), Euclides da Cunha (Rio de Janeiro, 1948), Aspectos da aprendizagem profissional em centros europeus (Aspects of Professional Apprenticeship in European Centres) (Recife, 1961), Pedro Malasarte (play, Recife, 1961), Cabeleira vem aí (Hairy is Coming) (play, Recife, 1965); Os artesãos do Padre Cícero: condições sociais e econômicas do artesanato de Juazeiro do Norte (Artisans of Father Cicero: social and economic conditions of Juazeiro handicraft) (Recife, 1967), Cana-de-açúcar e região: aspectos sócio-culturais dos engenhos de rapadura nordestinos (Sugarcane and Region: socio-cultural aspects of Northeast brown sugar mills) (Recife, 1969).
Sylvio Rabello died in Recife in 1972.
In 1979, the Civilização Brasileira publisher from Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with the National Book Institute of Brasilia, published Tempo ao tempo: memórias e depoimentos (Time to Time: memories and testimonies), a posthumous work described as follows on the back cover:
The testimony of his creative life, from his birthplace in Pernambuco, which he describes in tasty and colourful details, up to his experience as an intellectual and mature man with distinguished contemporary fellows, a life that would reveal him as one of our most respected men of letters.
Recife, 29 January 2010.
Translated by Peter Leamy, March 2012.
sources consulted
FREYRE, Gilberto. Conciliação de aparentes arcaísmos com a tecnologia. In: RABELLO, Sylvio.Os artesãos do Padre Cícero. Recife: IJNPS, 1967. p. 9-14. Prefácio.
LOUREIRO, Osman. Sylvio Rabello e o seu último livro. Revista do Museu do Açúcar, Recife, ano 4, n. 5, p. 28-41, 1971.
MELO, Alberto Cunha. Sylvio Rabello. Boletim Interno do Instituto Joaquim Nabuco de Pesquisas Sociais, Recife, n. 77, p.18-20, jan. 1972.
RABELLO, Sylvio. Tempo ao tempo: memórias e depoimentos. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira; Brasília: INL,1979.
SYLVIO Rabello [Foto neste texto]. In: COUTINHO, Rejane Galvão. Sylvio Rabello e o desenho infantil. 1997. 159 p. Dissertação (Mestrado em Artes) - Escola de Comunicações e Artes, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Recife, 1997. Verso da capa.
how to quote this text
Source: GASPAR, Lúcia. Sylvio Rabello. Pesquisa Escolar Online, Joaquim Nabuco Foudation, Recife. Available at: <http://basilio.fundaj.gov.br/pesquisaescolar_en/>. Accessed: day month year. Exemple: 6 Aug. 2009