José de Viera y Clavijo (28 December 1731 – 21 February 1813), was a Spanish, of Portuguese descent,[1] Enlightenment ecclesiastic, poet, historian, botanist, ethnographer, and professor.

[8] Viera was born in Realejo Alto, on the island of Tenerife, and was baptized at the Parroquia Matriz del Apóstol Santiago.

[9] He was a member of the Tertulia de Nava, where he came in contact with rationalist Spanish Enlightenment ideas and local figures such as Cristóbal del Hoyo Solórzano y Sotomayor [es].

For 14 years, he traveled Europe with the marquis and met scientific and literary thinkers such as Félix de Azara, Francisco Javier Lampillas, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Pietro Metastasio, and Voltaire; from these traveling introductions he befriended Charles Messier, Jérôme Lalande, and Antonio José Cavanilles.

He became a corresponding member of the Real Academia de la Historia in 1774 and made supernumerary by Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes in 1777.