D. Marcos de Noronha e Brito, 8th Count of Arcos (7 July 1771 – 6 May 1828) was a Portuguese nobleman and colonial administrator who served as the last Viceroy of Brazil.

[3] There he established the first printing press and printed the newspaper Idade d'Ouro do Brazil (Golden Age of Brazil), created the public library, completed the São João Theater and the customs wharf, in addition to installing a postal line to Maranhão.

[8] He assumed the government of Bahia in 1810, after the death of the Count of Ponte in 1809, ruling the captaincy for eight years (1810-1818) and was described as an energetic man, influenced by new ideas.

Domingos Borges de Barros was the professor appointed for the course, as he had made many trips - including to the University of Coimbra, in Portugal - and gained knowledge in the area.

[11] With the creation of the agriculture class, activities were developed in the area in addition to those requested by the Royal Court.

The plants were evaluated by the professor of theoretical chemistry Sebastião Navarro de Andrade, a course created in 1817 at the Colégio Médico-Cirúrgico.

With proof that the discoveries were valuable, the Count of Arcos called Moniz de Souza, offering his protection so that the botanist could go to Europe to study natural history and bring his observations back with him.

At the time, although the captaincy was no longer under his jurisdiction, the Count attested to the need to create the class due to "the decay of teaching".

For the creation of the library, colonel Pedro Gomes Ferrão Castelo Branco presented an administrative plan for the institution.

In 1817, when the Count of Arcos was about to leave the government of Bahia, the library began to lose the attention and care it had at first.

The Idade d'Ouro do Brazil was the first newspaper printed in Bahia, approved by the prince regent and the Count of Arcos.

In the ordinance of 5 May 1811, the Count of Arcos established that newspaper editors should tell political news in a simple way, announcing the facts without bringing reflections that could directly or indirectly influence public opinion.

The Count of Arcos attested that:[4] "Whenever the scarcity of news leaves a space available on the sheet, it shall be occupied by publishing some useful discovery, particularly, for the time being, in the Arts, discussing the need to institute and preserve good and polite customs in the nations and explaining not only how the national character gains consideration in the world by adhering to its government and religion, but getting into the mess, or showing with grace and aplomb, how much has been lost in that regard by all the nations that allow themselves to be detached from the government and religion of their fathers".The construction of the São João theater was initiated in 1806, during the government of the Count of Ponte (1805-1810), predecessor of the Count of Arcos.

At the time, it was noticed that the theater's shareholders' contribution was not sufficient to pay for the expenses, and the collection of the lottery was instituted.

The royal charter of 27 January 1809 established that all lottery income should be transformed into benefits for the theater itself for a period of six years.

In his view, when the slaves practiced their religions, they would come into conflict with each other, since the African ethnic plurality was enormous, which was also reflected in Brazil.

In the letter, they mentioned that the rebels had achieved the union of various ethnic groups, contrary to the Count's policy that the free practice of their customs would separate them.

Despite the support of the Military Commander of Bahia, brigadier Felisberto Caldeira Brant, future Marquis of Barbacena, the nobles were not prepared to carry out a coup d'état.

His discontent reached the level of personally going to Rio de Janeiro, seat of the court, to protest in favor of the slave owners in Bahia.

[2] When Noronha learned of the revolt taking place in the captaincy of Pernambuco, he did not wait for the king's order to organize the repression.

One of the rebel leaders, José Inácio Ribeiro de Abreu e Lima, which was known as father Roma, went to Bahia to persuade the captaincy to join the revolt.

The Minister of the Kingdom, Tomás António de Vila Nova Portugal, disapproved of the procedure and ordered the Count of Arcos to stop executing rebels "without the guarantees of the law".

In addition to having received the Portuguese royal family in the country, he was appointed Minister of the Navy and Overseas in July 1817 by king John VI.

When he was removed from office in 1821, the property became vacant and in 1824 it was bought by the emperor Pedro I to become the seat of the Imperial Senate.

Noting this situation, the Count of Arcos issued a decree on 23 May 1821 that aimed to regulate the imprisonments and living conditions of prisoners.

In his words, the justification for the decree was:[17] "As I understand that some governors, criminal judges and magistrates, violating the sacred deposit of jurisdiction entrusted to them, send orders of imprisonments by mere discretion and before formed guilt, pretexting secret denunciations, vehement suspicions and other reasons horrific to humanity, to keep in dungeons with total impunity, bent with iron weights, men who congregated for the goods that the institution of Civil Societies had offered them, the first of which is undoubtedly individual security.

And it being my first duty and carrying out my word to promote the most austere respect for the law and to anticipate as much as possible the benefits of a liberal Constitution: I shall for good stimulate in the most effective and rigorous way the observance of the aforementioned legislation, expanding it and ordaining, as by this decree I command..."The decree contained five articles.

Regarding living conditions in prisons, the Count prohibited in the decree:[17] [...] "may someone be thrown into a secret or narrow, dark or infective dungeon, as the prison should only serve to guard people and never to make them sick, and to flagellate, the use of chains, handcuffs, shackles and other devices like irons invented to martyr men not yet judged to suffer any excruciating penalty for a final sentence is now forever implicitly abolished".The last article threatened the fulfillment of all previous articles by governors.