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R I C H A R D C. R A M E R

Special List 491

Colonial

Brazilian Authors

r i c h a r d c . r a m e r

R I C H A R D C . R A M E R

Old and Rare Books

225 east 70th street . suite 12f . new york, n.y. 10021-5217

Email rcramer@livroraro.com . Website www.livroraro.com

Telephones (212) 737 0222 and 737 0223

Fax (212) 288 4169

October 18, 2023

Special List 491

Colonial

Brazilian Authors

Items marked with an asterisk (*)

will be shipped from Lisbon.

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED:

All items are understood to be on approval,

and may be returned within a reasonable time

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Special List 491

Colonial

Brazilian Authors

Rebirth of the Study of Mathematics and Engineering in Portugal and the

Reflection of this Movement in Brazil:

Second Book on Military Engineering Written in Brazil and

Second Such Book Written by a Brazilian,

Dedicated to Gomes Freire de Andrade—With 20 Folding Engraved Plates

1. ALPOIM, José Fernandes Pinto de. Exame de bombeiros, que com

prehende dez tratados .... Madrid: En la Officina de Francisco Martinez

Abad, 1748. 4°, contemporary pebbled sheep (some wear, but sound;

curved piece about 7 x 7 cm. torn away from lower outer corner of

front free endleaf; rear free endleaf gone), spine gilt with raised bands

in five compartments (wear at head and foot), crimson leather lettering

piece in second compartment from head. Title page in red and black.

Engraved allegorical vignette on f. *3r. Engraved portrait of Gomes

Freire de Andrade. In very good condition overall. Five lines of old ink

manuscript inscriptions above half title. Engraved portrait, (20 ll.), 444

pp. [i.e., 442; pagination skips from 372 to 375], 20 folding engraved

plates and 1 folding table.

$9,000.00

FIRST and ONLY EDITION. This work and Alpoim’s Exame de artilheiros, Lisbon

1744, are “proofs of the rebirth of the study of mathematics and engineering in Portugal

and the reflection of this movement in Brazil, and they symbolize a Luso-Brazilian con

tribution to this movement. They are, in short, the first two books on military engineering

written in Brazil and the first two ‘textbooks’ of this kind by a Brazilian author” (Borba

de Moraes I, 26).

The Exame de bombeiros is a comprehensive textbook on military bombardment.

Written in dialogue form, the Exame first covers the mathematics necessary for plotting

trajectories, proceeds to a long discussion of mortars and how to use them most effec

tively, describes more recent inventions such as the howitzer and the petard, and closes

with a long treatise on the many types of incendiary shells and their proper use. The text

is enhanced with frequent references to the contributions of other military engineers,

including Galileo and Vauban, and historical notes on how bombardment had contrib

uted to the success or failure of various military campaigns. The plates depict mortars,

projectiles, and incendiary shells, many shown in cross section.

Borba de Moraes devotes three pages to unraveling the “veritable bibliographic

puzzle” of the printing of this work, and to dispelling the myth that it and/or Alpoim’s

Exame de artilheiros were printed in Rio de Janeiro by Antonio Isidoro da Fonseca in

1747—a theory first suggested by Varnhagen. Since the Exame de artilheiros was banned

by a decree of 15 July 1744 (for not adhering to the rules for the use of military titles),

Varnhagen thought Fonseca might not have wished to publish it under his own imprint.

To support his theory, Varnhagen cited the facts that Alpoim was a native of Brazil, that

the work was written there and dedicated to Gomes Freire de Andrade, Governor of

Brazil, and that the letters to the author in the preliminary leaves are from Brazilians. The

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most puzzling evidence of all is plate XVII, which has “Rio 1749” engraved in the lower

right-hand corner. If this plate was engraved and printed in Brazil, it would be the earliest

extant Brazilian engraving. Even Borba de Moraes, who argues strongly that the Exame

de bombeiros and Exame de artilheiros were printed in Madrid and Lisbon, as their respec

tive title-pages state, could give no convincing explanation of the plate XVII inscription.

Alpoim was born in Rio de Janeiro and served as professor at the Aula de Fortificação

in Rio de Janeiro; at his death in 1770 he held the rank of Brigadier.

The engraved portrait of Gomes Freire de Andrade is signed by Olivarius Cor.

Soares notes that nothing is known of this artist except that he worked in Portugal from

1744-1748, and may have been one of the foreigners invited by D. João V. The other

plates, which illustrate geometric figures, cross-sections of cannons, and ballistics, are

signed by José Francisco Chaves, about whom Soares had no biographical information.

❊ Borba de Moraes (1983) I, 25-7: “famous and rare”; Período colonial 9-10. Alden

& Landis 748/2. Sacramento Blake IV, 422. Innocêncio IV, 326. Pinto de Mattos (1970) p.

505. Martins de Carvalho, Dicionário bibliográfico militar portugues (1976) I, 58-9. Soares,

História da gravura artística em Portugal 499-500. Bosch 194 (cf. 187). Mindlin, Highlights

384. Indiana University, Lilly Library, Brazil 48. Not in Rodrigues. On Olivarius Cor, see

Soares, História da gravura artística em Portugal I, 171, nº 499 (under Chaves); on Olivarius

Cor, see I, 180-185 (this work not listed). NUC: DLC-P4, ICN. OCLC: 35175211 (Catholic

University-Oliveira Lima Library, Library of Congress, Newberry Library, Brown Uni

versity); 18678333 (Arizona Historical Society, University of Michigan, University of

Mississippi); 79814401 (John Carter Brown Library); 257680375 (Universität Göttingen);

433371703 (Biblioteca Nacional de España). Porbase lists a copy at the Biblioteca Nacio

nal de Portugal, and another copy there with the imprint “Lisboa: Imp. Regia 174?” Not

located in Jisc. KVK (51 databases searched) repeats Porbase.

Tropical Fevers Treated in Brazil and Angola;

Attacks Excessive Use of Bleeding

*2. AZEREDO, José Pinto de. Ensaios sobre algumas enfermidades d’Angola

…. Lisbon: Regia Officina Typografica, 1799. 8°, recent burgundy Oasis

morocco, marbled endpapers, edges sprinkled red (contemporary).

Some light waterstains. In very good condition. xvi, 149 pp.

SOLD

FIRST and ONLY EDITION. The author (1763-1807), a native of Rio de Janeiro who

studied at Edinburgh (1786-1788) and presented his graduate thesis on gout at Leyden,

practiced medicine in Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco before being appointed

Fisico-mor de Angola. In this famous work he notes that the tropical fevers found in Brazil

and Angola are very similar, and draws on his experience with both venues. Pinto de

Azeredo achieved excellent results with his “new method” of treatment, which included

the use of quinine, nux vomica, arsenic, and the inside of the coconut rind. The Ensaios

has separate sections dealing with the causes and cures of dysentery and tetanus. In

the introduction, Pinto de Azeredo attacks the excessive use of bleeding in Angola and

in America (“com particularidade na Bahia”). Lengthy footnotes include citations of

authoritative references and recipes for cures such as various kinds of tea.

❊ Borba de Moraes (1983) I, 62-3: “very rare”; Período colonial pp. 39-40. Sacramento

Blake V, 137: calling in error for 165 pp. Innocêncio V, 103; XIII, 171. Imprensa Nacional

532. JCB, Portuguese and Brazilian Books 799/1. Ribeiro Filho, Dicionário biobibliográfico de

escritores cariocas pp. 30-1. Bosch 257. National Library of Medicine, Eighteenth-Century

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STC p. 25. Lisbon, Faculdade de Medicina, Catálogo da colecção portuguesa, I, 33. Pires de

Lima, Catálogo da Bibliotheca da Escola Medico-Cirurgica do Porto 273. Macedo, Anno Bio.

Braz. III, 467. Santos Filho, História geral da medicina brasileira p. 375. Ferreira de Mira,

História da medicina portuguesa p. 305. See also J. Walter, Um português carioca professor da

primeira escola medica de Angola, Lisbon 1970. NUC: adding ICN.

Earliest Published Works by the “Mulatto Muse”

One of Colonial Brazil’s Most Important Poets

3. [BARBOSA, Domingos Caldas]. Collecção de poesias feitas na feliz

inauguração da Estatua Equestre de ElRey Nosso Senhor Dom José I em 6

de Junho de 1775. (Lisbon: Regia Officina Typografica, 1775). 4°, mid-

twentieth-century quarter cloth over decorated boards, decorated

endleaves. A few small stains on title page, otherwise crisp and clean.

Overall in very good condition. 27 pp.

$3,800.00

FIRST and ONLY separate EDITION, and perhaps the first appearance of this

extremely rare collection of poems in honor of the dedication of D. José I’s statue in

Lisbon’s Praça do Comercio, in 1775, written by one of the finest Brazilian poets of the

colonial period. The volume includes odes by allegorical figures of Asia (pp. 15-7), America

(pp. 18-20), Europe (pp. 21-4) and Africa (pp. 25-7), as well as another ode and 7 sonnets.

The Narração dos applausos of Lisbon, 1775, which is less rare than the Collecção,

includes all but one of the poems in the Collecção; the one that does not appear is the sonnet

beginning “Ja de huma e outra parte a estranha gente,” on p. 4. Whether the Narração or

the Collecção came first is not clear. The type is set in very similar style in both, but there

are variations in wording, and the order in which the poems appear differs considerably.

Borba de Moraes knew of no later reprints, separately or in anthologies. The work is

hence of great importance for the study of colonial Brazilian literature.

Caldas Barbosa was probably born in Rio de Janeiro in 1740; his mixed parentage

(father Portuguese, mother African) led some nineteenth-century critics to dub him

the “Mulatto Muse.” When his satirical poetry offended some powerful citizens of his

native city, he was sent to serve in the army at Colonia do Sacramento, in present-day

Uruguay, for several years, until 1762. After another 7 or 8 years in Rio de Janeiro he

moved to Lisbon, where he became the protégé of the Conde de Pombeiro and was widely

acclaimed as a singer and poet until his sudden death in 1800. Varnhagen describes the

author’s popularity in Lisbon society: his presence “se tornou quase uma necessidade de

todas as festas, sobretudo nas partidas do campo. Nas aristocráticas reuniões das Caldas,

nos cansados banhos de mar, nos pitorescos passeios de Sintra, em Belas, em Queluz,

em Benfica, sociedade onde não se achava o fulo Caldas com sua viola não se julgava

completa” (Florilégio da poesia brasileira, quoted in W. Martins II:7, n. 578).

A founder and president of the major literary establishment in Portugal during the

eighteenth century, the Nova Arcadia, Caldas Barbosa’s nom-de-plume was “Lereno”—

hence the title of his major work, Viola de Lereno, “Lereno’s guitar.” Bandeira describes

Caldas Barbosa as the “first Brazilian whose poetry has an entirely native flavor” (Brief

History of Brazilian Literature p. 61). He introduced Afro-Brazilian folk themes to Portugal

by composing lundas, comic popular songs of African origin in which Brazilian-Indian

and African speech were used, and wrote many modinhas, sentimental songs without

music taken from Portuguese modas.

Sílvio Romero gives evidence of Caldas Barbosa’s popularity in Brazil: “Quase

todas as cantigas de Lereno correm de boca em boca nas classes plebéias truncadas ou

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ampliadas. Formam um material de que o povo se apoderou, modelando-o ao seu sabor.

Tenho dêsse fato uma prova direita. Quando em algumas provincias do norte colligí

grande cópia de canções populares, repetidas vêzes, colhí cantigas de Caldas Barbosa,

como anônimas, repetidas por analfabetos. Foi depois preciso compulsar as obras do

poeta par expungir da coleção anônima os versos que lhe pertenciam. É o maior elogio

que, sob o ponto de vista etnográfico, se lhe pode fazer” (quoted in the Rio de Janeiro,

1944 edition of Viola de Lereno, ed. Francisco de Assis Barbosa, I, xvii-xviii).

❊ Borba de Moraes (1983) I, 70-1 (“rare”); Período colonial pp. 41-4. Sacramento

Blake II, 198-9. Innocêncio II, 185 and VI, 267-8. Imprensa Nacional p. 90: lists no copy

in the Imprensa Nacional’s library. Lisbon, Câmara Municipal, Catálogo da exposição

bibliográfica, iconográfica e documental relativa à estátua equestre 71. JCB, Portuguese and

Brazilian Books 775/1. Palha 3427. See also Jong, Four Hundred Years of Brazilian Literature

p. 72, and Dorothy B. Porter, “Padre Domingos Caldas Barbosa, Afro-Brazilian Poet,”

Phylon XII (1951), 264-71. Not in Bosch or Rodrigues. Not in Azevedo-Samodães, Ameal,

Avila-Perez or Monteverde. NUC: MH. OCLC: 19911420 (Harvard University, University

of São Paulo); 79415035 (John Carter Brown Library). Porbase locates two copies, both

Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. Not located in Jisc.

Rare & Important Work by Noted Afro-Brazilian Author

In a Splendid Contemporary Binding

4. [BARBOSA, Domingos Caldas]. Narração dos applausos com que o Juiz

do Povo e Casa dos Vinte-Quatro festeja a felicissima inauguração da Estatua

Equestre onde tambem se expõem as allegorias dos carros, figuras, e tudo o

mais concernente ás ditas festas. Lisbon: Na Regia Officina Typografica,

1775. 4°, splendid contemporary Portuguese binding of crimson sheep

(light wear at corners, head and foot of spine; short splits in joints near

head of spine), spine richly gilt with raised bands in six compartments,

richly gilt roll-tooled border on each cover, edges of covers gilt tooled,

all text-block edges gilt. Woodcut vignette and initial. Occasional slight

marginal soiling. Overall in fine condition. Bookplates of Victor Avila-

Perez and Fernando Alves Barata. 123 pp., (1, 1 blank ll.). $3,500.00

FIRST EDITION. “A very important book, and very rare indeed” (Borba de Moraes),

containing many poems (all unsigned) written in 1775 in honor of the dedication of the

statue of D. José I in Lisbon’s Praça do Comércio. These are preceded by a description

of the dedication ceremonies (pp. 3-74). Borba de Moraes mentions a variant in which

the pagination is not continuous throughout the volume.

Five of the odes and six sonnets are generally acknowledged to be the work of

Domingos Caldas Barbosa, one of the finest Brazilian poets of the colonial period. These

poems also appeared (again unsigned) in the undated, 27-page Collecção de poesias feitas

na feliz inauguração da Estatua Equestre, which is itself a rare work. Of these 11 poems

Borba knew of no later reprints, separately or in anthologies. Whether the Narração or

the Collecção came first is not clear: the type is set in very similar style in both, but there

are variations in wording, and the order in which the poems appear differs considerably.

Given the thematic structure of the Narração, it is possible that some of the poems

that did not appear in the Collecção were also the work of Caldas Barbosa. In the Narração,

an ode entitled “Europa,” which is attributed to Caldas Barbosa, is followed (pp. 79-84)

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by one entitled “Convoca a Europa os Genios festivos do paiz, e as deidades maritimas

... ,” then by Caldas Barbosa’s “Asia,” then by an ode and a sonnet entitled, respectively,

“Vem a Asia offerecer os seus dons ao muito alto, e poderoso Rey ... “ (pp. 88-91), and

“Vem Africa applaudir o felicissimo dia da famosa inauguração da estatua equestre ...

“ (p. 92). These are followed by two more poems attributed to Caldas Barbosa, entitled

“Africa,” and “America,” which are followed by the unattributed ode “Vem a America

applaudir o feliz dia da famosa inauguração da estatua equestre ... “ (pp. 99-101). If these

are not the work of Caldas Barbosa, it would be extremely interesting to know who

composed these transitional pieces; a study of the style might clarify matters. A stylistic

study might also show whether all 13 of the sonnets on pp. 117-23 are Caldas Barbosa’s

work, rather than only the five that appeared in the Collecção.

Caldas Barbosa was probably born in Rio de Janeiro in 1740; his mixed parentage

(father Portuguese, mother African) led some nineteenth-century critics to dub him the

“Mulatto Muse.” When his satirical poetry offended some powerful citizens of his native

city, he was sent to serve in the army at Colonia do Sacramento, in present-day Uruguay,

for several years, until 1762. After another seven or eight years in Rio de Janeiro he

moved to Lisbon, where he became the protégé of the Count of Pombeiro and was widely

acclaimed as a singer and poet until his sudden death in 1800. Varnhagen describes the

author’s popularity in Lisbon society: his presence “se tornou quase uma necessidade de

todas as festas, sobretudo nas partidas do campo. Nas aristocráticas reuniões das Caldas,

nos cansados banhos de mar, nos pitorescos passeios de Sintra, em Belas, em Queluz,

em Benfica, sociedade onde não se achava o fulo Caldas com sua viola não se julgava

completa” (Florilégio da poesia brasileira, quoted in W. Martins II:7, n. 578).

A founder and president of the major literary establishment in Portugal during the

eighteenth century, the Nova Arcádia, Caldas Barbosa’s nom-de-plume was “Lereno”—

hence Viola de Lereno, “Lereno’s guitar.” Bandeira describes Caldas Barbosa as the “first

Brazilian whose poetry has an entirely native flavor” (Brief History of Brazilian Literature

p. 61). He introduced Afro-Brazilian folk themes to Portugal by composing lundas, comic

popular songs of African origin in which Brazilian-Indian and African speech were used,

and wrote many modinhas, sentimental songs without music taken from Portuguese modas.