PORTUGAL \ PORTUGUESE
The Portuguese e-with-a-tilde is a character apparently unsupported in HTML:
Infuriatingly, it simply drops out of the text. We have used "plain" e's, and apologize!

English Camões in Green Morocco

•  Fourth edition: Sonnets and canzones by the legendary Portuguese poet and playwright, translated into English by Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, Viscount Strangford, a notable Lusophile who served as a diplomat in Lisbon. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Binding:  Contemporary dark green straight-grain morocco, spine with gilt-stamped rules, rolls, and devices. Covers framed with a delicately curly gilt-rolled border; the center panels, within, accented by gilt-stamped corner fleurons. A bit of additional filigree in blind appears both within the rules of the gilt border and within the border on each center panel, to nice subtle effect. Gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC C355.   Binding as above, leather rubbed at edges and joints, spine a bit dimmed. Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of John Allan Powell; front fly-leaf with inked inscription dated 1922. A few spots of foxing, pages otherwise clean. A pretty and very English production for this Portuguese poet.  A charming volume.  (23077)

A PortugueseAnti-Church Law Explained

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  In the form of a letter from one friend to another, this publication seeks to explain “the end and the logic” of the law of 1 August 1774 prohibiting citizens who have attained the age of 60 from selling or mortgaging their real property to/with the Catholic Church.

No copy located via NUC Pre-1956 or WorldCat.  PROBASE locates only one copy in the more than 170 Portuguese libraries that participate; no copy found in the OPAC of the Portuguese National Library.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Slim short wormtrack in lower margin of last leaves; light soiling to edges. A nice copy indeed of a rarity.  (28603)

Curbing Contraband

Brazil

•  Document summary, found below "REY": "Alvará com força de Ley, porque V. Magestade he servido ampliar os Paragrafos quinto, sexto, e setimo do Capitulo decimo setimo dos Estatutos da Junta do Commercio destes Reynos, e seus Dominios, para mais efficazmente se evitarem os contrabandos. . . . "

•  Quarter green cloth with marbled paper sides, and red leather cover label with gilt-stamped title and gilt ruling.

An Illuminating Collection

•  The importance of Brazil to Portugal, brought home in a hard and dramatic way when the Dutch took over portions of the colony during the period 1630-54, was further enhanced by the discovery in the late 17th century of gold, and in the early 18th century of diamonds, there--in addition to the sugar and wood that had domininated the colony's earliest lists of exports. This collection of royal decrees (alvarás and other types) deals with treatment of black slaves, regulation of shipping, administration of sugar and tobacco monopolies, importing of wine and vinegar, and the constant and various problems of managing colonial administrators and distributing/limiting their perquisites and prerogatives.

In all, an interesting sampling of the types of decrees that the kings and queens of Portugal issued in order to maintain order and discipline in the ever-increasingly important colony of Brazil. The value of the documents sold individually totals $6325.00, and the collection price represents a savings of above 20%.

•  The vast bulk of these decrees are bound in faux morocco and faux mottled calf; those that are in wrappers or as issued are carefully noted. All are in very good condition.

For details, please email us.

With aJAUNTY Woodcut Bull at Top

•  Program for a bullfight in Porto at the new bull-ring; with a woodcut of a bull above the drop-title.

Rare.  No copies traced via the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal’s online catalogue, nor via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, and RLIN.

•  A little light spotting and soiling. Inked numeral on first page.

On Royal Power inCivil *&* Canon Law
    American Interest, American Provenance   

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of the second volume of Castro's “De manu regia tractatus,” a work that deals with canon law, the position of the king (especially of Portugal) in canon law, and the relation of the king to the pope and his bishops and vice versa; vol. I had appeared in 1622. The work was written during the period of the Portuguese “Babylonian Captivity,” the period from 1580 to 1640 when the King of Spain was also the King of Portugal.  It has great resonance for Spanish and Spanish-American legal scholars.

Of the first edition, WorldCat locates only one set of both volumes in the New World (at the University of Toronto) and only one copy of vol. II (at the National Library of Chile). The Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico finds five complete sets in Spain and one stray copy of vol. I. PORBASE locates only the sets in the National Library of Portugal and vol. I in a Catholic university library.

Provenance:  17th-century hand: “Estos libros cambie del Combto. de San Joseph de Tacubaia por otros expositibos y moralistas que di a dho Combto. con lic[enci]a. de su Provincial.” And with the marca de fuego on the upper edges of the Convento de San José de México, D.F. (Tacubaya).

•  Barbosa Machado, II, 319–20; Inocêncio, III, 108.   Contemporary limp vellum, stained, lacking the ties; front pastedown no longer pasted down. Some wormholes, mostly in margins, occasionally in text and touching letters but not costing words. Some browning of paper in some quires. Some stray stains. Really, a rather good copy of an important and scarce work.  (29219)

“We Shall LoseOur Whole Income of Mony from Abroad”

[Hare, Francis].

•  Generally attributed to Francis Hare, Bishop of Chichester, this anonymously published political analysis expresses concern not only that putting the Duke of Anjou on the Spanish throne would tilt the balance of power in Europe too far towards France, but also that such action would greatly damage the livelihoods of English textile workers, among others dependent on international commerce; also questioned areSwift’s views on the ramifications of trade with Portuguese America. This is the second, expanded edition.

•  ESTC T58140; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 711/126; Teerink-Scouten 1034. Blue-green paper wrappers, old style. Title-page with small numeric stamp, faint traces of other annotations. Small area of worming in inner margins, touching a very few letters. A few scattered spots, otherwise clean; edges untrimmed.

LISBONCelebrates the Peace

•  Account of the celebrations in Lisbon surrounding the announcement of the peace which ended the Seven Years War, including some discussion of the fireworks used, an address to the King of Great Britain, and a list of the newly appointed ambassadors between the former belligerents.

Rare.  No copies were traced in the U.S. via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, or RLIN.

•  Plain brown wrappers, shallowly chipped; small paper label on front with rubber-stamped numeral thereon. Small hole in title-page without loss of print. Paper repairs in top margins of pp. 10 and 11. Light soiling. Pencilled notations on title-page and front wrapper.

Exclusive Rights to ImportSLAVES
A Brazilian Monopoly Is Created

•  Following Pombal's success in establishing the trading monopoly known as the Companhia do Grão Pará e Maranhão in 1755, which was to have exclusive rights to the vast northern area of Brazil, the great Portuguese reformer established a similar monopoly for the southern region: the Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba. The new company's trade monopoly was to be supreme in the two captaincies noted in its name, with Brazil–Africa/Africa–Brazil commerce—i.e., the slave trade—being specifically included in its perquisites. The image below left is a composite — the bottom of one page, the top of the next — showing the slavery clause.

This, the first edition of this publication, contains the statutes of the company in 63 numbered clauses, plus a copy of the royal decree approving them and officially establishing the company. It was to be reprinted in 1776.
Single-click images where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for enlargements.

Several sources, including Rodrigues, call this a "rare" publication.

•  Borba de Moraes (2nd ed.), Bibliographia brasiliana, I, 419; Maggs Bros., Bibliotheca brasiliensis, 231 (misstating the contents and failing to find it in Rodrigues); Rodrigues 698 "rare." On the Pombaline reforms, see: James Lockhart and Stuart Schwartz, Early Latin America: A history of colonial Spanish America and Brazil. Recent quarter red morocco with raised bands: Gilt beading on, and gilt ruling above and below, each band; gilt center-devices. Marbled paper sides and matching marbled endpapers. Contemporary numbering of the leaves in ink; some contemporary marginalia in ink. Nice.

Dealing Judicially withContraband Smugglers

•  By this Alvará (13 September 1764) the king addresses matters of jurisdiction in cases against dealers in contraband sugar. (“Alvará, porque V. Magestade ha por bem ordenar que as diligencias preparatorias dos processos verbaes dos Contrabandos, apprehendidos na Alfandegado do assucar da cidade de Lisboa, se fação per ante o Juiz Conservador geral do Commercio. . . . ”)

There are two issues: in this issue on p. [1], the catchword is “hendidos,” and in the other catchword is “hendi-.”

WorldCat locates only the copy at the John Carter Brown Library.

•  Removed from a volume. Light brown stain in lower margin and an even lighter stain in top one; old foliation number neatly inked in upper outer corner of recto. A good exemplar.  (28246)

Hospital Reform forthe Benefit of Orphans

•  The king has decided that reform and improvement aere needed at the Orphans' Hospital (Hospital dos Expostos) in Lisbon and here issues the decree specifying the changes. (“Alvará, por que Vossa Magestade he servido occorrer com as providencias necessarias para fazer em cessar os inconvenientes, que até agora se praticavam no Hospital dos Expostos: Dando nova forma para as creações, entregas, e educações delles . . . “).

No copies found via WorldCat or COPAC.

•  Removed from a bound volume; now in modern wrappers. Old foliation neatly inked in upper outer corners; clean, with wide margins.  (28222)

REFORMING the Queen'sHydrotheraphy Hospital at Caldas

•  The Portuguese king decides to reform and reorganize the Hospital Real das Caldas (a thermal springs treatment center) that Queen Leonor established in 1484. The details of the innovations are detailed here. (“Alvará de Regimento, por que Vossa Magestade, annullando, cassando, e abolindo o antigo Regimento, chamado Compromisso do Hospital Real das Caldas . . . que depois delle se expediram; fazendo cessar a Inspecção, que sobre elle até agora teve a Meza da Consciencia, e Ordens; e separando-o da Adminstração dos Conegos Seculares de S. João Evangelista”).

No copy traced via WorldCat or COPAC.

•  Removed from a volume and laid into modern wrappers. Light stain in outer margin of last leaf with a trace of same showing on a few more inward; old foliation neatly inked in upper outer corners; generally clean, with good margins. One inked, contemporary marginal note.  (28234)

Santarem, Manuel Francisco de Barros, 2. visconde de. Inéditos (Miscellanea). Comp. & ed. by Jordáo de Freitas. Lisboa: Impr. Libanio da Silva, 1914. Small folio. 582 pp.
$150.00

•  Tan sheep, tooled in blind on spine and covers. Some worming, exclusively in margins.

How WouldExpulsion “Go” in Portugal?

•  Seabra da Silva (1732–1813) was a fidalgo and close ally of Pombal in his war on the Jesuits. The present work is a translation of his 1768 work in Portuguese of Petiçaö de recurso apresentada em audiencia publica a Sua Magestade, sobre o ultimo e critico estado desta monarchia, depois que a Sociedade chamada de Jesus, foi desnaturalisada e proscripta dos dominios des França e Hispana. Click the interior images for enlargements.

It is a study of the Society of Jesus and its expulsion from Spain and France and the consequences thereof, and it was presented to Joseph of Portugal so that he might anticipate similar consequences following his order of expulsion.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, XI, 1205.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards. Blackened area on spine; bookplate. A clean copy. (20462)

Can’t TrustThose Spaniards

•  During the Seven Years War, Portugal gave support to her traditional ally Great Britain, especially the use of her ports, and with the entry of Spain into the war, the Spanish tried to put a stop to it. First they tried diplomacy, and when that failed they invaded their neighbor, as is here documented. They were beaten off by the Portuguese with British assistance, thus reinforcing Portuguese distrust of their Castilian neighbors and their close ties with Great Britain.

•  Palau 307020. Wrappers stencilled in green with manuscript title on paper label affixed to front wrapper; all edges speckled red. Wrappers with a few tears and a little tattering. Small wormhole in front fly-leaf. A few pencil marks. Inked number on verso of front fly-leaf.

Rare1705 Newsletter

•  A rare Portuguese newsletter on the dynastic wars in Spain with highly detailed descriptions of the war in Barcelona, and with a list of prisoners, among whom are many Neapolitan nobles faithful to the Aragonese dynasty. Covers events in September and October of 1705.

•  Not in Palau. Fold of outer bifolium mended with tissue. Disbound.

And Another, 1710

•  This very rare newsletter describes the victory of Count Guidobald von Starhemberg, Austrian field marshal, over the forces of Philip V (referred to here as the Duke of Anjou) at Almenara in July 1710. Woodcut coat of arms of Portugal on title-page, woodcut head- and tailpieces.

•  Palau 256896. Fold of outer bifolium mended with tissue.

An UncommonSpanish-Language Edition

Vertot, René Aubert de.

•  First Spanish edition of this important Portuguese history by the Abbé de Vertot, focusing on the 1640 revolution in which the "Spanish captivity" was ended and the house of Braganza brought to power. Jefferson's library contained a copy in the original French, and, following its first printing in that language in 1689, the work was translated into a number of other tongues, with the present Spanish rendition being now significantly less common than most others.

Provenance: With the armorial bookplate of D. Feliciano Ramirez de Arellano, Marqués de la Fuensanta del Valle, and bookseller's ticket from a Lisboa dealer.

•  Palau 361040. Contemporary treed calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title label, covers showing only light wear; joints and board edges rubbed, leather lost over spine head and cracking over foot, spine also with small traces of paper label. Hinges slightly tender.

PLACE AN ORDER   |   E-MAIL US   |   GO (BACK) TO TOPIC/INTEREST TABLE   |   PRB&M HOME

All material © 2012
The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company