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English Camões in Green Morocco

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•  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.

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)

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.  (4126)

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Camões in the New World

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•  Renaissance Portuguese poetry is not well known outside of Portugal and Brazil. Probably the only poet of that era to have name-recognition beyond the Lusophone world is Camões, the poet whose epic The Lusiad celebrates the overseas exploration achievements of his nation. This is the second American edition, following the 1805 Boston edition, of Lord Strangford's compilation and translation of a representative array of Camões' work. It is taken from the first London edition of 1803.

Binding:  Early — probably Boston — binding of full calf: Covers tooled with a greek key design and a double gilt rule; within that combination border is a blind-tooled vine scroll. The round spine has no raised bands and is richly tooled with wavy-line fillets, straight-line rules, wavy-line pointillé fillets and central “compartment” stars.

Provenance:  Presentation inscriptions “Mary Coulter the gift of a friend” and “Winifred Thomas, from Mother, March 2 1862" as well as signature of Miss Winifred Thomas of Bergen, New Jersey, on endpapers.

•  Parsons 314; Shaw & Shoemaker 14630 (giving wrong pagination).   Bound as above, lightly rubbed, with loss of gilt at corners. Provenance markings as above, light pencilling on endpapers, two interior holes on title-page; foxing, spotting, and a leaf laid in. The ladies who owned this book, and others, read it!  (36659)

“We Shall LoseOur WHOLE Income of Mony from Abroad

•  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.  (6369)

Colonial Brazilian Medical Work

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•  The true first edition: The copies with 1741 on the title-page were actually printed in 1752, as the dates of the licences clearly demonstrate. Also, those copies are, as expected with a second edition, in smaller format, i.e., quarto.

Cardoso de Miranda was a “cirurgiam approvado, natural da Freguezia de S. Martinho de Cambres junto á cidade de Lamego, e de presente assistente nesta da Bahia de todos os Santos” as proclaimed on the title-page. He also practiced medicine in Minas Geraes, and owned a galleon engaged in commerce with Africa. His work covers the treatment of tropical diseases, fevers, gonorrhea, scurvy, etc. The text includes letters addressed to the author from various Brazilian physicians, along with a tribute in verse addressed to the book itself.

Borba de Moraes writes of the Relaçaõ cirurgica: “a famous book of Brazilian medicine. The text is seldom studied because of the rarity of both editions.” Searches of NUC and WorldCat find only three U.S. libraries (RPJCB, DNLM, NNNAM) reporting ownership of the first edition.

Binding:  Modern calf excellently executed in the18th-century style, gilt extra spine with red leather gilt label; boards with modestly elegant gilt roll at perimeter of boards, plain endpapers.

•  Alden & Landis 747/30; Borba de Moraes, Bibliographia brasiliana (1983 ed.), p. 572; Silva, Diccionário bibliografico portuguez, III, p. 338 (J582); Blake, NLM 18th Century, p. 78.   Binding as above, in excellent condition. Complex stain in inner margins beginning at half-title and extending to folio [21] of the preliminaries, ever diminishing, else very nice throughout and handsomely printed.  (39971)

The War of the Seven Reductions & Other Matters

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•  A translation into Neo-Latin of Relaçaõ abbreviada da republica, que os religiosos Jesuitas . . . estabeleceraõ nos dominios ultramarinos [etc.] published at Lisbon in 1757, and written by or at the instance of Minister Pombal. It was part of this minister's platform to reduce the power of the Jesuits and to remove them from the Portuguese empire; and without a doubt the immediate impetus for this work was the War of the Seven Reductions (i.e, the Guarani War) that pitted the combined forces of Spain and Portugal against the Guarani living in seven Jesuit reductions in Paraguay.

This was, both in the Portuguese and the Latin versions, circulated as a propaganda tool in the diplomatic war that Pombal waged in Europe against the Society of Jesus.

Provenance:  Ex-Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, with its stamp showing this a deaccessioned duplicate.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only six U.S. libraries reporting ownership of this edition.

•  Sabin 14962; Borba de Moraes, Bibliographia brasiliana,194; Palau 58290; Streit, Bibiotheca missionum, III, 747. Not in Borba de Moraes, Bibliografia brasileira do periodo colonial.   Contemporary mottled paper wrappers. Neat, oval Vatican Library stamp on title-page and final blank. A very good copy, clean and with full margins.  (34688)

Dealing Judicially withContraband Smugglers

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•  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

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•  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

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•  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.  (3606)

How WouldExpulsion “Go” in Portugal?

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•  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.

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.  (9044)

Coimbra's DesperateSweets Situation

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•  At the midpoint of the 18th century the students at the University of Coimbra were living in a crisis situation: Satisfying their sweet tooth was proving impossible! Our anonymous writer was clearly a student at the university and here surveys the sorry state of sweet supplies in the town. First, they are too expensive and deplete the pockets of coin for gambling, Second, they aresimply not good. The various sugar-rich treats (necessities?) are brought before the Deputy Judges of the Baize College (i.e., set on the card table) and put on trial. The judges review the qualities and problems of presented açucar rosada, caramels, alfenim, coated almonds, marmalade, candied plums, Brazilian lime conserves, and other delicacies that are all found wanting.

A marvelous example of college culinary humor and a great snapshot of Coimbra's confectionary habits.

Provenance:  19th-century ownership stamp of the Duke of Palmel on title-page; provenance noted with thanks to Richard Ramer.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, and Probase find only the three copies, all held in the Portuguese National Library.

•  Title-leaf torn across and longitudinally at midpoint, with old repair on verso and leaf crumpled; spine with a strip of brown faux leather. Clearly a battered survivor of a small press run produced entirely for immediate, highly local chuckles.  (39893)

UncommonSpanish-Language Edition

Vertot, René Aubert de.

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•  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. (4260)

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