Bibliotheca historica de Portugal, e seus dominios ultramarinos …. Nova edição. by [SOUSA, José Carlos Pinto de]

Lisbon, Na Typographia Chalcographica, Typoplastica, e Litteraria do Arco do Cego, 1801.. 4°, contemporary cat's paw sheep (minor wear at head and foot of spine, corners), spine gilt with raised bands in five compartments, crimson morocco lettering piece with short title gilt, text block edges rouged. Three small woodcut vignettes on title page. Several woodcut tailpieces. Very good condition; fine internally. Author's name added in old ink manuscript on title page above imprint. Old 2-line ink inscription scored on rear pastedown endleaf. (13 ll.), xiii, 408, 100 pp. *** Second, greatly expanded edition of the first Portuguese bibliography to concentrate on material concerning Portuguese possessions overseas, including America. The first edition—a slim octavo of 151 pages, published Lisbon, 1797—described several hundred printed and manuscript works chronicling the history of Portugal and its possessions in Asia, Africa, America and the Atlantic. The second edition—a quarto of over 500 pages—is greatly improved, with many corrections as well as additions. Innocêncio found this work still useful when compiling his own Portuguese bibliography more than half a century later. The Bibliotheca historica remains of considerable use for its comments on manuscript accounts—most still unpublished—of the Portuguese settlements in Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and the Moluccas. Also included are content descriptions, brief biographical notes on authors, and author and subject indexes. Pinto de Sousa studied at the University of Coimbra and is believed to have served as a magistrate in one of Portugal's overseas colonies.The Arco do Cego press (officially the Tipografia Chalcografica, Tipoplastica e Literaria, located in Lisbon at the Arco do Cego), was established in 1800 at the insistence of D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, Minister of State, who realized the need to spread information on new techniques in the arts, industry and agriculture in Portugal and Brazil. He proposed to do this by publishing both original works and Portuguese translations of recent foreign works on those subjects. The director of the press (and author of the Relação) was José Mariano da Conceição Veloso (1742?-1811), a native of Minas Geraes and a noted botanist; he was assisted by many young Brazilians living in Lisbon. The Arco do Cego was well equipped, with its own foundry for making type, its own presses and its own designers and engravers, two of whom - Romão Eloy and Ferreira Souto - later introduced the art of engraving to Brazil. The press produced a relatively large number of works, but in 1801 it was incorporated into the Regia Oficina Typografica, also known as the Impressão Regia, or Regia Officina Typografica and later as the Imprensa Nacional.*** Innocêncio IV, 289. Borba de Moraes (1983) II, 975. JCB Portuguese and Brazilian Books 801/10. Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional, A Casa Literária do Arco do Cego 70. Welsh 125. Not in Bosch or Rodrigues.