BRAZIL


ALMEIDA (FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE LACERDA E) Diario da viagem do Dr. Francisco José de Lacerda e Almeida pelas capitanias do Pará, Rio Negro, Matto-Grosso, Cuyabá, e S. Paulo, nos annos de 1780 a 1790, woodcut title device, 2 single wormholes throughout (last dozen or so leaves with one longer trail), dampstaining with loss to lower margins (last few leaves with text just affected and some repairs), untrimmed and partially unopened in publisher's printed wrappers, upper cover with title and ship device within ornamental border, repair to head of spine, lower cover defective, 4to, São Paulo, Typ. de Costa Silveira, 1841
|One of the earliest books printed in São Paolo, in original wrappers: a rare and important work on the history of Brazil and the establishment of its territory. Almeida, doctor in mathematics and royal astronomer to the king of Portugal, was commissioned in 1780 to survey the Amazon region and establish its borders with the Spanish colonies. He sailed from Lisbon to Belém do Pará, and travelled through the interior of Brazil, finally reaching São Paulo in 1790. The detailed diaries he kept were published some 40 years after the author's death, at the request of the São Paulo Provincial Legislative Assembly.