First impression: novels published by the Impressão Regia do Rio de Janeiro (1808-1822)

Author(s)

Simone Cristina Mendonça de Souza

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
• Defense date: 2007-08-28

Examining board members

Márcia Abreu; Orna Messer Levin; João Luis da Costa Campos Vieira Lisboa; Luiz Carlos Villalta; Anibal Francisco Alves Bragança

• Advisor: Márcia Abreu

Abstract

Among many titles published between 1808 and 1822 by Impressão Régia (Royal Printing) from Rio de Janeiro, this thesis concentrates on the novels. In the 19th century the organization of documents and different works published in such period began. However, a significant part of the copies had already disappeared at that time. So, the method used for identifying the titles included newspaper announcements. As publications made in Lisbon were also announced, there was a doubt regarding the delimitation of the ones which had been effectively published by the Impressão Régia from Rio de Janeiro. The confusion about printing places supported the hypothesis about an editorial relation between the Impressão Régia established in the colony and its congener in Lisbon. Such hypothesis was refuted by us after investigating the Portuguese printing house and the titles of novels published by it. We concluded that it would only be possible to define which novels were published by the first printing house officially established in Brazil by means of the localization of the copies and the confirmation, through the data printed on the title page, that they were printed in Rio de Janeiro. We localized almost every novel which were catalogued and delimited those which originated from the press of Impressão Régia from Rio de Janeiro. During the process, we framed the editorial history of each one of them, verify the way they were announced by the booksellers in the newspapers and analyzed these books from the material and textual points view. Being rare and hard to be located, nowadays, these novels are seldom remembered or totally unknown. Nevertheless, they are important for studies about the circulation of books during the colonial period and the subsequent years, and they definitely played an important part in forming the audience's taste for novel reading (AU)