Full text
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| Author(s): |
Kollontai Cossich Diniz
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU/SBI) |
| Defense date: | 2014-04-14 |
| Examining board members: |
Priscila Lena Farias;
Anna Paula Silva Gouveia;
Fernanda Verissimo
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| Advisor: | Priscila Lena Farias |
| Abstract | |
In this dissertation I examine the letterforms on books from the Guarani-Jesuit Reductions, a missionary enterprise of the religious fathers of the Jesus Company, in the River Plate area from 1609 to 1768. The first jesuits arrived in the region in 1585, coming from Peru and Brazil, and despite the difficulties of the early years, they settled the first Reduction in 1609. As soon as they conquered some stability, they communicated intensely with Rome and Madrid, from 1633 to 1645, supplicating for a printing press and the necessary licenses to print in the Reductions. Notwithstanding, it was only around 1700 that they finally achieved their intentions -- and it was not by means of a printing press brought from Europe, but of a printing press built in the missions itself. Before this, books were copied by hand, a craft that continued after the establishment of the printing press. The guarani prints and the guarani manuscripts have a distinguished place in the History of the book and printing in the New World. Reports written by the jesuit fathers from the Reductions generated some consensus that are repeated still today in the historiography of the region, specialised or not in book and printing, about the guaranis\' great ability to copy letters by hand and about the construction of the whole apparatus necessary for printing -- a printing press built with local wood and sorts cast with a metal league from the region. Of the dozen books and some pamphlets that were certainly printed in the Reductions, today it is possible to find copies of only eight titles. I analysed the letterforms in six of these books and in three manuscripts. The analysis made me question if type was really cast in the missions (result of analysing the printed books) and made me point out the variety of manuscript letterforms instead of the duplication of european models (result of analysing the manuscript books). The results are a contribution to the historiography that questions the use of textual documentation as the main source of testimonies about the missionary enterprise, and, above all, the historiography that questions the point of view from which the history of book production and the history of writing in the Guarani-Jesuit Reductions have been told. A point of view that promotes the \"rarity\" of the guarani books instead of the effort for its understanding. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 10/13649-7 - Letterforms in the book production of the Guarani Reductions of the Rio de la Plata region (1640-1727) |
| Grantee: | Kollontai Cossich Diniz |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |