The history of the book in Brazil focuses on the development of the access to publishing resources and acquisition of the book in the country, covering a period extending from the beginning of the editorial activity during colonization to today's publishing market, including the history of publishing and bookstores that allowed the modern accessibility to the book.
Colonial Period It is believed that printing was only introduced by the settlers and colonisers in the colonies, which had a highly developed indigenous culture that the colonial power wanted to supplant or suppress. This idea is supported by the Brazilian historian Nelson Werneck SodréSODRÉ, Nelson Werneck, 1970, p. 291-293. and others. Printing, in the first two centuries of Portuguese and Spanish colonization, was in part a result of Christian evangelization. It was deployed through religious initiative, so that its production was destined to meet the clergy's needs and that of the missions.Hallewell, 1985, p. 8
"História da Companhia de Jesus no Brasil", by ,Hallewell, 1985, p. 10 says that the library of Colégio Santo Inácio, in O Morro do Castelo, Rio de Janeiro. (This was a landform that existed in the city of Rio, the hill being one of the foundation points of the city in the sixteenth century and which housed landmarks of great importance, such as colonial forts and buildings of the Jesuits. Nevertheless, it was destroyed in an urban reform in 1922.) This centre is believed to have undertaken some printed jobs around 1724, the accuracy of the claim not be ascertained. It could be referring to two books of the time, "Vocabulário de la lengua guarany", by Antônio Luiz Restrepo (1722), and "Arte de la lengua guarany", which were printed in a region that is currently part of Brazil, but which at the time belonged to Paraguay, Pueblo de Santa Maria la Mayor.Hallewell, 1985, p. 10
In most colonies, the necessities of governance made it an imperative to accept printing, and only in Portuguese Latin America did the administration remained so elementary that this need was dispensed with. This need only become imminent when the government of the colony suffered the impact of the Napoleonic invasion, a few years later.
The first attempt to introduce effective printing into Brazil was made by the Dutch, during the period of their occupation of northeastern Brazil, between 1630 and 1650.
During the Dutch occupation, negotiations between Pernambuco and the Netherlands resulted in the selection of a printer, Janszonon Pieter, to be in charge of printing in Recife, but he died as soon as he arrived in Brazil on 3 August 1643.TAUNAY, Afonso d'Escragnolle, 1936. Two years later, the Dutch West Indies Company was still looking out for a printer without success. At the time, Maurice of Nassau had already left, and the pressured Dutch no longer gave priority to the subject.
The start of publishing activity About 60 years later, Recife had the first printer of Brazil according to historians Ferreira de CarvalhoCARVALHO, Alfredo Ferreira de, 1908. and Pereira da Costa,COSTA, Francisco Agusto Pereira da, 1951. but the identity of the printer is not known. , in "Arts and Workshops of the Jesuits in Brazil,",Hallewell, 1985, p. 14 says the printer worked from 1703 to 1706, and argues that the typesetter was a Jesuit, Antonio da Costa, but there is no proof, however, the existence of such a printer.
In Rio de Janeiro, in 1747, there is definitive evidence is available that there was a printer, via leaflets printed at the time. The printer was Antonio Isidoro da Fonseca,Hallewell, 1985, p. 14 a recognized typographer of Lisbon, who had sold his business and come to [Brazil]. Isidoro had problems in Lisbon, with the Inquisition, being considered as "The Jew" editor. Antonio Jose da Silva, of Rio, was born in 1705 from a family of converted Jews, and that turned out to be burned later in an auto de fé of the Inquisition on 19 October 1739.Hallewell, 1985, p. 15 At the time, the governor of [Rio de Janeiro] and [Minas Gerais], Gomes Freire de Andrade, was interested in stimulating the intellectual life of the city of Rio de Janeiro. He encouraged the creation of Academia dos felizes in 1736, which became the Academia dos Selectos in 1752, which met at the Palácio do Governo itself.Hallewell, p. 17 It was also at this time that Ângela do Amaral Rangel became the first and only woman to participate in this academy. Concrete proof of the existence of printing was a leaflet, 1747, whose authorship is attributed to Luiz Antonio Rosado, and a so-called volume "Hoc est Conclusiones real entity Metaphysicae, praeside RGM Francisco de Faria" in 1747. There are two other works, referring to bishop [Antonio do Desterro Malheyro]. As soon as the news reached Lisbon, however, there was order to close the letterpress, because printing in the colony was not considered appropriate at the time.
Isidoro returned to Portugal, and, after three years, requested a royal license to reinstate himself as a printer in the colony, in Rio de Janeiro or Salvador, promising never to print without the appropriate civil and ecclesiastical licenses. The request was rejected Hallewell, 1985, p.20
Portugal's prohibition of printing in Brazil was the factor that made all Brazilian documents to get to be published in Europe or to remain in the form of manuscripts. There are several papers written by Brazilians and printed in Portugal at the time, including the poetry of Claudio Manuel da Costa, the work of José de Santa Rita Durão, Jose Basilio da Gama (author of "Uruguay", 1769), Tomas Antonio Gonzaga (whose work Marília de Dirceu was published in four editions in Lisbon between 1792 and 1800).
In 1792, there were only two bookstores in Rio de Janeiro,MACARTNEY, George, 1792- 1793. and possibly one of these was run by Paul Martim, a native of Tours (in France) and the first Rio bookseller. His son, Paul Martim Filho kept the bookstore running until 1823. The books offered were usually pertaining to medicine or religion, and most of the books that arrived in Brazil at the time were smuggled in.
Arrival of the royal family in Brazil
In 1808, when the royal family, under pressure from Napoleon's invasion, moved to Brazil, it took with them 60,000 volumes of the Royal Library.Hallewell, 1985, p. 31 Installed in the new capital, Rio de Janeiro, Dom João VI and his ministers created, among other developments, the Royal Library, now the National Library (Biblioteca Nacional), which was established in 1810. The impact of this development caused an increase in the number of bookstores, with two existing in 1808 (those of Paul Martin and Manuel Jorge da Silva) growing to five in 1809 (in addition to the above, those run by Francisco Luiz Saturnino da Veiga, Manuel Mandillo—which after 1814 was associated with José Norges Pine—and João Roberto Bourgeois); seven in 1812 (in addition to the previous, Manuel Joaquim da Silva Porto—which in 1815 was associated with Pedro Antonio Campos Bellos—and Jose Antonio da Silva); 12 in 1816 (the additional ones being those of Fernando José Pinheiro, Jeronimo Gonçalves Guimarães, Francisco José Nicolau Mandillo, Joao Batista dos Santos), and in 1818, 3 more (Antonio Joaquim da Silva Garcez, João Lopes de Oliveira Guimarães and Manuel Monteiro Trindade Coelho).Hallewell, 1985, p. 33 The newspaper Correio Braziliense", run by Hipólito José da Costa Pereira Furtado de Mendonça, was produced in England. In Paris, there was a development of the publishing trade in Portuguese, that would last a long time, almost until 1930.
There is disagreement over whether or not a printing press existed in Brazil on the occasion of the arrival of the royal family. Reportedly, a press with movable type was finally brought to Brazil by the government itself, which had earlier been forbidden so vehemently. António de Araújo e Azevedo, then Foreign Minister and later Count of Barca, brought and had installed the press in Rio de Janeiro, on the ground floor of his own home, 44 Rua do Passeio. Brother José Mariano da Conceição Veloso, a miner religious who had been to Lisbon in 1790, returned to Brazil with the royal family to work in the press of Rio, the Imprensa Régia. The new press was launched on May 13, 1808, with the publication of a 27 page booklet, accompanied by the royal charter. In the 14 years of the printing monopoly in Rio over a thousand items were produced. Hallewell, 1985, p. 37
Publishing in the province Minas Gerais The first book printed in the province was in Vila Rica, Minas Gerais, later Ouro Preto, in 1807, before the rise of the Royal Press (Imprensa Régia). Governor Athayde de Mello, the future Earl of Condeixa, was so pleased with a poem in his honor by Diogo de Vasconcelos, who wished to see it printed. This impression was made by Father José Joaquim Viegas de Menezes, in a small press for domestic purposes. Associated with the Portuguese Manuel José Barbosa Pimenta e Sal, he gradually set up the "Typographia Patriota de Barbosa & Cia", which was completed in 1821.
After 1807, the first books printed in Ouro Preto were a collection of "Laws of the Empire of Brazil" (Leis do Império do Brasil) in 1835 by a printer called Silva, and the "Dictionary of the Brazilian language" (Diccionario da Língua Brasileira), by Luis Maria da Silva Pinto in 1832. Later, other printing houses emerged in São João del Rei (1827), Diamantina (1828) and Marian (1830).Hallewell, 1985, p. 56 Bahia
In Bahia, as soon as the royal family came to Brazil, a bookseller from Salvador, Manuel Antonio da Silva Serva, a native of Portugal, asked permission to go to England and get a printer to Bahia; such permission was granted in 1809, and began printing in 1811. One might speculate that there were two printers at that time. Serva died in 1819, and the press continued with his partner and son-in-law José Teixeira and Carvalho, becoming known as "Typographia da Viúva Serva, e Carvalho." Later, his son Manuel started working at the firm. The publication known as Silva Serva had 176 titles, and the publisher survived with several name changes until 1846, but lost its monopoly position in 1823. During the struggle for independence in Brazil, the troops of the joint pro-Portugal junta invaded "Typographia da Viúva Serva" to stop the publication of the nationalist newspaper "Constitucional". Its editors fled to Cachoeira, where they installed their own graphics to continue printing the weekly "O Independente Constitucional".Hallewell, 1985, p. 61 The Serva press continued producing the Gazeta da Bahia, which was pro-Portugal, but when the nationalist cause triumphed in June 1823, its publication had to be stopped.
With the death of Silva Serva, Bahia's literary production went into decline, only recovering in the 1890s. Standing out, at the time, were "Livraria J. L. da Fonseca Magalhães, editores", of the lawyer Clovis Bevilacqua between 1895 and 1910, and Livraria Catilina, founded by Carlos Pongetti on February 2, 1835, and which lasted until 1960, when it became the oldest bookstore in Brazil. In 1864, Sierra Teriga took over its direction, passing it to Xavier Catiline in 1877. The Catilina was a retail house, but had an impressive editorial stint, under the Romualdo dos Santos, and published works of Castro Alves, Coelho Neto, Ruy Barbosa, Xavier Marques, and Ernesto Carneiro Ribeiro. The actual printing, however, was usually undertaken in Portugal or other European countries, as was customary at the time. Maranhão