Recent Acquisitions - Richard C. Ramer Old & Rare Books

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richard c. ramer
141. RODRIGUES, [António Augusto] Gonçalves. O Cavaleiro de
Oliveira o Senhor Aquilino Ribeiro e eu. Coimbra: Coimbra Editora, 1956.
8°, original illustrated wrappers (slight wear). Browning. Overall a
very good, unopened copy. 121, (1) pp., (1 l.), cxxx pp., (2 ll.), footnotes.
$25.00
FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Contains an appendix: Freitas, Jordão de “O Cavalheiro
de Oliveira (Apontamentos Bio-bibliographicos).”
142. RODRIGUES, António [Augusto] Gonçalves. O protestante
lusitano: estudo biografico e critico sobre o Cavaleiro de Oliveira. MDCCII-
MDCCLXXXIII. Coimbra: Coimbra Editora, 1950. Large 8°, original
printed wrappers (slight soiling). Uncut and mostly unopened. Internally
very fine. Overall a very good to fine copy. xv, 401 pp., (2 ll.), 7 ll.
plates, printed on both sides, 4 full-page illustrations in text, title page
in red and black, footnotes, bibliography, index of names. Offprint of
the review Biblos, volume XXVI. $60.00
FIRST and ONLY separate EDITION. Excellent study by a noted scholar for whom
the subject was a lifetime’s interest. There is a curious justification statement on the recto
of the third leaf: “Deste livro destinam-se ao mercado quatrocentos e vinte exemplares,
vinte dos quais em Papel Leorne, numerados 31 a 50, e quatrocentos em papel vulgar,
numerados de 201 a 600.” The present copy, on “papel vulgar” of excellent quality, is
numbered 137. From this we conclude that the present copy was “hors de commerce”;
less conclusively, we guess that there were a total of 600 copies. This work includes a
useful bibliography of the Cavaleiro de Oliveira’s writings.
Francisco Xavier de Oliveira, also known as Cavaleiro de Oliveira (Lisbon, 1702-
Hackney, 1783), took up a position as secretary to the Conde de Tarouca, who was then
Minister Plenipotenciary to Vienna. For reasons not completely clear (but probably a
clash of personalities over the Conde’s disapproval of Oliveira’s personal life), he left the
Conde’s service and went to Holland in 1740, where he began writing in order to make
a living. Four years later he moved to England, where he converted from Catholicism
to Protestantism. After the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 he wrote several works suggesting
that the earthquake might be blamed on the prevalence of Catholicism in Portugal.
He was condemned by the Inquisition and in 1761 was burned in effigy in Lisbon. One
of the most vehement critics of the Inquisition, he died of natural causes in Hackney
twenty-odd years later.
143. RODRIGUES, A. A. Gonçalves. A tradução em Portugal. Tentativa
de resenha cronológica das traduções impressas em língua portuguesa excluindo
o Brasil, de 1495 a 1950.… 5 volumes. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional
(volume I); Ministério da Educação / ICALP (volume II); and ISLA,