Recent Acquisitions - Richard C. Ramer Old & Rare Books

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richard c. ramer
constitutes one of the main sources for the history of Angola, particularly the land of the
Lunda. Carvalho visited the Quimbundo, Cuango, and Cassai peoples. A city in Lunda
was named after him.
36. CARVALHO, João Jorge de. Gaticanea, ou cruelissima guerra entre
os caes, e os gatos, decidida em huma sanguinolenta batalha na grande praça
da Real Villa de Mafra. 2 works in 1 volume. Lisbon: Na Officina Patr. de
Francisco Luiz Ameno, 1781. 8°, contemporary mottled sheep (slight
wear), flat spine with gilt fillets and crimson leather lettering piece,
gilt letter, text-block edges sprinkled reddish-brown. Woodcut vignette
on title page. Typographical headpiece on p. [i]. Woodcut headpieces
at the beginning of each of the four cantos. Woodcut tailpieces at the
ends of cantos II and III. Second folding plate neatly reinforced at inner
margin without loss. A very good copy. Later ink signature of Augusto
Cândido da Costa Lima [?] on title page. (2 ll.), xi, 126 pp., (1 l. with
directions to the binder for placing of the plates), 3 plates (2 folding).
2 works in 1 volume. $900.00
FIRST EDITION of this allegorical attack on the extravagances of the author’s time,
which appeared again in 1816 and 1828. The Gaticanea, a verse description in four cantos
of a mock epic battle in the Portuguese town of Mafra between cats and dogs (symbolizing
women and men), is modeled on the Batrachomyomachia (Battle of Frogs and Mice)
wrongly attributed to Homer.
The first of the three interesting plates shows Fame crowning the victorious dog,
whose collar reads “Maluco” (“insane person”). The folding plate facing p. 1 shows a
dog and cat fighting in a kitchen, while a man and woman struggle to separate them;
this plate is signed by [Manuel da Silva] Godinho (see Soares, História da gravura artística
em Portugal I, 317-9). The second folding plate shows the battle of a large number of cats
and dogs in front of the Igreja e Mosteiro de Mafra, rendered in fine architectural detail.
Mafra (also known as the Portuguese Escorial) was completed in 1730, and when this
work was published, was an Augustinian house.
The final leaf, blank on the recto and with directions for placement of the plates on
the verso, is absent in most copies.
j Innocêncio III, 389-390 (giving incomplete collation); X, 283; XI, 294. Palha 1018.
Not in Welsh or Greenlee Catalogue. OCLC: 559487539 (British Library); 19911658 (New
York Public Library, Yale University, Houghton Library, Thomas Fischer Rare Book
Library-University of Toronto, Indiana University, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
University of California-Berkeley, Universiteit van Amsterdam-Centrale Bibliotheek);
248761991 (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin—Preussischer Kulturbesitz); 311739594 (Universitätsbibliothek
Leipzig); 433300473 (Biblioteca Nacional de España); 457303972
(Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Porbase locates 2 copies, in the Biblioteca Nacional
de Portugal and the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian Biblioteca Geral da Arte. Copac
repeats British Library only.
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