RICHARD C. RAMER Special List 161 MEDICINE

special list 161 33
On the other hand, he admits without any doubts the cameloleopard (which he carefully
distinguishes from the giraffe; p. 120) and the peixe mulher (p. 428).
Monteiro de Carvalho, described in the licenses as capitão engenheiro, also wrote a
work on comets, published in Lisbon, (1744).
j Innocêncio V, 75 (apparently never having seen the book, calling it a 12º in two
volumes); XIII, 145 (Brito Aranha also appears never to have seen a copy, but cites his
friend, Dr. José Carlos Lopes, whose copy was said to contain 16 unnumbered pp.,
followed by 600 pp.). Not in Borba de Moraes (1983), despite numerous references to
Brazil. Colmeiro, Botánica y botánicos 423 and 546 bis (both listings without collation). See
also Lisbon, Faculdade de Medicina, Catálogo da colecção portuguesa I, 63 (with collation
of [8 ll.], 600 pp.); Pires de Lima, Catálogo da Bibliotheca da Escola Medico-Cirurgica do
Porto 864 (the 1817 edition only); and Pritzel 1568 (giving collation of xiv, 600 pp.). Not
in Honeyman or Stiftung für Botanik catalogues. Not in JCB, Portuguese and Brazilian
Books; cf. 765/1 for the second issue. Not in Welsh or Greenlee Catalogue. Not in Azevedo-
Samodães, Ameal or Palha. Not located in NUC.
Describing Many Plants, Animals, and Minerals from Portuguese America
First Edition, Second Issue
46. CARVALHO, José Monteiro de. Diccionario portuguez das plantas,
arbustos, matas, arvores, animaes quadrupedes, e reptis, aves, peixes, mariscos,
insectos, gomas, metaes, pedras, terras, mineraes, &c. … Lisbon: Miguel
Manescal da Costa, 1765. 8°, contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt, red
label (partly gone; extremities worn, especially head of spine, front free
endleaf missing). Woodcut vignette on title-page, woodcut headpiece,
tailpiece and initials. Internally fine. Overall a very good to fine copy.
(8 ll.), 600 pp. $2,400.00
FIRST EDITION, second issue, with licences dated 9 to 17 July 1765 on preliminary
leaf *8 recto, and the catchword added to leaf *7 verso. The work is aimed at the layman
who can read no languages except Portuguese, but it also gives information on the
medicinal uses of plants, for the benefit of doctors and pharmacists. A second edition
appeared in Lisbon, 1817.
A great many of the entries are about plants, animals, and minerals that are found
exclusively in Portuguese and Spanish overseas possessions (Brazil, the Americas, Africa,
the Orient); many other entries mention special varieties of the item that are found in
those areas. Of the more than 220 examples of this, some are fairly well known: cacao
(p. 107), coca (p. 173), the giraffe (p. 267), and tobacco (p. 538). Most of the descriptions,
however, are of flora and fauna considerably more obscure, such as the aguila, a plant
from Indochina (p. 14), the angelim, a tree found in America (p. 42), the areca, a bird of
the East Indies, the burro de mato, an Ethiopian animal (p. 103), the nambu, a Brazilian
bird (p. 376), and the tamendua, an animal of Brazil (p. 545).
Monteiro de Carvalho is not an extremely critical writer, though he does refuse to
believe in centaurs, even on the word of St. Jerome (p. 154), or in the phoenix (p. 439).
On the other hand, he admits without any doubts the cameloleopard (which he carefully
distinguishes from the giraffe; p. 120) and the peixe mulher (p. 428).
Monteiro de Carvalho, described in the licenses as capitão engenheiro, also wrote a
work on comets, published in Lisbon (1744).