Circuito Atlântico de impressos: livros, agentes, leituras e saberes entre Portugal e o Maranhão (1750 a 1801)

Abstract

In this work I investigate the circulation of prints in São Luís, between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the XIX century, with the rise of D. José I in 1750, signaling the beginning of a policy based on ideas of lights, officially instituted By Pombal, until 1801, when he finished the project of the Calcografia do Arco do Cego (Marian reign), which concentrated all the processes of printing and sending books to the possessions by the government. For the main theme, I propose to analyze the circulation of printed matter in São Luís, trying to affirm that the book circuits were inserted within a political strategy developed by the Portuguese government based on the "ideals of illustration", with the intention of spreading practical knowledge That would increase or even enhance the exploitation of colonial products, making production more profitable. Two figures that will be important in this process of circulation are D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho (mentor) and Br. José Mariano da Conceição Veloso (performer). The first, Minister of State and Navy, and the second, a naturalist born in Minas Gerais, who had a network of contacts, enabling him to ascend within the kings, to the point of assuming the direction of the Arco do Cego, a Important position within the reina. Other agents, who will dynamize this movement between central and overseas, are the governors of the captaincies, in the case of Maranhão we have D. Fernando António de Noronha, who ruled between the years of 1792-1798 and D. Diogo de Sousa who managed From 1798 to 1804. Thus, it was decisive to survey the typologies of subjects related to the circulation of printed matter in the documents of the Overseas Historical Archive (AHU) between 1750 and 1801, and the Books of the Judgments of the Chamber of St. Louis present at Public Archive of the State of Maranhão (APEM), seeking to understand and delineate the specificities of the Portuguese project in São Luís regarding the printed matter, besides observing the events and developments in the captaincy.