Bibliologist Marina Garone Gravier, of the National Library of Mexico (BNM) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), explains that, unlike in Brazil, in her country a \u201cMexican bibliography\u201d encompasses all printed and published material about Mexico, including indigenous works, books, and documents from the twentieth century. She also highlights that the term Mexicana,<\/em> which would be the equivalent of Brasiliana, <\/em>does not exist. \u201cMany of our printed materials from the colonial period were written in the indigenous language,\u201d she states, mentioning that the oldest document stored by BNM dates back to 1554. She suggests that the concept of Brasiliana is tied to twenty-first century book collecting in the United States, a country that allocates funds using this nomenclature. Behind the agreement to update the concept of Brasiliana is the idea that it must \u201creflect a country\u2019s internal changes and correspond with the fields of study, which are dynamic.\u201d<\/p>\n Donaldson Collection\u2009\/\u2009Getty Images<\/span>American editor Alfred Knopf and his wife, Blanche, who acted as informal sponsors for Brazilian authors in the English-speaking worldDonaldson Collection\u2009\/\u2009Getty Images<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n The National Library of Mexico is located at UNAM, where various networks of researchers study and disseminate its collection, through the Bibliographic Research Institute, which has been around for over 50 years. \u201cWith books and documents from all over Latin America, published starting in the sixteenth century, BNM also houses documents subject to legal deposit in Mexico,\u201d says Garone Gravier, who teaches courses at the National Library for graduate students in different departments at UNAM, including history, linguistics, literature, and the arts.<\/p>\n Although Brasiliana collections originated in the sixteenth century, the concept was not defined until the 1930s, due to developments in the publishing market. Historian Eliana Regina de Freitas Dutra, of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), analyzes the namesake collection published by Companhia Editora Nacional from 1931 onwards. Sociologist Fernando Azevedo (1894\u20131974) was responsible for developing the editorial proposal. Over the course of its existence, a total of 415 titles by Brazilian and foreign authors were published. \u201cThe Brasiliana Collection published rare titles, such as those written by chroniclers and travelers from the colonial period, in addition to republishing out-of-print works and publishing new works on history, Brazilian social formation, education, geography, ethnology, and other fields of knowledge. It was even responsible for inaugurating the practice of editorial collecting in Brazil,\u201d she says. The entire collection has been digitized through the Brasiliana Eletr\u00f4nica project carried out by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) under the coordination of historian and engineer Israel Beloch. In addition to Companhia Editora Nacional, other publishers, such as Difus\u00e3o Europ\u00e9ia do Livro (DIFEL), Jos\u00e9 Olympio, Civiliza\u00e7\u00e3o Brasileira, and Livraria Martins Editora, released Brasiliana collections starting in the 1930s.<\/p>\n Brazilian National Archive<\/span>Constitution of the Empire of Brazil, one of the documents displayed in an exhibition organized by the National Library, in 1881Brazilian National Archive<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Another researcher of these editorial collections, historian F\u00e1bio Franzini, of the Federal University of S\u00e3o Paulo (UNIFESP), states that Jos\u00e9 Olympio\u2019s Brazilian Documents Collection has published works that have become classics in the country\u2019s historiography and social thinking circles. Some works include Roots of Brazil<\/em>, by historian S\u00e9rgio Buarque de Holanda (1902\u20131982), which inaugurated the collection in 1936, and The Masters and the Slaves<\/em>, written by Gilberto Freyre in 1933 and incorporated into the collection in 1943. In a study of the collection performed by BBM-USP between 2019 and 2020, the library analyzed the prefaces from several editions of The Masters and the Slaves, <\/em>including three Argentine, two French, one North American, one Portuguese, one German, one Venezuelan, and one Polish edition. The objective: to understand why a book dedicated to the social formation process in Brazil was published in so many countries, including Argentina and the United States, in the 1940s, and France, in the 1950s. \u201cIn the prefaces that Freyre wrote for the international editions, he tries to show that his interpretation of Brazil could be universally understood,\u201d he states, justifying the foreign readers\u2019 interest in the work.<\/p>\n In 1965, on the heels of publishers creating Brasiliana collections, historian and bibliophile Rubem Borba de Moraes (1899\u20131986), in his work O bibli\u00f3filo aprendiz <\/em>(The apprentice bibliophile<\/em>), first proposed a definition for the concept. According to his interpretation, Brasiliana comprises \u201cbooks about Brazil printed from the sixteenth century to the late nineteenth century, and books by Brazilian authors printed abroad until 1808.\u201d A letter from merchant and explorer Am\u00e9rico Vesp\u00facio (1454\u20131512), written in 1504, is considered the starting point for Brasiliana. \u201cIn addition to Moraes, other intellectuals formulated definitions, including lawyer and historian Jos\u00e9 Hon\u00f3rio Rodrigues [1913\u201387], who produced lists of books he considered essential to understanding Brazil,\u201d details historian Carlos Zeron, director of BBM-USP until the start of this year.<\/p>\n John Carter Library<\/span>Am\u00e9rico Vesp\u00facio written in 1504 is considered the starting point for Brasiliana collectionsJohn Carter Library<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Regarding the first collections assembled by bibliophiles, historian Thiago Lima Nicodemo, professor at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and coordinator of the Public Archives of the State of S\u00e3o Paulo, recalls that the German naturalist Carl von Martius (1794\u20131868) was one of the first to amass this type of collection in the nineteenth century, in addition to French historian and traveler Ferdinand Denis (1798\u20131890). The twentieth century saw an increase in the number of collectors interested in books about Brazil. Moraes and Yan de Almeida Prado (1898\u20131991) are part of this group of pioneers. Upon his death, Moraes left nearly 2,300 books to the lawyer, businessman, and bibliophile Jos\u00e9 Mindlin (1914\u20132010) and his wife, Guita (1916\u20132006). Over the course of more than 80 years, the couple has compiled a collection with 32,000 titles and 60,000 volumes of books and manuscripts about Brazil, all of which were donated to USP in 2005, upon foundation of the BBM.<\/p>\n In his project titled \u201cMem\u00f3ria digital: Arquivo e documento hist\u00f3rico no mundo contempor\u00e2neo\u201d (Digital memory: Historical collections and documents in the modern world), started two years ago, Nicodemo works with the idea that Brasiliana collections are important to pooling knowledge to support the formation of public policies. \u201cBrasiliana collections also serve to promote projects aimed at modernizing the country, by providing a better understanding of its populations and borders,\u201d he states. According to him, starting in the nineteenth century, various institutions began investing in these collections to establish connections between knowledge production and practical interventions. \u201cThe traditional concept of Brasiliana involves books produced about Brazil by foreign travelers and works by iconic authors from our history. However, we now advocate for the inclusion of indigenous works and marginal literature, for example. We must seek new lenses through which to view Brazil,\u201d affirms sociologist Alexandre Saes, current BBM director.<\/p>\n Mindlin Family Archive<\/span>Businessman Jos\u00e9 Mindlin and his wife, Guita, in their home libraryMindlin Family Archive<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n The idea of broadening the concept of Brasiliana, as proposed by Antonio Dimas, of the IEB, involves including foreign collections about Brazilian culture that are not necessarily composed strictly of books. One such collection is that of historian Simona Binkov\u00e1, of Charles University in the Czech Republic, which includes iconographic documents of Brazilian cartography produced in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, showing aspects of Czech naturalists\u2019 participation in a scientific expedition carried out in Brazil in 1817. In the United States, there are the collections maintained by geologist John Casper Branner (1850\u20131922), with manuscripts and maps from studies of Brazil from the late nineteenth century, and that of historian Ludwig Lauerhass (1936\u20132020), which includes approximately 4,000 items related to Brazilian history, anthropology, and sociology from the last century. According to Dimas, like the Knopf collection, these and other collections are still obscure and could serve as a basis for new scientific discoveries. \u201cFor example, when working with the American publisher\u2019s estate, I identified that Freyre and Amado had promoted our country\u2019s culture in the United States, while Knopf was a type of informal sponsor for Brazilian authors in the English-speaking world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Ana Virginia Pinheiro, of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s Library Science Program, has reservations regarding the idea of incorporating items other than books into Brasiliana collections and extending the time frame originally proposed by Moraes. \u201cBroadening without criteria could detract from these collections\u2019 distinctive features,\u201d argues Pinheiro, who was a librarian of rare books at the National Library Foundation (FBN) from 1982 to 2020. Broadening of the concept, as conceived by her, would include adding books that circulated within the colonies during Portuguese rule, such as works that were used by the Jesuits to instruct students or books about Portuguese coins and stamps. \u201cThere is important literature, for example, on education and economics, which, although not written by Brazilians or in reference to Brazil, was fundamental for its constitution as a nation,\u201d she argues. Originally the Portuguese Royal Library, the FBN houses collections of this kind that have not yet been researched. \u201cIn Brazil, interest in studying old books is recent, having started in the late 1970s,\u201d says Pinheiro, when advocating for the establishment of partnerships with universities to promote works in little-known collections. In fact, it was during his efforts to identify obscure documents and books that Jo\u00e3o Marcos Cardoso, a curator at BBM-USP, discovered, in 2015, a feminist treatise published in 1868. \u201cThis document was written by an immigrant woman, in Imperial and slaveholding Brazil, claiming the right of women to participate in politics, the workforce, and education,\u201d he recounts, explaining that this finding was the subject of his master\u2019s thesis. Published by the same publisher as typographer Francisco de Paula Brito (1809\u201361), responsible for releasing the first Brazilian women\u2019s magazine, the work was written by Anna Rosa Termacsics, a Hungarian woman who came to Brazil at the age of 7, where she remained until her death, in 1886.<\/p>\n L\u00e9o Ramos Chaves\u2009\/\u2009Revista Pesquisa FAPESP<\/span>Digitization of a book from the BBM-SUP collection: 15% of the collection is digitizedL\u00e9o Ramos Chaves\u2009\/\u2009Revista Pesquisa FAPESP<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n Today, 15% of the collection at BBM-USP is digitized. \u201cBBM has a technical reserve to acquire over ninety thousand books and is in the process of defining new policies to guide the expansion of its collection, starting in 2023,\u201d says Saes, director of the institution. The process of digitizing the collection began in 2007, with funding from FAPESP. As a result of this project, titled \u201cDigital Brasiliana,\u201d around four thousand items gathered by Mindlin have been made available online, including books, engravings, maps, manuscripts, and other documents. At FBN, the digitization process began in 2001 involving rare works. Five years later, the Brasiliana Collection was incorporated into the project.<\/p>\n With what is considered one of the largest collections of Brasiliana located outside of Brazil, the Oliveira Lima Library, at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, USA, has successfully digitized part of its collection, which has just been made available online for free. In an effort that began ten years ago, they have now digitized 3,800 publications, letters, and pamphlets, totaling over one million pages. The oldest rare book dates back to 1507. \u201cMore than just a collection of Brasiliana, the Oliveira Lima Library can be characterized as an Ibero-American library, in that it comprises items related to the expansion of the Portuguese empire around the world and the history of the Americas, including the work done by the Jesuits and the history of slavery,\u201d reports astronomer Du\u00edlia de Mello, vice provost at the Catholic University of America. She emphasizes that, because of this characteristic, the collection assembled by Manoel de Oliveira Lima (1867\u20131928), Brazilian diplomat and historian, differs from other Brasiliana collections. \u201cGoing forward, we plan to digitize the thousands of pages that are part of the extensive correspondence among Lima and Brazilian intellectuals, such as Machado de Assis [1839\u20131908],\u201d relays Mello, mentioning a letter in which the disheartened Brazilian writer writes of his wife\u2019s death. According to her, only 10% of the correspondence has been digitized. Another goal, according to Mello, is to raise funds to translate the website, which is currently in English, into Portuguese (see <\/em>Pesquisa FAPESP issue n\u00ba 266<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n Oliveira Lima Library - The Catholic University of America<\/span>Left, feminist treatise of 1869 discovered at BBM-USP. Below, two items from the Oliveira Lima Library, at the Catholic University of America, in the United States: document from 1652 from the Order of the Discalced Carmelites (left<\/em>) and a letter in which Machado de Assis writes about his wife\u2019s deathOliveira Lima Library - The Catholic University of America<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n The Oliveira Lima Library collection is mainly composed of books, documents, and objects acquired by the diplomat himself during his life. There are other important Brasiliana collections in the United States, such as the collection at the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies, at the University of Illinois, and the John Carter Brown Library. \u201cForeign institutions with collections and libraries may have benefited from the initiatives developed by the Get\u00falio Vargas administration [1882\u20131954]. Gustavo Capanema [1900\u20131985], Education Minister from 1934 to 1945, established donation policies and sent books from Brasiliana collections, which were published by Brazilian publishers and the National Institute of Books (INL), to embassies, universities, and associations for artists and writers around the world,\u201d recounts Dutra, of UFMG.<\/p>\n According to Midori, of USP, European Brasiliana collections characteristically focus on works from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. \u201cInstitutions and collectors from the region were interested in these works not only for what they revealed about Brazil, but also because they exposed the development of printing techniques from that period,\u201d relates the historian, mentioning, for example, woodcuts made for travel reports. In a study of documents stored at Nostitz Palace in Prague, she identified navigation logs with folded paper, similar to modern-day pop-up books. \u201cThese documents are valuable because they display existing techniques for creating the world\u2019s first picture books,\u201d she concludes.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/076-081_brasilianas_317-1-1140.jpg\")
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