Apologia que dirije a nação portugueza … a fim de se justificar das imputaçõis que lhe fazem homens obscuros, as quais derão causa ao decreto de 3 de Junho e a providencia comunicada no aviso de 11 de Julho do corrente ano de 1821.

Coimbra, Na Imprensa da Universidade, 1821.. FIRST EDITION. 4°, contemporary marbled wrappers (frayed, spine mostly gone). Woodcut Portuguese / Brazilian royal arms on title page. In very good to fine condition. 32 pp. *** FIRST EDITION (another appeared the following year in Rio de Janeiro) of "a very interesting document for the study of the ideas that were rampant in Brazil and Portugal before Independence" (Borba de Moraes). After rumor had it that he wrote Le Roi et la famille royale de Bragance doivent-ils, dans les inconstances presentes, retourner en Portugal, ou bien rester au Brésil?, Rio de Janeiro 1820, the author was accused of being an enemy of the Constitution and wanting to establish a Republic in Brazil. He claims that the French pamphlet in question was actually written by one M. Caille, at the order of Thomas Antonio, one of D. João VI's ministers. Maciel da Costa (1769-1834), a native of Marianna in Minas Geraes, was Desembargador do Paço in Rio de Janeiro and a member of D. João's royal council. Martins de Carvalho (quoted in Innocêncio) points out that by 1823 Maciel da Costa was Ministro e Secretario d'Estado dos Negocios for Brazil (he was later honored by the Emperor with the title Marques de Queluz), which Martins de Carvalho suggests may mean he actually did write the pamphlet whose authorship he so vehemently denies here.*** Borba de Moraes (1983) I, 221: "very scarce." Sacramento Blake IV, 47-8. Innocêncio IV, 34; X, 347. Bosch 326. Mindlin, Highlights, 222. JCB, Portuguese and Brazilian Books 821/25. Rodrigues 1495. See also Grande enciclopédia, XXIII, 911. Not located in NUC.