O pastor fiel, tragi-comedia pastoral do Cavalheiro Guarini, traduzida do italiano por Thome Joaquim Gonzaga.

Lisbon, Regia Officina Typographica, 1789.. First Edition in Portuguese. 8°, contemporary burgundy morocco (slight wear at extremities), spine with raised bands in five compartments, short title lettered in gilt in second compartment from head, gilt tooled borders on covers, edges of boards tooled gilt, marbled endleaves, text block edges tinted green. Woodcut vignette of harp with laurel wreath on title page. Typographical headpiece on pp. 7 and 57. Woodcut headpiece and initial on p. 13. Woodcut tailpieces on pp. 105 and 220. Internally clean and crisp. In fine condition. Engraved armorial bookplate and small blindstamp on title page of J.[osé] C.[aetano] Mazziotti Salema Garção. Rubberstamp of E. Franco on title page. viii, 293 pp. *** First Portuguese translation of Guarini's sixteenth-century play Il pastor fido. The translator was the poet Thomé Joaquim Gonzaga Neves, cousin of the famed Brazilian poet Thomas Antonio Gonzaga. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1738, Gonzaga Neves received his degree from Coimbra University and returned to Brazil as Auditor Militar of the second regiment of infantry at Bahia. Upon his return to Portugal in 1805 he was named Desembargador Honorario da Relação do Porto. He worked assiduously at translating the Italian operas performed at the Theatro de São Carlos; these translations were often sold as folhetos de cordel. Innocêncio cites eight of these as "sendo indubitavelmente" the work of Gonzaga Neves. Gonzaga Neves died in Lisbon in 1819.Innocêncio recounts the unlucky fate of this translation, its suppression and subsequent rarity: the Meza Censoria gave it permission to be published, then revoked the permission after the work had been printed and ordered that all copies sold be returned. After the Meza was abolished in 1794, the copies went to the Biblioteca Publica, and in 1838 were finally acquired by Gonzaga Neves' heirs and sold through a Lisbon bookseller.Guarini's Il pastor fido, a pastoral tragicomedy set in Arcadia, is one of the most famous plays of the sixteenth century. Written in honor of the nuptials of the Duke of Savoy and Catherine of Austria in 1585, it was first published in Venice, 1590, and revised by the author through 20 editions, the latest being Venice, 1602. Il pastor fido inspired many composers of madrigals (including Claudio Monteverdi, Giaches de Wert, and Heinrich Schütz) as well as Handel's opera of the same name, first performed in 1712.Provenance: J.[osé] C.[aetano] Mazziotti Salema Garção (1886-1961) of Porto was a noted collector and wolfram magnate.*** Borba de Moraes, Período colonial pp. 179-80. Sacramento Blake VII, 299-300. Innocêncio VII, 361-3. Imprensa Nacional 411. Gonçalves Rodrigues, A tradução em Portugal 1747: citing no other translation into Portuguese before 1850. Not in JCB, Portuguese and Brazilian Books. Not in Welsh or Greenlee Catalogue. Not in Palha, which lists a Lyon, 1720 edition in Italian and French. For the bookplate, see Avelar Duarte, Ex-libris portugueses heráldicos 750. NUC: WU, DCU.