Recreação periodica. (Prefaciou e trad. Aquilino Ribeiro).

Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional, 1922.. First Edition in Portuguese. 2 volumes. 8°, original gray printed wrappers (minor wear), publisher's belt. Uncut and mostly unopened. In very good to fine condition. (2 ll.), cxvii pp., (1 l.), 259 pp.; (2 ll.), 297 pp., errata slip. *** First edition in Portuguese of a work originally written in English by a Portuguese exile; it is a fascinating glimpse into the interests of the Portuguese in the early and mid-eighteenth century. Volume I includes essays on papal authority, papal anathemas, the salvation of ignorant men, transubstantiation, physicians, wealthy men, the kissing of the pope's foot, love, poverty, werewolves (lobisomem, I, 77-80), modern Greeks, beauty, men possessed by demons (endemoninhados), learned women, navigation, superstitions, comedians, gypsies (boémios or egipcianos, I, 190-5), treatment of criminals, and the constancy and courage of women. Volume II includes essays on the Real Ordem de Cristo, D. Sebastião vs. King Arthur, marriage, the character of Philip II of Spain, pagans vs. Catholics, gambling, spiders and flies, asylum, adultery, reliquaries, pilgrimages, Turks, and the Antichrist. A 26-page analytical index appears at the end of volume II.Francisco Xavier de Oliveira (1702-83), better known as the Cavaleiro de Oliveira, was secretary to the Portuguese ambassador at Vienna. By 1751 he had left the diplomatic corps and became a Protestant, moving to London where he made a living by publishing Amusement périodique monthly, his most important work. After the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, Oliveira wrote a pamphlet exhorting the King of Portugal to banish the Inquisition and convert to Protestantism, along with all his subjects. Oliveira was burnt in effigy at Lisbon in 1761, but died quietly in England 22 years later.The translator and editor, Aquilino Ribeiro (1885-1963), is famous in his own right as an author of novels, short stories and children's books.*** Saraiva & Lopes, História da literatura portuguesa (1976) pp. 638-40 and 1069-73. Bell, Portuguese Literature pp. 285-86. Grande enciclopédia XXV, 576-77. Porbase locates copies at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, the Universidade de Coimbra, and the Universidade Católica Portuguesa-Biblioteca João Paulo II. Jisc locates copies at the British Library and elsewhere.