Dominio sobre a fortuna, e tribunal da razão. Em que se examinam as felicidades, & se beatifica a vida no patrocinio da Virgem Mã da Graça, horoscopo da constellação melhor afortunada ….

Lisbon, Miguel Deslandes, a custa de Antonio Leite Pereira, 1682.. FIRST EDITION. 4°, contemporary limp vellum (front cover rather defective, with three pieces gone from upper and lower outer corners, lower center, one of four thong ties. Woodcut rose above imprint on title page. Large woodcut headpieces, tailpieces and initials. Typographical headpieces and tailpieces. Overall in good condition. Internally very good. Despite the binding faults mentioned, an unsophisticated, honest copy. Single line of old ink initials and numbers in upper portion of front free endleaf recto. Three old (contemporary?) ink signatures on title page, two scored. (8 ll.), 230 pp., (9 ll.). *** FIRST EDITION of this rare work written by Sousa de Macedo for his nephews, discussing the nature of happiness and how to achieve it. The Dominio appeared again with the 1716 and 1720 editions of Eva e Ave.Sousa de Macedo (1606-1682), a native of Porto who studied law at Coimbra, reached the highest echelons of the magistracy and the diplomatic service. He was Secretary to the Portuguese Ambassador to London, Ambassador to the States of Holland and Secretary of State to D. Affonso VI. At the same time he was known as a man of vast erudition, publishing numerous works in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin. Among the best known are Flores de España, excelencias de Portugal, 1631, and Ulyssippo, 1640. He had been proposed as the author of the classic Arte de furtar (see Saraiva & Lopes [1976] p. 579).*** Arouca M8. Innocêncio I, 277; XVIII, 190, 195; XXII, 360: without collation. Barbosa Machado I, 399-403. Pinto de Mattos (1970) p. 592. Coimbra, Reservados 1488. Monteverde 5189. Avila-Perez 7410. Not in Palha (which lists 16 works by this author), Ticknor Catalogue or HSA. Not in Azevedo-Samodães or Ameal. Bell, Portuguese Literature, pp. 260-1. Saraiva & Lopes, História da literatura portuguesa (1976) pp. 401-2, 514, 578, 579, 580, 585, 586. Grande enciclopédia XXIX, 861-5. Porbase locates six copies, four in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (all described as having "f. purfuradas" and three as "aparado"), and one each at the Biblioteca João Paulo II-Universidade Católica Portuguesa, and the Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra (with "manchas de humidade" and "picos de insectos"; the binding also with "vestigios de atacas"). Jisc repeats British Library only. NUC: WU, MiU.