Obras ineditas … dedicadas ao muito alto, e poderoso senhor Dom João VI … por Antonio Lourenço Caminha ….

Lisbon, Na Impressão Regia, 1817.. FIRST EDITION. 8°, contemporary quarter mottled sheep over blue-gray boards (spine with two vertical splits and other defects), plain flat spine. Small woodcut Portuguese royal arms on title page. Internally very good to fine. Occasional light to medium browning. Overall in very good condition. (10 ll.), iv, xxv, 201 pp. *** First edition in this form. The first of the three essays in this volume (pp. 1-102) concern the necessity of introducing industry in Portugal. It had first appeared in the London periodical Investigador portuguez. The second essay (pp. 103-44), written in 1675, is a proposal for transplanting spice trees from India to Brazil, which Macedo thought would bring great wealth to Portugal; it first appeared in the Rio de Janeiro periodical Patriota. The third essay, "Sonho politico" (pp. 145-76), deals with the qualities of a perfect judge. It had already been printed three times, in the Obras metricas, 1721, and in the first and second editions of Macedo's Obras, 1743 and 1767.Duarte Ribeiro de Macedo is best known for his efforts to end the economic crisis in Portugal during the second half of the seventeenth century. He was responsible for outlining a plan for industrial growth, and favored the development of national crafts for export as a way of obtaining gold and balancing external trade. The Discurso sobre a introdução das artes sets out these suggestions, giving in the process a great deal of information on products of Portugal and her colonies that were traded with other European nations. Ribeiro de Macedo realized that the loss of India inevitably meant a drastic change in Portugal's commerce and finance. It is ironic that his excellent plans for industrialization were discarded because another colony provided a temporary solace for Portugal's economic ills: gold was discovered in Minas Geraes in 1692. This work is important for understanding the economic situation in seventeenth-century Portugal, as well as the history of industrialization there.Macedo (1618?-1680) received his degree in law from Coimbra. He became an advisor to D. Pedro II, and Ambassador to France and Spain. He is also considered one of the classic Portuguese writers, in fact one of the greatest prose writers in the history of the language. Barbosa Machado writes that he had "hum estilo claro, e discreto." Innocêncio notes, "Occupa um logar mui pouco; mas o que d'elle temos foi o que bastou para os criticos lhe daram logar entre os classicos de primeira nota." *** Innocêncio II, 215-6. Borba de Moraes (1983) II, 503-4. Not in JCB, Portuguese and Brazilian Books. See also Barbosa Machado I, 742-3 and Bell, Portuguese Literature pp. 265-6. Porbase locates four copies: two in the Biblioteca Central da Marinha, and two in the Biblioteca João Paulo II-Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Jisc locates copies at the London School of Economics, British Library, and All Souls College Library-Oxford University. NUC: LNHT, DCU-IA, ICN.