Elisio e Serrano. Dialogo em que se defende e illustra a Bibliotheca Lusitana contra a prefação da Lusitania transformada escrita por hum socio da Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa. -

Lisbon, Na Regia Officina Typografica, 1782.. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. 8°, contemporary crimson morocco (minor wear), spine with raised bands in six compartments, horizontal gilt fillets and gilt letter, boards with double gilt fillets at sides, marbled endleaves, all edges gilt. Woodcut royal Portuguese arms on title-page. Woodcut headpiece and initial. In fine condition. Engraved armorial bookplate of Jorge César de Figanière. (2 ll.), 132 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION. The preface is attributed to Francisco José de Sales, a pseudonym for Father Francisco José da Serra Xavier (ca. 1740?-ca. 1803-5?). In his preface to the second edition (1781) of Fernão Alvares do Oriente's Lusitania transformada, Father Joaquim de Foyos had cast aspersions on the literary reputation of Barbosa Machado, author of the monumental four-volume Bibliotheca Lusitana. Serra Xavier, godson of one of the Barbosas, in the course of rectifying the affront, makes some interesting points and provides numerous useful notices. Macau, China and Japan are discussed on pp. 55-65, as are several authorities, such as Ramusio, de Bry, Jesuit letterbooks, Guerreiro, Andrade's Novo descobrimento do gram Catheyo, Veiga's Relação geral … da Cristandade de Ethiopia, Franco's Imagem da virtude, Kircher, Lucena, Telles, and Martinez de la Puente.Provenance: The author and career government bureaucrat Jorge César de Figanière [e Morão] was born in Rio de Janeiro, 1813, and died in Lisbon, 1887. Son of the naval officer César Henrique de Figanière (a native of Marseilles; both father and son became naturalized Portuguese subjects by the 1821 Portuguese Constitution), Jorge César Figanière took part in the 1832 expedition from England to the Island of Terceira, and later in the siege of Porto. He served for many years in the Portuguese War Ministry and then the Foreign Ministry. When he retired in 1882 he had achieved the rank of Director da Direcção Política and Ministério Plenipotencário de 2ª classe. See Grande enciclopédia XI, 280-1; also Innocêncio IV, 165-7 and XII, 175. On the bookplate, see Avellar Duarte, Ex-líbris portugueses heráldicos 691.*** Imprensa Nacional 298. Innocêncio II, 413–4; on the author see also IX, 317. Martinho da Fonseca, Pseudónimos 316. Guerra Andrade, Dicionário de pseudónimos p. 106 Porbase locates three copies at Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal and one at Biblioteca Municipal de Elvas. Jisc repeats British Library.