Genio constitucional. Nos. 1-77 and 7 supplements (6 numbered and 1 unnumbered), a complete run.

Porto, [colophons] Na Typografia de Viuva Alvarez Ribeiro & Filhos, October 2-December 30, 1820.. FIRST EDITION. 77 issues and 7 supplements in 1 volume. 4°, contemporary paste decorated paper wrappers (spine reinforced early and defective). Masthead has woodcut depicting a winged cherub with torch and trumpet. Uncut. Faint staining to inner margin, minor soiling and stains. Internally in very good to fine condition; overall very good. White paper tag with blue border and horizontal blue ruled lines, containing the number "56" (a shelf mark?) in ink manuscript, tipped on to spine near head (somewhat defective). Each issue with 4 pp.; supplements range from 1 to 4 pp. *** FIRST EDITION, a very rare COMPLETE RUN of this liberal journal, with what may be the earliest published work by Almeida Garrett.The Genio (edited by Alfredo Braga and António Luís de Abreu) commenced publication shortly after the Porto military uprising of August 24, 1820. The revolt, which toppled the regency of Marshal Beresford, prompted a veritable revolution in Portuguese institutions and the decisive (if short-lived) triumph of liberalism. The Genio constitucional provides almost daily coverage of political developments in Porto, Lisbon, and elsewhere in Portugal as new political institutions emerged under the direction of the Junta Provisional, leading to the election of representatives to the new Côrtes Constituintes in December 1820. In its editorials, the Genio constitucional strongly supports the adoption of a liberal constitution similar to the Spanish constitution of 1812, but opposes those who would unite Spain and Portugal under one liberal government. Considerable space is also given to foreign news - particularly reaction in England and elsewhere to the Portuguese revolution - and to the formation of the Sociedade Promotora da Agricultura, das Artes, e da Industria em Geral.The Supplemento ao Genio constitutional Nº 60 (9 December 1820) contains what is perhaps the first published work of João Baptista da Silva d'Almeida, later Visconde de Almeida Garrett: a letter, written on behalf of the Corpo Academico of the Universidade de Coimbra, protesting their disenfranchisement in the election of representatives to the Côrtes. His earliest works were previously believed to date to 1821: the O dia vinte quatro d'Agosto. Anno I (in support of the Porto uprising), the Versos ao Corpo Academico, and the controversial Retrato de Venus, 1821.Almeida Garrett (1799-1854) was a man of great talent and far-reaching interests: "As journalist, founder and editor of several short-lived newspapers, as a stylist and master of prose, his country's chief lyric poet in the first half of the nineteenth century ... and greatest dramatist since the sixteenth; as politician and one of the most eloquent of all Portugal's orators, an enthusiastic if unscientific folk-lorist, a novelist, critic, diplomatist, soldier, jurist and judge, Almeida Garrett played many parts and with success" (Bell, Portuguese Literature pp. 288-89).*** Rafael & Santos, Jornais e revistas portugueses do séc. XIX, 2553: calling for 77 issues, not mentioning the supplements. Universidade de Coimbra, Publicações periódicas portuguesas 1120: calling for 77 issues and an unspecified number of supplements. Cunha, Elementos para a história da imprensa periódica portuguesa 160. Biblioteca Pública de Braga, Catálogo do Fundo Barca-Oliveira 87 (no mention of the supplements). Not in Innocencio; see III, 313, where the Versos ao Corpo Academico, 1821, are referred to as the Almeida Garrett's first published work; see also Aditamentos p. 193 for reference to Hymno patriotico, Porto 1820. Silva Pereira, Jornalismo portuguez p. 12. Not in Welsh or Greenlee Catalogue. Not in Union List of Serials. Porbase (without saying which are complete runs, or if any of the supplements are present) locates three copies at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, four at the Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto, and one each at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and the Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra. Jisc repeats British Library. KVK (51 databases searched) locates only the copies cited by Porbase. Not located in NUC.