Soneto no dia feliz da inauguração do colosso real ….

[N.p. (Lisbon?), , 1775].. FIRST EDITION. Folio half sheet (31 x 21 cm.), unbound. Printed on recto only. Top margin dusty,with single round hole in blank margin, otherwise fine. Overall in very good to fine condition. Old ink number "72" in upper outer corner of recto. Broadside. *** FIRST EDITION, "exceedingly rare" (Borba de Moraes), of this poem in honor of the dedication of the equestrian statue of D. José I in Lisbon. The bronze statue, executed by the great sculptor Machado de Castro, dedicated on D. José's sixty-first birthday, remains one of Lisbon's most important monuments, dominating one of the major squares of Europe, the Praça do Comercio or "Black Horse Square."José Basilio da Gama (1740-95), born in Minas Gerais, came to Rio de Janeiro at age fifteen to study with the Jesuits. He fled to Portugal upon the Society's expulsion. Then, casting aside his novice's robe, he traveled to Rome, where he was admitted to the Roman Arcadia under the name Termindo Sipilio. Several years later he returned to Lisbon via Brazil, but was imprisoned as a former Jesuit and sentenced to exile in Angola. A 1769 poem in honor of the Marquês de Pombal's daughter led to forgiveness, while Gama's increasingly anti-Jesuit attitude earned official favor. This was surely a factor in his choice of subject for his best known epic poem, but after the fall of Pombal O Uraguay, published in 1769, became a distinct liability. Gama was later given a post in the Secretariat of State, and died in Lisbon.Gama's poetry, with its grandeur, pomp and severe beauty, establishes him as the pioneer of Indianism, which was later to become a major theme of Brazilian literature.*** Borba de Moraes (1983) I, 341: reproduced in facsimile. Catálogo de exposição bibliográfica, iconográfica e documental relativa à estátua eqüestre 145. JCB Portuguese and Brazilian Books 775/2. Not located in Porbase. Not located in Jisc. Not located in NUC.