An eighteenth century text in three centuries: the contents, forms and meanings of the Noticia Primeira Practica written by João Antonio Cabral Camello (18 ^th -20 ^th centuries)

ABSTRACT

The “Noticia Primeira Practica Que da ao Reverendo Padre Diogo Soarez o Cappitam Ioaõ Antonio Cabral Camello sobre a Viage, que fez as Minaz do Cuyaba no anno de 1727” consists of a narrative about the river trip undertaken by João Antonio Cabral Camello from Sorocaba (São Paulo) to Cuiabá (Mato Grosso) in 1727, possibly written in 1734. The two existing handwritten testimonies concerning this text can be found in codex CXVI 1-15 of the Diogo Soares Collection of the Évora Public Library, Portugal. Over the following centuries it was published in different media, such as the Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro by Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, in 1842, and the book Relatos monçoeiros in 1953, organized by Afonso d’Escragnolle Taunay. This article traces the historical trajectory of Noticia Primeira Practica by studying its production, transmission and appropriation throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Due to the nature of the object, as well as the proposed investigative questions, its study requires an interdisciplinary theoretical framework including History of Written Culture, Palaeography, Philology and Material Bibliography. Although distinct, these fields have a common research object: written text studied as a historical, social, linguistic and material representation. Acknowledging the material dimension of the text allowed us to analyze it from the perspective of Material Culture studies. Primarily an artifact, the Noticia Primeira Practica is here to considered a vector and product of social relations.

KEYWORDS:
Notícias práticas; Manuscript; Printed; Material culture; Monsoons