[MACEDO, José Agostino de, editor].
Jornal encyclopédico de Lisboa, coordenado pelo P. J. A. de M. Tomo primeiro [-segundo].
Nos 1-12 (Janiero – Dezembro de 1820). Lisboa, impressão Regia, 1820.
Twelve parts in two volumes, each volume continuously paginated, 8vo, pp. 448; 360, 353-425, [3] index; each part complete with its blue printed wrappers; volume one largely clean and crisp; some dampstaining to volume two, heavier towards end; in contemporary calf-backed boards, spines ruled and lettered in gilt; lower joint of volume two loose but just holding, extremities rubbed and worn; but still generally a good copy.
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Jornal encyclopédico de Lisboa, coordenado pelo P. J. A. de M. Tomo primeiro [-segundo].
First edition, complete, of this rare periodical, edited and in large part written by the prolific writer, pamphleteer, court preacher, and controversialist José Agostoni de Macedo (1761-1831).
Covering recent developments in astronomy, chemistry, physics, agriculture, literature, philosophy, politics, and the arts, the Jornal has a pan-European scope. The topics reported on range from the nature of civil liberties to the latest discoveries of Herschel and Bode, the development (and pointlessness) of bibliomania and bibliophile societies such as the Roxburghe Club, the history and benefits of vaccination, and the political situations in Britain, France, Portugal, and elsewhere. Over the twelve issues, we have notices on the work of Faraday, the development of gas lighting, Gioia on political economy, the past and present status and role of women, Napoleon on St Helena, Venezuelan earthquakes, the postal service of Britain, and the current state of philosophy in Portugal. The Jornal is peppered with dismissive comment on contemporary writers and events, in keeping with Macedo’s reputation (he was famously hostile to Homer, never having read him in Greek, and considered his own epic poem Gama (1811) to be Camões’ Os Lusiadas should have been.
Macedo himself had a chequered career. He edited a number of short-lived periodicals, was expelled from the Augustinians for, among other things, persistent book theft (actually one of his lesser misdemeanours), and wrote poems long and short, literary polemics, and, above all, pamphlets. ‘The fact is that Macedo was essentially not a poet or a dramatist or a philosopher, but a forcible and eloquent pampheleteer. His philosophical letters and treatises … are at their best not when he is developing a train of scientific thought but when he is arguing ad hominem… He may be unscrupulous in argument, but his idiomatic and vigorous prose will always be read with pleasure’ (Bell, Portuguese Literature, Oxford, 1922, pp. 281-2).
Outside Portugal, OCLC records copies at NYU, the Newberry, Kansas, the BL, and the Danish National Library.
