Photography: Bosc d’Anjou
Recently, the National Palace of Mafra posted on social media that two books that have been missing for two centuries (they had not been included in the inventory since 1809) have returned to the collection of the Library of the National Palace.
The recovered books are “Historia Ecclesiastica da Igreja de Lisboa”, by Rodrigo da Cunha, printed in Lisbon in 1642 and dedicated to the Duke of Aveiro, D. Raimundo de Lencastre; and “Historia de los dos religiosos Infantes de Portugal”, by Friar Jerónimo Román, printed in Medina in 1595 and dedicated to D. Inês Freire de Andrade.
The following can also be read in the post: “It is assumed that the works were taken from the Library during the period of the Napoleonic invasions, at the beginning of the 19th century, without stamps or other characteristic ownership marks, except for the allusion to ‘MAFRA ‘ on its spine. Already absent from the 1809 inventory, the first of these works has an autograph note referring to its acquisition: ‘I bought it in Lisbon on August 15, 1838 Dias e Sousa’”.
It is pertinent to remember that the National Palace of Mafra has one of the most important Portuguese libraries, with a valuable collection of around 30,000 volumes.
Esta publicação também está disponível em | This article is also available in: Portuguese (Portugal)
