Cartas sobre a framaçoneria
Contributors: Barbosa, João Guilherme
Edition: Segunda [i.e. Primera] edicçaõ feita sobre a original de Amsterdam, e augmentada com duas cartas escriptas em 1778 sobre mesmo assumpto.
Publisher: W. Lewis]
Published: 1805
Place of publication: Madrid [i.e. London
Language: por; spa
Number of pages: 132
Subjects: Freemasonry; Catholic Church; History
Description: First edition of the first book in Portuguese on freemasonry, as well as the first book on the subject by a Brazilian author, now attributed unequivocally to the Brazilian journalist Hippolyto da Costa. Cf. Moraes.
Notes: Cartas first appeared with the Madrid 1805 imprint, despite the fact that the title page identifies it as the second.

According to Moraes, the Madrid edition was undoubtedly printed by W. Lewis in London, who also published the London reprint with imprint reading "Londres: Impreso por W. Lewis, Paternoster-Row, 1809". Moraes goes on to note that a comparison between these two editions reveals that they were "printed by the same press, with the same types, and repeat the text page by page and line by line. It seems that the second [edition] is no more than the first with another title page."  The edition note on both title pages apparently served as a means of deceiving the authorites, a device common in those types of books that were liable to censorship or suppression.

The letters offer an explanation of the humanitarian principles of freemasonry, an institution accepted in England, France, Prussia, the United States and other countries, but not in Spain or Portugal due to persecution by the Inquisition.

Signatures: pi1 (pi1 verso blank) A⁶ (A1 missigned A2) (A1 verso blank) B-L⁶

Silva, I.F. da. Diccioǹrio bibliog̀rphico portuguez, III: p. 199.

Moraes, R.B. de. Bibliographia brasiliana (1983 edition), II: p. 561.

Moraes, R.B. de. Bibliografia brasileira do período colonial, p. 240.

John Carter Brown Library copy quarter bound in contemporary calf with marbled boards.

John Carter Brown Library copy acquired with the assistance of the Bromsen Fund.

Provenance of the John Carter Brown Library copy: João Guilherme Barbosa, Lisbon: book stamp on recto of front flyleaf.