17th century Portuguese poetry at the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading (Real Gabinete Português de Leitura do Rio de Janeiro)

Abstract

This research of sources seeks to learn and analyze the collection of poetry written in Portuguese in the 17th century housed in the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading in Rio de Janeiro. Its chief priority is to read and interpret the poetry and prose corpus written by authors from the conceptual apparatus as defined in the research conducted by the Wit Poetry Study Group, from the CNPq, an activity carried out by students and researchers from Unifesp, under the coordination by the proponent of this project. This research is based on assumptions on the relations between rhetoric and poetry, the appropriation of notions and concepts from ancient Greek and Latin poetry undertaken by Catholic scholars from the Iberian 1600s, the knowledge of the various temporal and material conditions of writing and of circulation of works, and the reading of primary sources. The textual analisys shall verify the consistence of the research assumptions adopted by the Wit Poetry Study Group. The corpus is made up of poems (eclogues, epics, sonnets, ten-line stanzas, idylls, songs, heroic discourses, tercets, redondilhas, epistles, madrigals, etc.), poetic and rhetorical arts, treatises, dialogues and letters, academic discourses, prologues. Its methodology rests on the assumption of the historicity of artistic practices. We also aim to make known public collections such as this one, and to also foster among students, readers and researchers the interest in poetry works from times earlier than modern literature. (AU)