The book collections Bibliotheca Brasileira (1862-1863) and Brasília Bibliotheca Nacional (1862-1876): internationalization of editorial practices and formation of the national canon

This study starts from the advent of the modern book collection as an important phenomenon for new reading practices and canonization of authors in France in the 19th century, when they became a true editorial genre, with their own material and intellectual rules. From then on, the first signs of this phenomenon appear in Brazil and, afterwards, aspects of two more well-structured collections are arranged and analyzed, with the initial intention of bringing together Brazilian literature, in the years 1860-1870, which are the Bibliotheca Brasileira (1862-1863), by Quintino Bocaiúva, and the Brasília Bibliotheca Nacional (1862-1876), organized by Joaquim Norberto de Souza e Silva and edited by Baptiste-Louis Garnier. We sought to expand the investigation of the process that Antonio Candido called “formation of the literary system in Brazil”, by giving new dimensions to the initial layout proposed by the critic through the study of the materiality of the first editions of these collections - considering texts, paratexts and editorial aspects in general -, putting this work into perspective with the ideas of critics and Brazilian Literary History. Finally, when comparing both collections, they are illustrative of two issues: the first is that, despite the national marker, they are inserted in a transnational phenomenon of circulation of methods and strategies of the editors of the period in relation to the printed ones; the other is that the performance and relationships of their agents, organizers, and/or editors must necessarily be considered in the “formation of the literary system in Brazil”, which expands the idea of the work-audience-author relationship. In conclusion, in the transnational context in which cultural goods circulated, the Brazilian literary collections analyzed here must be considered historical constructions, revealing social processes and, especially in this study, the way in which literature participated in the debates and actions around the construction of nationality. (AU)