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On view this fall in the Fairchild Gallery
in Lauinger Library will be Extraordinary Journeys:
Portuguese Rare Books at Georgetown University (1580-
1710). The exhibition, primarily drawn from the holdings
of the Woodstock Theological Library, will extend into
the three Woodstock display cases on Lauinger’s
lower level. The inspiration for Lauinger’s exhibition
came from the Smithsonian summer exhibition Encompassing
the World: Portugal and the World in the 16th and 17th
Centuries at the Sackler and Freer Gallery of Art
and the National Museum of African Art. That exhibit presents
hundreds of extraordinary works of art that explore the
unity and diversity of the cultures that contributed to
Portugal’s trading empire.
Vieira, António, 1608-1697. Sermoens.
Lisbon, I. Da Costa, 1679-1710.
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Bible. Latin. Vulgate. 1624. Antwerp: Ex
officina Plantiniana, apud Balthasarem Moretum
et Viduam Joannis Moreti, et Jo. Meursium, 1624.
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Portugal’s contacts with the kingdoms and empires
of Africa and Asia, and later with the vast expanse of
Brazil, led to unprecedented examples of cultural exchange,
including the creation of strikingly beautiful and highly
original literary productions. The exhibition at Lauinger
highlights the far-ranging Portuguese publications originating
from the world’s first truly global communications
system.
Extraordinary Journeys includes works in Latin,
Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French. It features
approximately forty rare books, by noted Portuguese authors
such as Agustinho Barbosa (1590-1649), Bartolomeu dos
Mártires (1514-1590), Jerónimo Osório
(c. 1514-1580), Fernão Mendes Pinto (d. 1583),
Alvaro Semmedo (1585-1658), and António Vieira,
(1608-1697). The exhibit displays some of the rare and
handsomely illustrated works by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries
in the Far East, detailing their explorations and their
often violent deaths. It documents the fragile political
situation in Europe at the time as well; the testimony
of Francisco de Faria (b.1653) highlights the violent
tension between Catholics and Protestants in England during
the “Papal Conspiracy” of 1679. Also shown
are the theological contributions to Catholicism by the
Portuguese Jesuits during the late sixteenth to the early
eighteenth centuries.
Extraordinary Journeys is organized by Professor
Michael Ferreira of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese;
Visiting Professor Ana Maria Dos Santos Silvia Delgado
of Spanish and Portuguese and the Camões Institute;
and graduate student of Spanish and Portuguese Patricia
A. Soler.
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