Bidspirit auction | Arguelles, Augustin de — DISCURSO

Arguelles, Augustin de — DISCURSO PRELIMINAR À CONSTITUIÇÃO POLITICA DA MONARQUIA HESPANHOLA [and CONSTITUIÇÃO POLITICA DA MONARQUIA HESPANHOLA]. Lisbon. At the Typographia Rollandiana / At the Offic. de Antonio Rodrigues Galhardo. 1820. 157, [iii]; 102 pp. 14.9 cm × 10.5 cm. E. - Two extremely rare works, translated from the Spanish by R.F.C. and by F.C. da Costa de Lacerda respectively, and both published in Lisbon in 1820 with the licence of the Censorship Commission. The Preliminary Discourse, which accompanies and explains the foundations of the Cádiz Constitution promulgated on 19 March 1812, was translated to serve as a working instrument for the deputies of the General and Extraordinary Cortes of the Portuguese Nation of 1821–1822; the Constitution, translated for the same purpose, was the direct model upon which the first Portuguese Constitution of 1822 was built. These translations were, in effect, produced in the wake of the liberal revolution of 24 August 1820 in Oporto, which led to the first modern parliamentary experiment in Portugal. Another translation of the Constitution was published in Coimbra in the same year, bearing the initials A.M.F., and a third edition subsequently appeared in 1836. They are not mentioned by Innocêncio, who records only the biography of the translator at VII, 169–171 and XVIII, 285. Augustin de Arguelles (Ribadesella, Asturias, 1776 – Madrid, 1844) was a Freemason and great orator, with a decisive role in the Cortes of Cádiz and in the drafting of the Constitution of 1812. Rodrigo Ferreira da Costa (Setúbal, 1776 – Lisbon, 1825), the translator of the Discourse, was educated at the University of Coimbra, a deputy to the Constituent Cortes in 1821, and professor at the Royal Naval Academy of Lisbon from 1823. Two works bound together. Copy with superficial wear to the boards. The second work shows paper losses at the gutter of the title page, with traces of the original blue paper wrappers, and a shelf mark written in a contemporary hand.