Bidspirit auction | FREIRE (Francisco José). O SECRETARIO

FREIRE (Francisco José). O SECRETARIO Portuguez Compendiosamente Instruido no modo de escrever Cartas por meyo de huma instrucçam Preliminar, regras de Secretaria [...]. Lisboa. 1745. - FREIRE (Francisco José) O SECRETARIO Portuguez Compendiosamente Instruido no modo de escrever Cartas por meyo de huma instrucçam Preliminar, regras de Secretaria [...] . Lisboa: Na Officina de António Isidoro da Fonseca, 1745. [68], 440 pp.; 210 mm. First edition of this work on epistolography. Francisco José Freire (Lisbon, 1719 - Mafra, 1773), priest of the Congregation of the Oratory where he professed in 1752, was one of the founders and most conspicuous members of the Arcádia Lusitana, where he adopted the pseudonym Cândido Lusitano. A central figure in the affirmation of Portuguese literary neoclassicism, he is the author of works that defined the taste of his time, in particular the Arte Poética (1748) and the Diccionário Poético (1765). The Portuguese Secretary is a practical letter-writing manual that combines preliminary instruction on the principles of good writing, secretarial rules, forms of address for nobles and ecclesiastics, and a vast corpus of model letters in all kinds of current use – business, courtesy, condolences, recommendations, and discursive letters on the duties and virtues of a secretary. The work codified the epistolary models of Portuguese society during the Old Regime and, over more than eight decades of successive re-editions, became the reference manual of its kind in Portugal and Brazil, reaching, according to historiographical records, at least eight known editions by 1823. Rare in this first edition. ⚑ Auto-translated via Google Translate