On 28 September, at 5:30 pm, the BNP Auditorium will host a lecture by Professor Igor Salomão Teixeira (UFRGS/CNPq), organised in collaboration between Professor Lurdes Rosa and the National Library of Portugal (BNP), with the participation of the IEM and IHC of NOVA FCSH, as well as the Centre for Linguistics of the University of Lisbon (FLUL).
The conference will examine the history and trajectories of manuscripts dating from the 11th to the 14th centuries held at the Royal Library of Rio de Janeiro. Topics will include manuscripts in the Royal Library, the purchase and acquisition of manuscripts during the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as results from the project Medieval Manuscripts in Brazil: Materialities, Circulation and Applied Technologies.
Abstract
This conference will present preliminary findings from the project Medieval Manuscripts in Brazil: Materialities, Circulation and Applied Technologies.
This is a pioneering initiative which, since November 2025, has brought together specialists from a range of fields, including codicology, palaeography, history, art history, cultural heritage, conservation and restoration. To date, 46 manuscripts dating from the 12th to the 15th centuries have been catalogued. Most of this corpus is held by the National Library and the National Archives (both in Rio de Janeiro), as well as the University of Brasília (DF).
The corpus is predominantly composed of religious books, such as late-medieval Books of Hours, and codices containing musical notation, including a Gradual held at the Rare Books Library of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP/SP). These documents vary considerably in type, characteristics, languages and trajectories. Some were brought to Brazil in the context of the Portuguese royal family’s journey to Brazil in the early 19th century, while others entered public institutions through donations. Others, meanwhile, were purchased and are now part of private collections.
The conference therefore aims to explore aspects related to what anthropology defines as the “social life of things” and the “biography of objects”. Topics will include manuscripts from the Royal Library, as well as the purchase and donation of manuscripts in Brazil during the 19th and 20th centuries.
About the Speaker
Igor Salomão Teixeira is Professor of Medieval History at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre) and coordinator of the CODEX Laboratory: Circulation of Documents and Studies of Manuscript Exemplars. He is a CNPq Research Productivity Fellow and coordinator of the project Medieval Manuscripts in Brazil: Materialities, Circulation and Applied Technologies (Call CNPq/MCTI No. 44/2024 – Track B – Consolidated Groups. Grant No. 404009/2025-5).