DENIS (Ferdinand) - Lot 50

DENIS (Ferdinand) Ferdinand Denis Paris, 1798 - Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1890. Traveler, historian of Portuguese and Brazilian literature, administrator of the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève. Set of 2 autograph letters signed and 2 autograph drafts of reply, Paris and Rouen, May-June 1863; approx. 5 pp. in-8. Important scholarly exchange between Ferdinand Denis and Édouard-Benjamin Frère concerning the Capuchin missionaries in Brazil and the first printed accounts of the indigenous Brazilian populations. The first autograph letter, signed and dated Paris, May 30, 1863, thanks Frère for his bibliographical research on Father Yves d'Évreux and the Capuchin François de Bourdemare. Ferdinand Denis discusses the reprinting of Yves d'Évreux's Voyage, then in preparation at Techener, and returns at length to the Capuchin missions in Maranhão in the early 17th century. In particular, he writes "The biographical note cost me [...] infinite pain", and requests further information on religious missionaries linked to Portuguese Brazil. The letter contains numerous bibliographical considerations on Latin works devoted to the "aborigines of Brazil", on unobtainable Madrid editions and on the difficulties of locating ancient sources. Denis also refers to the Parisian Capuchin libraries of Rue Saint-Honoré and Richelieu. Édouard-Benjamin Frère's autograph draft reply, dated Rouen, June 6, 1863, is particularly dense and full of corrections. It contains numerous bibliographical references, identification hypotheses and catalog indications relating to Père Archange de Pembroke, François de Bourdemare and 17th-century Brazilian travel reports. A true working document, this manuscript bears witness to the patient labor and research methods of 19th-century bibliographers. The whole is a remarkable testimony to the intellectual exchanges between two great French scholars on missionary and ethnographic sources relating to colonial Brazil. Very good condition; usual folds and handling marks.