An Inquiry Concerning a Portuguese Editor and a Guinea Text

• Published in: History in Africa 1991, Vol.18, p.427-429
• Main Author: Hair, P.E.H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African history; Hair; Libraries; Publishing; Texts; West Africa
• ISSN: 0361-5413; 1558-2744
• DOI: 10.2307/3172076

When in 1985 I issued an English translation of the 1684 version of the Description of Guinea by Francisco de Lemos Coelho, I referred to the 1973 annotated French translation of one chapter by Nize Isabel de Moraes, and I noted that this included a brief statement to the effect that “une publication de la seconde version, en portugais actualisé, fut entreprise en Lisbonne en 1937 (Inéditos Coloniais, sér. A, num. II).” This statement puzzled me, since the 1953 edition of the Portuguese texts of both versions, by Damiãlo Peres, said nothing about a previous edition, leaving the reader to suppose that the 1953 edition represented the first time these accounts by Lemos Coelho had found their way into print. However, since the reference by Nize Isabel de Moraes was a little imprecise (why “fut entreprise” rather than “fut imprimé,” for instance?), and since I have never been able to see her thesis, which originally contained the French translation and may give additional information about the 1937 enterprise, it has taken me some years to confirm that there was indeed an earlier edition and an earlier editor—albeit in rather curious circumstances, about which I would like to learn more.