LITERATURE OF TRAVEL IN RIO DE JANEIROS EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY PERIODICALS
The year of 1808 marks a new period of the history of Brazil, it is the beginning
of a process of decolonization, that would end in the proclamation of Independence,
in 1822, and, nine years later, in D. Pedro Is abdication. The political crisis that forced
the Portuguese Court to come to Rio de Janeiro triggered, here, important
transformations, starting with the immediate opening of Brazilian ports to the friend
nations, that favored the increase of business transactions and a higher cultural
exchange with overseas. Besides, schools, museums and libraries were created during
the stay of the Lusitanian monarch, in addition to the urbanization of the capital city
and, very important, begun the production and free circulation of the press in the
country. Measures that, in spite of the simple intention to transplant the Portuguese
institutions to the city, in order to serve to the needs of the Court, ended up initiating the
institutionalization of the Brazilian culture and stimulating Brazilian people to elaborate
a national identity and to establish themselves as a nation.
The foreigner travelers played a fundamental role in this process of formation of
the local culture. For instance, they were the first ones to compound works about the
history of Brazil, as shown in the works of Robert Southey and James Henderson, and
to perform important scientific expeditions in order to list and study the fauna and flora
of the Brazilian territory. Countless were the travel narratives written by these illustrious
visitors that propagated concepts and ideas of a country that, at least until 1808, were
barely known in Europe and amongst the Brazilians themselves.
As a result, a significant part of the construction of the national imagination of
the independent Brazil was made speaking to the image built and spread by the
European travelers, most of all those who started to visit the country between the end of
the 18th century and beginning of 19th century. This dialogue is perceived when
analyzing the journals published in the first half of the 19th century, where there is a
relative presence of mentions, articles or even translations of passages of the works of
these illustrious travelers.
In the years following the arrival of D. Joo VI the periodical press had an
important function concerning the formation and circulation of ideas in Brazil, this
happening because there was easy access to the journals and they reached a higher
number of readers when compared to books, due to its inferior cost. Besides, in Brazil,

the press was the better developed aspect of the written culture in the first decades of the
19th century, turning out to be a critical contribution to the formation of a more regular
readership.
The press, understood not only as a source of information, but also as an
instrument of improvement of mankind and society, was dedicated in this period to
promote the instruction of a higher number of people, highlighting themes that allowed
the formation of a reader demanding and able to collaborate with the progress of Brazil.
The editorial board of these publications was compounded by illustrious names of the
18th century intellectuals, most of them independent professionals (lawyers, physicians,
traders, etc.) and men involved in politics, such as senators, deputies and governors.
This privileged group, that had access to the written information, were the responsible
ones to build the foundations of the new nation.
The Rio de Janeiros journals from the first half of 19 th century widely
mentioned the travelers and the literature of travel. Usually, the narratives appeared as
reading suggestions and were fully analyzed by the editor, who translated the higher
relevance excerpts. Besides, there was a concern to offer a general view of the work to
the reader, with chapters division and the summary of their content. In some journals,
there was a section dedicated to publications like this, referred as Viagens (Travels),
as seen in the Jornal Scientifico e Literrio (1826). In other publications, the travel
books were shown in the Litteratura e Sciencias(Literature and Sciences) sections; or
yet were present in the Miscellanias (Miscellaneas), or even in Obras Publicadas
(Published Works) section. At least until 1836, the number of references to travel
narratives about other countries, especially to the countries of the Asian continent, is
higher than the narratives about Brazil, which shows that the intention was to present to
the readership other models of society than the Portuguese one.
Hiplito da Costa, responsible for the Correio Brasiliense, held this kind of
literature in a very special esteem. In each edition of the journal edited in London but
widely published in Rio de Janeiro , the Litteratura e Sciencias section presented the
works that had just been published in England and Portugal, with a significant number
of travel narratives amongst them. Hiplito translated passages and commented the
content of the narratives, highlighting, particularly, excerpts that mentioned the
scientific discoveries, the advances in arts and literature, the description of habits and of
the industrial development of the described society. When it mentioned something

related to Brazil, the editor was even more detailed and converted to Portuguese
language long passages and, sometimes, the whole scrap relative to the country.
In March 24th, 1821, the number 3 of the journal O Conciliador do Reino, when
analyzing the progresses of Brazil since the arrival of the Court, most of all regarding
the free trade and the expansion of the foreign capital in the country, drew upon the
speech of some foreigners. First, the article mentioned the work of Count Chaptal
inspector of Frances factories Indstria Francesa, from 1819, and presents next the
vision of three travelers about the subject: Prince Maximiliano Wied, Robert Southey e
Georg Langsdorff (O Conciliador do Reino, n. 3, p. 25, 1821).
In another journal, the Annaes fluminenses de sciencias, artes e litteratura,
journal from Rio de Janeiro published for a short time (from 1827 to 1828), the editor,
when talking about the natural diversity encountered in Brazil, cited the work Flora
Brasiliense, of the Italian Giuseppe Raddi, as a reference to the natural researches made
by foreign naturalists. (ANNAES FLUMINENSES DE SCIENCIAS, ARTES E
LITTERATURA, n. 3, p. 8, 1822).
In the sections of O espelho diamantino: peridico de poltica, literatura, bellas
artes, theatro e modas, dedicado s senhoras brasileira, publication edited between
1827 and 1828, there are also some references to foreign travelers. As an example, in
the number 6, from December, 1827, the editor of the journal spoke about the work
Voyages Autour du Monde, of the French painter Jacques Arago, highlighting the vision
of the foreigner about the lack of sensibility of Brazilians about the fine arts. The
journal reproduced a passage where Arago questions the quality of the art production in
Brazil, and pointed out that in spite of the too much recent and rudimentary artistic
production, the initiatives of D. Joo VI, in 1816, to bring foreign professors in order to
establish the Academia de Belas Artes (Academy of Fine Arts), were extremely
important for its beginning. The editor enhanced, yet, the fundamental role of Mr.
Grandjean to the architectonic improvement of the city, and finished the article
declaring that it was the initiative of the Court to invite these foreigners that assured the
improvement of the infrastructure in the capital city as well as the refinement of the
artistic taste of the nationals (O ESPELHO DIAMANTINO, n. 6, dez.1827, p. 101102).
Another journal to cite the foreigners, the A Gazeta do Brasil, of June 9th, 1827,
when talking about the diplomatic relations between Brazil and Austria, recognized the
importance of the Austrian expeditions that passed through the Brazilian territory in the

first decades of the 19th century, most of all the 1817 one, delegation that landed in
Rion, together with D. Leopoldina, and counted with names such as Emannuel Pohl and
the naturalists Spix and Martius. The editor reiterated the need to establish agreements
between the Brazilian government and the foreign scientists to the study of the Brazilian
fauna and flora. (A GAZETA DO BRASIL, n. 33, 1827 p. 13).
Other passages could have been observed, but almost all of them would point to
the same direction: the interest of the national journals, from the beginning of the 19 th
century, to highlight the relevance of the foreigners in the promotion of sciences, arts
and instruction through the country. It should be noted also that, in most of the
periodicals that circulated in the city in that period, it is possible to find a profusion of
ads of European professors, physicians, milliners and architects offering their services
to the population of Rio de Janeiro, signals that show the notoriety and the role that the
foreigners started playing in the society of Rio de Janeiro notoriety reached only by
the threshold of the 19th century, when their free circulation through the Brazilian
territory was given by the Portuguese Court. It is important to remember that this is the
reason why Brazil began to be more frequently remembered in the foreign diaries,
letters and scientific reports.
The close contact between nationals and foreigners, resultant of their higher
circulation through Brazil, gave the visitor a new status. If the foreigners were received
with suspicion before the arrival of the Court, after 1808 they came to be seen as a
model of modernity and as someone who came to contribute, through multiple studies
and practices, to the development of the country. That is the reason why the
commentaries made by those men gained so much notoriety and respect amongst the
Rio de Janeiro intelligentsia.

Bibliographical references
A Gazeta do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Typ da Gazeta / Typ. do Diario do Rio, 1827-1828.
A miscellania scientifica. Rio de Janeiro: Typographia de Jos Andres Garcia Ximenes, 1835.
A Verdade: jornal miscellanico: Rio de Janeiro: Typ. Nacional / Typ. Gueffier, 1832- 1834.
Annaes fluminenses de sciencias, artes e litteratura. Rio de Janeiro: Typographia de Santos e
Souza, 1822.
Compilador constitucional poltico e literrio brasiliense. Rio de Janeiro: Typ.Nacional /
Typ. de Moreira e Garcez, 1822.
Correio do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro: Typ. Nacional, 1822.
Correio Brasiliense, ou Armazm literrio. Londres: W. Lewis, 1808-1822.
Dirio de annuncios. Rio de Janeiro: Typographia de Lena & Pereira, 1833.
Espelho diamantino: peridico de poltica, liitteratura, bellas artes, theatro e modas, dedicado
s senhoras brasileiras. Rio de Janeiro: Imperial Typ. de P. Plancher-Seignot, 1827-1828.
Jornal Scientifico, economico e litterario: ou colleo de peas, memrias, relaes, viagens,
poesias e anedoctas; mixto de instruo e recreio acommodado a todo genero de leituras: Rio de
Janeiro: Typ. Nacional, 1826.
O Conciliador do Reino. Rio de Janeiro: Impresso Rgia, 1821.
O conciliador fluminense, o jornal poltico, histrico e miscellanico. Rio de Janeiro:
Typographia Fluminense de Brito e C./Typographia do Dirio, 1832.
O Patriota: jornal litterario poltico e mercantil do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro: Impresso
Rgia, 1813-1814.