Os capítulos sobre animais dos "Dialogos geograficos, chronologicos, politicos e naturaes" (1769) de Joseph Barboza de Sáa e a primeira monografia sobre a fauna de Mato Grosso

Abstract

Joseph Barbosa de Sáa (? - 1775), more known for his writings about the history of the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, completed in 1769 a voluminous and erudite book entitled "Dialogos geograficos, chronologicos, politicos, e naturaes", which has never been published in its entirety. A copy from the 18th century is deposited in the Biblioteca Pública do Porto, in Portugal, and a copy of that manuscript, made in the 19th century, is found at the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, in Rio de Janeiro. Ten chapters of that book deal with the natural products of Brazil (over a thousand, nearly half being animals), observed by Sáa along the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in São Paulo, southern Goiás and especially Mato Grosso, being the first monograph about the natural history of this last state. Another manuscript from the 18th century, containing only those ten chapters, exists at the Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (MS 9.2.7), and its sections about animals are here transcribed and commented.