IMPRESSÃO RÉGIA Establishment and Activity of the Royal Printing House of Brazil (1808-1822)

Abstract

When Portugal was occupied by Napoleon's army, in 1807, the Regent, D. João, in order tosave the Portuguese crown, left the country and settled in Rio de Janeiro with his Court. In thesecircumstances, it was necessary to print administrative documents, which accounts for the creationof the Royal Stationary Office – Impressão Régia – with considerable consequences in the colony invarious fields such as the press, publishing and what is nowadays the biggest national library inLatin America. Besides, documents printed at the time allow us to follow the evolution of Brazil inthese crucial years of development and access to independence. Moreover, these printed documentstell us a lot about how the Portuguese government, established so far from the armed conflict,experienced the war in their Mother Country.

Keywords

• Printing
• Napoleon
• Brazil
• Portugal