Memory

1 – Typographic composing stand

With a sloping top to facilitate typesetting and drawers for storing type families (Polytechnic University of Tomar collection).

2 – Typographic composition

With different sans-serif typefaces, originally from the Imprensa Nacional da Casa da Moeda (Polytechnic University of Tomar collection).

3 – Proof press

Equipment for producing typographic proofs, from the Imprensa Nacional da Casa da Moeda (Polytechnic University of Tomar collection).

4 – Lead waste

From the casting section of a Linotype mechanical typesetting machine (Polytechnic University of Tomar collection).

5 – Papermaking mould

“Almasso” mould from the Marianaia paper mill (Casa Memória da Fábrica de Papel do Prado collection).

6 – Papermaking mould

Mould with the “PRADO” watermark (Casa Memória da Fábrica de Papel do Prado collection).

7 – Bullfight poster

Reproduction of a poster for a bullfight on 11 June 1961 (Tipografia A Persistente collection).

1 – Canções de Inocência e de Experiência [1789], William Blake, 2nd ed., reprint, translated by Jorge Vaz de Carvalho, Porto, Assírio & Alvim, 2024.

William Blake (1757–1827), an English poet and painter who printed, illustrated and sold his own books, creating a kind of individual model of what is now called “print on demand”.

For this purpose, William Blake invented a printing technique known as Illuminated printing, combining engraving techniques with the printing of text and images on a copper plate.

2 – Esplendores e Misérias das Cortesãs [1838–1847], Honoré de Balzac, translated by Beldemónio (Eduardo de Barros Lobo), 2nd ed., Lisbon, Guimarães & C.ª., Editores, undated.

Honoré de Balzac ran a printing business between 1826 and 1828. As with Fernando Pessoa, this experience soon proved disastrous for the author of La Comédie humaine.

His experience as a printer inspired some of the pages of his novel Lost Illusions, whose continuation appears in this volume, featuring the same protagonist, Lucien de Rubempré.

Like Lost Illusions, this novel was originally translated by Eduardo de Barros Lobo, a columnist, short-story writer and printer (see note below).

(Further information: https://historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=4700)

3 – O Arauto magazine, Lisbon, nos. 1–25, 7 January–24 June 1886

Editor: Beldemónio (pseudonym of Eduardo de Barros Lobo)

Note: Eduardo de Barros Lobo (1857–1893) was a journalist, columnist, short-story writer and translator who, at a certain point, began using the pseudonym by which he became known: Beldemónio.

Every issue of this magazine was written by Eduardo de Barros Lobo. The first three were written, typeset and printed at his printing house at Travessa do Jordão, no. 80. The same was true of his two short-story books, A Musa Loira and Contos Imorais, both published in 1890.

Beldemónio was also among the first translators of another author-printer, Honoré de Balzac, and among the first to translate the novels of Émile Zola.

(Further information: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beldem%C3%B3nio).

4 – Antero de Quental – tipógrafo-amador ou um Profissional Assalariado?, Casimiro Augusto Morais, Lisbon, Editorial Império, Lda., 1943

Book printed to mark the first anniversary of O Gráfico (1 May 1943). In a few brief words, the author describes Antero de Quental’s time at the Imprensa Nacional and outlines the life of his master, Francisco Guilherme Tito da Silva.

Casimiro Morais concludes his booklet with these words, expressing pride that the graphic arts count the poet of Odes Modernas among their ranks:

“Antero de Quental may, at a certain period in his life, be considered our predecessor in the profession, in the strictest sense of the word.

The time he devoted to learning, combined with his culture, made him a printer of great distinction, as he demonstrated by practising the profession in the demanding Parisian milieu.” (p. 14)

5 – Tipógrafos Ilustres, Manuel Pedro, Porto, Imprensa Moderna, 1944

In this book, Manuel Pedro (1889–1956) summarises the lives of several personalities, more or less famous, who were connected with the graphic arts, briefly or throughout their lives. Among others, he highlights Antero de Quental, Teófilo Braga, Brito Aranha and João Cardoso Denis (whose book Aquarelas had a preface by Eça de Queirós). The world-famous Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison and Carlos Gardel also feature prominently.

6 – O Escritor, o tipógrafo e o livro, Manuel Pedro, Porto, Imprensa Moderna, 1951.

For Manuel Pedro, there was a close connection between writer and printer, as both were at the origin of that unique object, the book: the former an intellectual artist and literary creator, the latter an artist of manual skill, under the sign of what was then called the divine black art:

“The book that we see in bookshop displays, on library shelves and in the hands of passers-by is made by the intellectual artist and the manual artist. By the intellectual artist, because he conceives and writes it; by the manual artist, because he produces it and gives it form and artistic beauty. These benefactors of humanity, these wonderful artists, complement one another; and thus intelligence and manual skill, united, contribute greatly to awakening the intelligence of peoples and to the progress of science and the arts.” (p. 17)

7 – “Fernando Pessoa – Empresário Gráfico”, Jorge Lopes, T&G magazine no. 120, June 2002, pp. 25–28

In one paragraph of this article, we read:

“The name of the printing house also entered the mythical iconography of the poet of Ode Marítima, EMPRESA Íbis – Typographia e Editora Officinas a Vapor, as we can see in the logo (…) on the letterhead.” (p. 26)

In 1909, Fernando Pessoa travelled to Portalegre to buy steam-powered letterpress equipment, which he installed at Rua da Conceição da Glória, no. 40, Lisbon. Pessoa’s Tipografia Íbis printed O Povo Algarvio, an independent republican weekly from Loulé, and probably little else, as this venture quickly evaporated, like so many other projects of the poet of heteronyms.