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ORIGINAL ARTICLE • Rev. Bras. Hist. Educ. 26 • 2026 • https://doi.org/10.4025/rbhe.v26.2026.e413en linkcopy

Open-access Books in the Diário de Pernambuco: the Education of the Bachelor at the Faculty of Law (1827-1850)

AuthorshipSCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

This work identifies the titles and authors of law books that appeared in the Diário de Pernambuco newspaper between 1827 and 1850, in conjunction with the legal education provided at the Faculty of Law in Olinda, Pernambuco. The books advertised for sale in the Diário de Pernambuco provide insight into the academic culture in the field of law in the 19th century, marked by the exchange of social and cultural practices in that society. In this sense, the books recommended for the Law School's curriculum play an important role in the history of this institution as a source for researchers, since these cultural objects are also understood through the flow of information and the dissemination of educational models of the time.

Keywords:
books; press; law school; Pernambuco

Resumo

Este trabalho identifica os títulos e autores dos livros de Direito que circularam no jornal Diário de Pernambuco entre os anos de 1827 a 1850, em articulação com a educação jurídica que se fazia presente na Faculdade de Direito em Olinda, Pernambuco. Os livros anunciados para a venda no Diário de Pernambuco possibilitam uma visão da cultura escolar no campo do Direito no século XIX, marcada pelo intercâmbio de práticas sociais e culturais daquela sociedade. Nessa direção, os livros indicados para compor o currículo da Faculdade de Direito desempenham papel relevante na história dessa instituição por ser fonte para pesquisadores, já que estes objetos culturais também são compreendidos por meio dos fluxos de informação e da difusão de modelos educacionais da época.

Palavras-chave:
livros; imprensa; faculdade de Direito; Pernambuco

Resumen

Este trabajo identifica los títulos y autores de los libros de Derecho que circularon en el periódico Diário de Pernambuco entre los años 1827 y 1850, en relación con la educación jurídica que se impartía en la Facultad de Derecho de Olinda, Pernambuco. Los libros anunciados para la venta en el Diário de Pernambuco permiten tener una visión de la cultura escolar en el campo del Derecho en el siglo XIX, marcada por el intercambio de prácticas sociales y culturales de aquella sociedad. En este sentido, los libros indicados para componer el plan de estudios de la Facultad de Derecho desempeñan un papel relevante en la historia de esta institución por ser una fuente para los investigadores, ya que estos objetos culturales también se comprenden a través de los flujos de información y la difusión de los modelos educativos de la época.

Palabras clave:
libros; prensa; facultad de Derecho; Pernambuco

Introduction

Recognizing that the formation of literate individuals in 18th and 19th-century Brazil was due to transatlantic literary culture and the circulation of these individuals between Brazil and Europe and vice versa, this text was formulated with the objective of identifying the law books that circulated in Pernambuco through the press, starting with the newspaper Diário de Pernambuco, between the years 1827 and 1850, as well as understanding the relationship among these books and the legal education present at the Faculty of Law in Olinda, Pernambuco. This periodical was chosen because, at the time, it was the most widely circulated, as it was published daily. For the composition of this text, however, legislative sources were used, such as the Law of August 11, 1827, which deals with the creation of the courses of Legal and Social Sciences in the city of São Paulo and in Olinda, and the Decree of November 7, 1831, which provisionally approved the new statutes for the courses of Legal and Social Sciences of the Empire.

Based on the legislative sources above, we have delimited the period from 1827 to 1850, as this period is marked both by the institution and creation of the Faculty of Law in 1827, when its curriculum was also established, and by the validity of this curriculum from 1831 until 1850 - in 1851, another curriculum was formulated and the announcements ceased.

In order to achieve this, the following questions arise: which law books were advertised for sale/purchase in the Diário de Pernambuco newspaper? What is the factual basis for the book advertisements? Is it possible to link the books in the newspaper, the creation of the aforementioned Faculty in 1827, and the operation of the law course in Olinda in 1828?

The answers to the questions above lie in understanding that the relationship between the press and books is constituted within the perspective of cultural practices of a specific time and place, in a complex interaction within that context. Thus, given this articulation, we believe that books are related to the construction of the Brazilian legal space and the consolidation of the Nation-State.

Understanding the place of print in the transmission of culture makes it possible to analyze how each era and society attributed meaning to this object, since they are "invested with plural and fluid meanings" (Chartier, 1999, p. 9). By seeking to give visibility to the law books advertised in the Diário de Pernambuco, the aim is to understand how these books contributed to the circulation of ideas in the proposals for Brazilian and northern Brazilian societal projects that were under construction. It is important to highlight that the circulation of books is relevant to studies of the history of the book, reading, and education, because, through this cultural object, it is possible to "establish an order; be it the order of its deciphering, the order within which it must be understood, or even the order desired by the authority that commissioned it or permitted its publication" (Chartier, 1999, p. 8).

The documentary research undertaken in this study was conducted using digital collections available on the web, specifically the National Digital Newspaper Library/National Library of Rio de Janeiro. This research practice reveals to contemporary researchers the peculiarities of using diverse sources and narratives on the web, aspects that enhance their understanding of digital history. The newspaper Diário de Pernambuco was used as a source for identifying and cataloging book advertisements, considering these advertisements within their specific historical context and situating them within their conditions of production and circulation.

The circulation of books in the newspaper (advertisements) needs to consider the perspective of connections between territories. Regarding this perspective, Abreu (2019, p. 267) says that:

[...] seems the most appropriate because it helps to avoid both Eurocentrism and exoticism, emphasizing the idea of movement between Europe and Brazil and not a flow of ideas or goods from Europe to Brazil. It also leads to thinking more in terms of connection than cultural dependence, more in terms of appropriation than influence.

According to Abreu (2019, p. 267), it is necessary to "emphasize the notion of circulation, because it breaks with the idea of closure within national territories and makes it clear that borders were not an obstacle to the transit of books, magazines, shows, and printed materials in general." Therefore, in Colonial and Imperial Brazil, connections were established between America and Europe, through individuals who were mostly educated at the University of Coimbra and the actions of booksellers, publishers, literary figures, and the mediations made possible by cultural periodicals, enabling the circulation of ideas.

The text is structured in two parts. The first briefly addresses the emergence of law schools in Brazil, and in particular, in Pernambuco. The second part deals with the relationship between law books advertised in the Diário de Pernambuco newspaper and the training of law graduates.

Brief notes on the Faculty of Law in Brazil

Advertisements published in the Diário de Pernambuco (1827-1850) mentioned books and the law course established in Olinda. To explore the material from these advertisements, it is necessary to present, concisely, the emergence of this course, so that the relationship between it and the books used for its offering and execution can be understood.

Law courses were created in 1827 by the Law of August 11th, in São Paulo and Olinda, promulgated by Dom Pedro I and regulated by the Statutes of the Viscount of Cachoeira - Deputy Luís José de Carvalho e Melo -, seeking to establish itself based on the Statutes of the University of Coimbra. Regarding the law course in Olinda, capital of the Province of Pernambuco from 1821 to 1827, it found space to be established in the Seminary of that Province, founded by José Joaquim da Cunha de Azeredo Coutinho in 1800, at the time when he became Bishop of Olinda in 1794 and Interim Governor of the Captaincy of Pernambuco. Having graduated in Canon Law in 1775, "his influence on the mentality of Pernambuco was considerable, both from the point of view of instruction itself and with reference to liberal ideas" (Beviláqua, 2012, p. 17).

Beviláqua notes that Azeredo Coutinho:

[...] transformed the conditions of education, and with it, the intellectual conditions of the captaincy, because it constituted, in addition to a breeding ground for priests, a secular secondary school, indeed the only one, providing, as can be seen from its program, theoretical education and also civic instruction, in belles-lettres and in some sciences. And it seems to him that Brazilian independence was directly served in its preparation, by this institute, due to the diffusion of liberal ideas (Beviláqua, 2012, p. 18).

The establishment of the law course in Olinda occurred through the interposition of political forces between the north and south of Brazil. On June 14, 1823, the General Deputy to the Constituent Assembly - José Feliciano Fernandes Pinheiro - representing Rio Grande do Sul, spoke in favor of creating a University in Brazil to avoid the high costs for Brazilian students who went to study in Portugal, given the time required for their education. To further the General Deputy's proposal, a Commission was formed to manage the creation of Law Faculties in Olinda and São Paulo. The success of this undertaking would meet the demands of both the northern and southern regions, benefiting the elite of Pernambuco and São Paulo, thus preventing separatist movements (Beviláqua, 2012; Carvalho, 2021).

In Olinda, the Law course began operating in 1828, but was still supported by the curriculum structure of the University of Coimbra, since the professors received their training at this institution, as Neder and Cerqueira Filho (2018, p. 114) assure:

Not only did the suggestions for the Statutes of the Law Faculties of Recife and São Paulo (discussed between 1823 and 1827) copy the Statutes of the University of Coimbra, but the formulation of the Criminal Code of 1830 was also based on the draft Criminal Code written by Paschoal José de Mello Freire, intended by Queen Maria I, which was never approved in Portugal.

Although the law courses were created in the image of the University of Coimbra, there was an adaptation in relation to the content of the subjects, due to the purposes of elite training in Brazil, which, for the legislators of the time, the idea was to train "skillful men to one day become wise Magistrates and expert Lawyers, which are so needed; and others who may become worthy Deputies and Senators, and fit to occupy diplomatic posts and other State positions," as proclaimed by the law of August 11, 1827 (Brazil, 1827).

According to Carvalho (2021, p. 76):

The first professors were former students of Coimbra, and some of the first students transferred from there. However, there was significant adaptation regarding the content of the subjects. Roman law was abandoned in favor of subjects more directly related to the needs of the new country, such as commercial and maritime law and political economy.

Thus, books constituted one of the main instruments for the organization and transmission of the contents of the Law course in Olinda and were present in the institution through different means. The first refers to the publication of books by printing presses in Pernambuco. Carvalho (1908), Nascimento (1968) and Hallewell (2012), when discussing the history of the press in the province, demonstrate that Pernambuco had, since 1821, intense activity in the production of periodicals and other publications, which favored the circulation of various texts, including books - an aspect that constitutes the focus of this study.

According to Abreu (2019, p. 267), it is necessary to "emphasize the notion of circulation, because it breaks with the idea of ​​closure within national territories and makes it clear that borders were not an obstacle to the transit of books, magazines, shows, and printed materials in general." Therefore, in Colonial and Imperial Brazil, connections were established between America and Europe, based on individuals who were mostly trained at the University of Coimbra and the actions of booksellers, publishers, literary figures, and the mediations made possible by cultural periodicals, enabling the circulation of ideas.

The text is structured in two parts. The first briefly addresses the emergence of the Faculty of Law in Brazil and, in particular, in Pernambuco. The second part deals with the relationship between law books advertised in the Diário de Pernambuco and the training of law graduates.

Diário de Pernambuco and Law textbooks: the formation of a law graduate at the Faculty of Law

The Diário de Pernambuco was founded in the home of the typographer Antonino José de Miranda Falcão, located at Rua Direita, nº 256, on November 7, 1825. Initially, it was printed on a single sheet, in the format of a booklet, with advertisements for real estate, lost and found items, auctions, among others, sold for 40 réis (Nascimento, 1968). It is important to highlight that this newspaper is considered the oldest in circulation in Latin America and that, when it was founded, Recife was not yet the capital of the province of Pernambuco, but rather Olinda.

In addition to the aforementioned periodical, there were others that made their mark on the history of the Pernambuco press in the early 1820s. Prior to that, there were brief, largely unsuccessful attempts at establishment, as indicated by Carvalho (1908). Printing presses began to appear in Pernambuco in 1821, more specifically in Recife, and the following periodicals were published: Aurora Pernambucana (1821), Segarrega (1821-1823), Relato Verdadeiro (1821-1822), Gazeta Extraordinária do Governo (1822), O Conciliador Nacional (1822-1825), O Maribondo (1822), Gazeta Pernambucana (1822-1824), Sentinela (1823), Typhis Pernambucano (1823-1824), Dezengano Brasileiro (1824), Abelha Pernambucana (1829-1830) and many other periodicals (Carvalho, 1908; Nascimento, 1968). According to research by Hallewell (2012), Pernambuco was the most important printing center in the provinces of Brazil for most of the 19th century. Adding to this the establishment of the Law School in the area further enhanced its importance.

Given the order imposed by printed materials, based on Chartier's (1999) understanding, the following questions arise: which books and authors in the field of Law circulated in the Diário de Pernambuco newspaper and contributed to the organization of the legal space between 1827 and 1850? What was the materiality of the book advertisements?

Between 1827 and 1850, approximately 210 books and printed materials (dictionaries, collections of laws, reports, legal proceedings, actions, regulations, wills, treatises, maps) dealing with the legal field circulated in the Diário de Pernambuco newspaper in the form of advertisements. Of these 210 books, it is worth highlighting that: i) 63 are of foreign authorship (English, Swiss, Dutch, French, American and Portuguese (see Table 2, below); ii) it was not possible to identify the authorship of some titles due to the spelling of the time; and iii) two Brazilian lawyers wrote and published books - such as Saturnino de Sousa e Oliveira and Francisco Alberto Teixeira de Aragão. It is necessary to mention that there are probably more than this number of 210 books that circulated in the province of Pernambuco, since printed materials for law studies are linked to other disciplines - Economics, Sociology, Philosophy. For this study, we present only 63 titles that were identifiable; however, if we do not allow ourselves to be impressed only by the quantitative data, believing that this number of book titles is insufficient, we will perceive a more complex and less asymmetrical picture. Due to the technical limitations of this text and its objective, it was not possible to analyze the pre-textual elements and themes of the books.

The presence of professional and foreign works can be explained by several factors: i) Individuals from other nations and from Brazil who went to study in Europe, particularly in Coimbra, and, upon completion of their studies, decided to practice law and/or return to Brazil, bringing with them books and other printed materials. Coimbra became a university city in the 16th century, contributing directly to legal education, marked by the presence of a large number of students who came from the privileged strata of society, that is, the elites of the kingdom and overseas territories. In the case of Brazil, Coimbra's destiny was concentrated, until and after Independence, in two provincial capitals. According to Carvalho (2021, p. 65): “The thematic and geographical concentration promoted personal contacts between students from the various captaincies and provinces and instilled in them a homogeneous ideology, within the strict control to which higher education institutions were subjected by the governments of both Portugal and Brazil.” ii) The establishment of Brazilian legal guidelines based on the Constitution of March 25, 1824. This was granted by Dom Pedro I, creating the first legal guidelines of independent Brazil, breaking with the Portuguese legal system and establishing the foundations of Brazilian Constitutional Law;

iii) creation and founding of the Law courses - Olinda and São Paulo, in 1827, as already discussed on page 4;

iv) the growing trade between Brazil and Europe, since the colonial period, which was established through the Royal Censorship Board. Although there was a system for controlling these books in the kingdom of Portugal through the Royal Censorship Board between the years 1769 and 1826, there was circulation of books in the province of Pernambuco:

The movement of books towards Brazil was much more intense than between Portuguese cities and extraordinarily higher than that recorded in relation to other colonies. Between 1769 and 1826, around 700 requests for authorization to send books to Rio de Janeiro were recorded, another 700 to Bahia, 350 to Maranhão, 200 to Pará and another 700 to Pernambuco (Abreu, 2003, p. 27).

The training of law graduates in Olinda occurred through the study of subjects and topics and the indication of titles/authors for the years 1827 and 1831 (see Table 1 below). The composition of the curriculum presented here focuses on the relationship between subjects and books, in accordance with the legislation.

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Table 1
Legislation regulating the Law Course in Olinda (1827-1831)

Observing the two sets of legislation governing the Law course during that period, one can see the few changes that the subjects and disciplines underwent during the four years of validity of the first statute compared to the second, even though their structure remained the same. In the third year, the definition of the first subject involves the inversion of the term "civil" in the subject's nomenclature; in the second subject, the subject "Theory of Criminal Procedure" is added in 1831. In the fourth year, the civil law follows the alteration of the first subject from the third year, and in the second subject, the positions of the terms "maritime" and "mercantile" are reversed; finally, a second subject - "Theory and Practice of Procedure" - is added in the last year of the course.

As mentioned earlier (page 7), Table 2, further on, displays 63 titles of books by foreign authors in the field of Law that were sold, thus evidencing their close relationship with the aforementioned course, according to advertisements in the Diário de Pernambuco, between the years 1827 and 1850. For Whitaker Verri and Vilela (2021, p. 3), “the representative elements of each work contain traces that demonstrate the content, or indicate in which fields the theories, practices or uses of the referenced object are exposed”. In them, initially, we can indicate the titles of the books and their respective authors and their social positions, thus understanding the historical value of books and inserting them into a school culture. According to Julia (2001), school culture is understood

as a set of norms that define knowledge to be taught and behaviors to be instilled, and a set of practices that allow the transmission of this knowledge and the incorporation of these behaviors; norms and practices coordinated towards purposes that may vary according to the times (religious, socio-political or simply socialization purposes. (Julia, 2001, p. 10).

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Table 2
List of foreign law books in the Diário de Pernambuco (from 1827 to 1850)

In most of the identified advertisements, the titles of the books were visible, but not their authorship, demonstrating the little importance given to this compositional element at the time. Despite this, this work sought to present, where located, the authorship of the advertised titles, even though some difficulties were encountered, such as the spelling of the authors' names, which could sometimes be written differently from the original form due to typography, or could be Brazilianized at the time; titles of some books/printed materials were also incomplete - it is assumed that this gap was due to the high cost of space for publications or the need for immediate publication of the advertisements.

Regarding the authors' credentials, not all were explicitly stated, due to the limitations imposed on the elaboration of an article and the objectives of this text. The choice to mention only the title of the work and its authorship does not reflect a return to the biographical paradigm, but rather responds to an analytical concern focused on the conditions of existence, circulation, and functioning of discourses. In this context, the author is not taken as the founding subject of meaning, but as a function that organizes, classifies, and regulates discursive production, insofar as "the authorial function is, therefore, characteristic of the mode of existence, circulation, and functioning of certain discourses within a society" (Foucault, 2001, p. 274). Therefore, the reference to authorship operates less as an explanatory element of the work and more as a marker of belonging to specific fields of knowledge, regimes of enunciation, and discursive practices. Thus, albeit in a synthetic way, it becomes possible to situate the formation of these authors, the institutional spaces in which they acted, and their networks of sociability not as biographical traits in themselves, but as elements of the historical conditions of production and circulation of ideas, articulated with the objectives of this brief research.

Table 2 (line 28) highlights a book entitled Historia da Legislação sobre as mulheres publicas (History of Legislation on Public Women), authored by M. Sabatier. Although this book does not appear in the study guidelines for the subjects/courses in the legislation of 1827 and 1831, it dealt with a topic that was quite prevalent in Europe - prostitution.

Although not all the books listed above were part of the curriculum of the Law course in Olinda, according to the Law of August 11, 1827, they demonstrate that they were on the horizon of the construction of the legal space in Brazil and the school culture of higher education, which is ratified in the advertisements published in the periodical, through the sale of books to students, professors, lawyers, unlicensed lawyers, magistrates and others interested in the subject. The following is Article 3 of the aforementioned law, dealing with the indication of books related to the subject matter of the first-year courses:

[...] For this reason, the Professor of this chair, giving the general notions of what is understood by natural law, or law of reason, will deal with the general laws, whose complex forms this code of nature: he will give at the beginning a summary of its history , and of the understanding that the ancients and moderns had of it, and the true and genuine understanding that it should have, removing the errors of those who wrote with confusion; and making a historical summary of the compilations of Grotius, Pufendorf, Wolffius, and Thomassius, who took from Roman law many rules that the philosophy of the jurists had suggested as laws of reason, he will observe that it is appropriate to consider all the relations of men, not in the abstract , nor as separate and dispersed beings, but as citizens who already live in society (Brazil, 1827, np, emphasis added).

The first two authors highlighted above are present in Table 2, with the titles Law of Peace and War (line no. 51) and Duties of Man and Citizen (line no. 49), respectively. Article 9 indicates the following books: [...] “making use of modern books, of Brie, Perrault, and any other opinion more appropriate for use in schools, uniting with them the doctrines of many other celebrated men of recent times” (Brazil, 1827, np, emphasis added). The first one highlighted above is also listed in Table 2, under the title Theory of Social Laws (line no. 06).

In the second year of studies, chapter IV, first article, the books studied are: “ The summary of Rayneval, aided by Watel [Vatel], Heinecio, Felice and others, on the universal and practical law of nations, will serve as a compendium for these lessons”, and [...] “the work of Malby on the public law of Europe and the general collection of Dumond and Martens” (Brazil, 1827, np). With the exception of Heinecio and Dumond, the other authors are listed in Table 2.

Regarding Maritime Law, the fourth article points to the authors highlighted below, and although only Boucher was listed in Table 2, the other authors were not present in the advertisements, which may have been ignored by the advertisers or not accurately observed in the survey of titles/authors, due to the spelling in the newspaper:

4. It will address the important questions that have arisen in this respect, and will explain the important doctrine of the rights of neutral nations with respect to belligerents, territorial seas, fisheries, and other such matters. It will serve as a guide and compendium. to the work of Azuni on maritime law, aided by the doctrines of Boucher, Peuchet, Lampredi, Hubner, Galliani, the Prezas Code, and others (Brazil, 1827, emphasis added).

In the sixth article, the student will need to make use of the "compendium" or "Codigo". French Commerce for its brevity, clarity, and universality of doctrines,” “Consulat del Mare, Traité des Assurances, Abot , being recommendable among all those of Pardessus and Boucher on commercial law” (Brazil, 1827, np). The title Traité des Assurances is authored by Balthazard Marie Émérigon, as per Table 2 (line no. 53).

The third year of law school studies, through the 5th article, emphasizes Ecclesiastical Public Law and cites the authors Gmeinero, Fleury, Bohemero [Corpus Jur. canon.], the latter also listed in Table 2, line 21, and the chapter “De Jure principis”. circa sacra - which comes from the public law of Paschoal José de Mello, adding the Professor whatever else he finds scattered in the ordinances and laws that have been promulgated later” (Brazil, 1827, np).

In Chapter VI, which covers the fourth year of the course, the subject matter deals with criminal procedure, citing the authors Filangieri (Sciencia da Legislação), as shown in Table 2, line 5, Cottu (Criminal Justice in England), and Saint Aignan. (History of Jury) and Aragão (Criminal Justice Administration). With regard to Paschoal José de Mello, he was listed for sale in the law books, under his name only, in the newspaper O Cruzeiro: Jornal Politico, Literario e Mercantil1, on July 16, 1830 (O Cruzeiro, 1830).

Regarding Paschoal José de Mello Freire, Neder and Cerqueira Filho (2018, p. 114) confirm the wide reach of his work in the reception of legal and political thought in Portugal and Brazil:

Paschoal José de Mello Freire also directed readings on the legal field, based on his compendium. Thus, in Portugal, studies of the history of law constitute a significant field in the legal education of the most traditional Law Faculties (Coimbra and Lisbon). In Brazil, his influence can be seen through several explicit references made by the first legal administrators of the Imperial State (whether in the Executive, Legislative or Judicial branches, we find his name cited as a legitimizing reference for the legal and political practices undertaken).

Finally, for the last year of studies, Chapter VIII deals with the teaching of legal hermeneutics. It mentions the Constitution of the Empire and Eckard (Hermeneutica Juris), listed in Table 2 (line no. 38), and others; but primarily, it will be guided not only by the aforementioned Law of August 18, 1769, but also by the treatise on interpretation by Paschoal José de Mello” (Brazil, 1827, np).

From the Decree of November 7, 1831, there is no mention of the books indicated for study in the course; however, in article 2, there is the following guidance for teachers, who are responsible for making the selection in accordance with their teaching:

The professors will choose the textbooks for their profession, or arrange for them if none already exist; provided that the doctrines are in accordance with the system sworn by the nation. These textbooks will be submitted to the approval of the General Assembly, and approved by it ; the Government will give its authors the first printing free of charge, granting them the exclusive privilege of the work for ten years (Brazil, 1831, np).

The books listed in Table 2 were frequently advertised for sale in the Diário de Pernambuco newspaper, becoming objects of interest not only to law students and professors, but also to lawyers, legal practitioners, politicians, and others interested in this field. The points of sale were eye-catching locations; the bookseller/seller or the sales space (store) can be considered cultural mediators and spaces of sociability2, respectively, as they made connections between the books and the readers/buyers.

Many works were sold by Friar Miguel Joaquim Pegado at the Olinda Seminary itself and at the shop of the merchant Thomaz de Aquino Fonseca. The first of these gentlemen came from Portugal and taught mathematics at the Seminary, also assuming the position of Rector. Thomaz de Aquino Fonseca, a native of Recife, was a merchant; in his shop, there were law books, according to a publication in the Diário de Pernambuco (1830a), dated February 20, 1830. According to Câmara (2013), he was a consignee of ships coming from the Atlantic islands of the Portuguese Empire to Brazil, bringing people and other goods.

It should be noted that, in addition to sales advertisements, there were also purchase advertisements, which were published at the request of anyone interested in acquiring a specific copy of Law, such as the Law of Nations. This was advertised for purchase on May 6, 1829, demonstrating that someone sought to acquire it: “PURCHASED: Volume 1 of the Law of Nations by Watel: Rua da Cruz, No. 54.” (Diário de Pernambuco, 1829).

Furthermore, it should be noted that other newspapers in Pernambuco published advertisements for the sale of law books, such as O Cruzeiro: Jornal Politico, Literario e Mercantil. (1829-1830), advertising them at the following locations: i) “Rua da Cadeia, Bairro do Recife, store no. 26”; ii ) “at the house of Antonio Jozé de Amorim, on Rua da Cruz, no. 22 [same street as the person interested in purchasing Direito das Gentes]”; iii) “Rua do Queimado, store D.6”. These advertisements include the titles listed in Table 2 and many others that could not be listed.

Another point worth highlighting is the materiality of the advertisements. These were published on the last page of the newspaper, in a brief announcement or in a list of titles. At the time, advertisements did not include complete bibliographic information such as authorship, publisher, place and date of publication. These elements were rare. According to Abreu (2003, p. 67), it was standard practice for advertisements that “booksellers published in Brazilian newspapers during that period, summarizing it with a list of titles and prices”. In some advertisements, there is a suggestion from the reading public; in others, the advertisers considered it relevant to inform about the language in which the book was presented and the quantity. The works indicated can serve “as ornaments to the best libraries, of great help to scholars, and of all instruction to the curious, and are especially useful to those who follow the noble profession of commerce”, according to the announcement in the newspaper Cruzeiro on January 5, 1831 (O Cruzeiro, 1831, p. 4).

The books presented in Table 2 represent a compilation of ideas/knowledge that came from Europe and arrived in Brazil to form the undergraduate degree in Law and, consequently, the Brazilian legal landscape, amidst modernity, positivism, and the construction of the Brazilian nation at that time. Books by Swiss, Spanish, German, English, Dutch, and French authors made a stop in Portugal to be translated and circulated at the University of Coimbra. It should be noted that works in English, French, and Latin were able to reach students and other readers without translation, as the study of these languages was required for preparatory exams, according to Chapter II of the Decree of November 7, 1831.

These books, however, offer clues to understanding the search for the construction of a Brazilian legal culture, moving away from Portuguese legislation - the Philippine Ordinances - in accordance with the Constitution of the Empire, promulgated in 1824, which determined in its article 179, no. XVIII, the “need to organize, as soon as possible, a civil and a criminal code, founded on solid bases of Justice and Equity” (Fonseca, 2006, p. 72) - that is, foreign models, therefore, to be followed, since “the liberalism received in Brazil, [...], underwent special 'adaptations' to serve as the basis for an authoritarian and slave-owning socio-political structure” (Fonseca, 2006, p. 72), given that there was still:

tradition, values, a culture, in short, a living notion of law, even if not the “official” law. And this is a law that seeks to resist a culture that is foreign and strange to it, but with which, in this conflictual relationship, it simultaneously dialogues and interacts in a historical context marked by diverse particularities (Fonseca, 2006, p. 76).

The movement toward a new ordering of legal space in Brazil, driven by the circulation of ideas through books advertised in the Diário de Pernambuco newspaper, was fundamental in shaping a legal conception geared toward maintaining order, consolidating the Brazilian imperial state, and forming a centralizing political and bureaucratic elite. These publications served as technical and ideological instruments to legitimize the social structure in place at the time.

This process occurred in parallel with the reforms of legal education throughout the 19th century. This new order is part of the spectrum of a higher education culture under construction, especially when one considers that, in Latin America, universities responsible for training law graduates already existed since the 18th century.

In this sense, it is argued that the law books advertised in Pernambuco newspapers at the beginning of the 19th century were, to a large extent, aligned with the legal education offered by the Faculty of Law of Olinda (and, later, Recife). Book advertisements in periodicals acted as important devices of cultural mediation, enabling access to European and, gradually, national legal literature that underpinned the institution's academic curriculum. Inserted into spaces of literate sociability, the periodicals not only informed about the availability of works but also actively participated in shaping a higher academic culture by disseminating references, authors, and manuals legitimized in the legal field. Thus, the circulation of these publications contributed to the consolidation of formative practices and to the homogenization of a legal conception consistent with the projects of social and political order underway in 19th-century Brazil.

Final remarks

In addressing the foreign law books advertised in the Diário de Pernambuco (1827-1850), this study reveals varied paths for historical research within an approach to the cultural and educational practices of a society during a given period. In this sense, the text presented here traverses the history of the book, the history of reading, and the history of education, as it focuses on the representation of messages transmitted through the written word and the circulation of ideas in a world whose internal boundaries are always interconnected.

In the social context of Pernambuco during the 19th century, law books facilitated the exchange of social and cultural practices in the daily life of that society. This entire process proves contrary to the simplistic thinking that labels the free circulation of national and foreign books as acculturation and a negative influence, an exchange of cultural exchanges fostered by law books, important vectors that drove the construction of a Brazilian legal culture embedded in an incipient process of globalization conveyed by the circulation of 19th-century printed materials.

Thus, the analysis of advertisements for law books published in the Diário de Pernambuco between 1827 and 1850 reveals a broad and diverse repertoire of legal works, authored by foreigners, encompassing central fields of the Olinda law school curriculum, such as natural law, international law, constitutional law, civil law, criminal law, commercial law, maritime law, and ecclesiastical law. These titles, recurrent in sales and, to a lesser extent, purchase advertisements, indicate the existence of a legally oriented book market, aimed at students, professors, magistrates, and other agents of the literate world. The materiality of these advertisements - generally presented in succinct listings on the last page of the newspaper, with little bibliographic information - reveals commercial practices typical of the 19th-century press, in which the title of the work and, occasionally, the language or target audience were sufficient to pique the reader's interest. Thus, the advertisements functioned as devices of cultural mediation, making visible the circulation of legal knowledge and the insertion of these publications into the intellectual daily life of Pernambuco.

In this sense, it is possible to affirm that there is a consistent connection between the books advertised in the Diário de Pernambuco, the creation of the Faculty of Law in 1827, and the effective beginning of the law course in Olinda in 1828. The recurrence of works explicitly indicated in the educational legislation of the period - as well as authors cited in the statutes and course programs - demonstrates that the newspaper not only reflected but also materially supported the functioning of the course, by disseminating the compendiums necessary for the training of the bachelor. The press, therefore, integrated itself into the project of institutionalizing legal education in the Empire, contributing to the consolidation of a higher school culture aligned with European models and the demands of the nation-state under construction. Thus, the advertisements for law books allow us to understand the newspaper as a privileged space for the articulation between knowledge, the market, and academic training, revealing the central role of the printed word in shaping the Brazilian legal field in the 19th century.

In this regard, the books that circulated in the Faculty of Law assume a relevant role in the history of this institution, as they are a privileged source for historians, since they are also understood through the flows of information and the diffusion of educational models of the time. The articulation between the press and school materials as objects of historical investigation also reveals curricular, methodological and symbolic aspects, as well as institutional and political mediations involved in the constitution of the educational system of the time.

References

  • Peer review rounds:
    R1: one invitation; no reviews received.
    R2: two invitations; two reviews received.
  • 1
    It began circulating on May 4, 1829, in a 30x20 format, with two columns of 18- point type and four pages, printed in its own printing house, located on Rua da Cadeia (now Avenida Marquês de Olinda), D3. Monthly subscription - 640 réis. It was written by Father Francisco Ferreira Barreto, defender of the principles of the secret society Coluna do Trono e do Altar (Nascimento, 1966).
  • 2
    Cultural mediation and spaces of sociability are interconnected concepts, fundamental to the sociology of culture, communication, and education. They concern how knowledge, art, and social relations are facilitated and experienced. Regarding cultural mediation, it encompasses the set of processes, devices, and agents that act as a bridge between works of art/cultural objects and the public, promoting appropriation, interpretation, and the construction of meaning (Sirinelli, 2003). Spaces of sociability are considered the places where social interactions, exchanges of experiences, and the formation of bonds occur, essential for collective life (Ariès, 2012).
  • How to cite this article:
    Silva, F. S. da. Books in the Diário de Pernambuco: the Education of the Bachelor at the Faculty of Law (1827-1850). Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, 26, e413. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4025/rbhe.v26.2026.e413en
  • Funding:
    The RBHE has financial support from the Brazilian Society of History of Education (SBHE) and the Editorial Program (Call No. 30/2023) of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
  • Licensing:
    This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY 4) license.
  • Data availability:
    All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    27 July 2026
  • Date of issue
    2026

History

  • Received
    17 July 2025
  • Accepted
    08 Apr 2026
  • Published
    01 May 2026
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