Zefferino Vitor de Meireles: printing and civility in the court of Rio de Janeiro (1808-1822)

Abstract

This article analyzes the importance of the printer trade focusing the trajectory of the Portuguese typographer Zefferino Vitor de Meireles and his presence in the Portuguese Royal Court between the years of 1808 and 1822. Besides being an important agent in the consolidation of remarkable works at the Tipografia da Impressão Régia, reaching to its administration, Meireles created the periodical publication Diário do Rio de Janeiro. Subsequently, he was also the owner of a homonymous typography. Established in the context of growth of the Modernity in the tropics, the quoted typography was an important member -as both object and subject - of the new increasing liberal culture. Aspects such as the notion of civility in that period are discussed in this work.