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Country
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PT
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Name of institution (English)
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Municipal Library of Porto
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Language of name of institution
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por
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Contact information: postal address
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Rua de D. João IV 17, 4049-017 Porto
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Contact information: phone number
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00351 225193480
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Contact information: email
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bmp@cm-porto.pt
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Reference number
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M-FA
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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Azevedo Fonds
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Title (official language of the state)
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Fundo Azevedo
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Language of title
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por
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Creator / accumulator
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Conde de Azevedo
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Date note
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15th century/19th century
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Language(s)
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lad
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lat
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por
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Extent
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84 books
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Physical condition
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Satisfactory
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Scope and content
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The Fundo de Azevedo is composed of manuscript books bequeathed by the 1st Count of Azevedo to the Biblioteca Pública do Porto (Municipal Library of Porto). This collection includes an 82-folio manuscript translation into Judeo-Spanish aljamiado (MS-FA-14) of the medical treatise "Thesaurus pauperum" attributed to Pedro Hispano, later Pope John XXI (1210? -1277). The body text is written in Rashi script, but square Hebrew characters are used in the chapter numbers and the colophon. The owners’ annotations and two lines in the fol. 73v use cursive Hebrew. Some additional titles and annotations in Spanish were added to the Hebrew text. The pages are numbered with Arabic numerals. According to Maria Adélia Soares de Carvalho Mendes, the manuscript would have been written between the late 15th century and the early 16th century, slightly after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal. In the codex’s spine, the designation “Libro de remedios em Portugues com letra Hebrea” (Book of medicines in Portuguese with Hebrew script), would have been given when the manuscript was bound, probably in the 17th century. The manuscript was transcribed and published in 1999 by Maria Adélia Soares de Carvalho Mendes (1999).
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Archival history
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In his will, on September 29, 1875, the Count of Azevedo bequeathed a set of manuscripts to the Biblioteca Municipal do Porto. Some of these manuscripts had been acquired by the count following the advice of his friend Camilo Castelo Branco and the bibliophile José Gomes Monteiro.
This fonds was incorporated into the library collection in 1877. It was composed by 81 volumes described in "Relação dos manuscritos legados a esta Bibliotheca pelo Ex.mo Conde de Azevedo" (1877). In 1926, the second Count of Azevedo donated other two volumes found among his family papers to the library.
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(source: Cabral, Luís, and Maria Adelaide Meireles. 1998. Tesouros da Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto. Lisboa: INAPA)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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Francisco Lopes de Azevedo (1809-1877) was awarded the title of Viscount of Azevedo in 1846. He was a supporter of Prince D. Miguel during the Liberal Wars. Therefore, as affiliated with the conservative absolutist cause, after the liberal victory, Azevedo retired to his family’s Casa Solar in Lama, a parish of Barcelos. In 1843, he moved to Braga, and three years later, he was nominated Governador Civil (Civil Governor) of Braga, a position that he exercised for little more than one month. In 1846 and 1851-2, he was elected deputy. However, his poor health forced him to leave his political career. Then, he dedicated himself to books. Azevedo was a bibliophile and a writer. In 1876, he became a correspondent Fellow of the Academia Real das Ciências (Royal Academy of Sciences). In his house in Lama, he set up a printing workshop and arranged cultural meetings. He also collaborated with Inocêncio Francisco da Silva in the composition of the monumental work Dicionário Bibliográfico Português. On December 5, 1876, one month before his death, Francisco Lopes de Azevedo was awarded the title of Count of Azevedo. His extensive library was bequeathed to the 2nd Count of Samodães. Azevedo had also donated numerous manuscripts to the Real Biblioteca Pública do Porto, which presently form the Fundo Azevedo.
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System of arrangement
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Records are arranged sequentially.
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Access, restrictions
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The access to the documents in poor condition of conservation could be limited for safeguarding and preserving the institution's documentary heritage.
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2021
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Bibliography
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Meirinhos, José Francisco. 2013. “O Tesouro dos Pobres de Pedro Hispano, entre o século XIII e a edição de Scribonius em 1576.” In Humanismo, diáspora e ciência (séculos XVI e XVII): estudos, catálogo, exposição, 327–49. Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra.
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Moita, Tiago. 2017. “O Livro Hebraico Português Na Idade Média: Do Sefer He-Aruk de Seia (1284-85) Aos Manucritos Tardo-Medievais Da ‘Escola de Lisboa’ e Aos Primeiros Incunábulos.” PhD thesis, Lisboa: Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa.
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Mendes, Ana Filipa Almeida. 2016. “Para a construção de uma memória: organização sistémica do Arquivo dos Condes de Azevedo.” Páginas a&b: arquivos e bibliotecas 3rd series (special number): 14–25.
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Cabral, Luís, and Maria Adelaide Meireles. 1998. Tesouros da Biblioteca pública municipal do Porto. Lisboa: INAPA.
