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Country
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PT
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Name of institution (English)
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The Ajuda Library
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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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Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, 1349-021 Lisbon
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Contact information: phone number
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00351 213638592
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Contact information: email
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bibajuda@pnajuda.dgpc.pt
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Title (English)
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Codices
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Title (official language of the state)
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Códices
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Language of title
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por
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Creator / accumulator
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Biblioteca da Ajuda
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Date note
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13th century/20th century
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Language(s)
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por
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Extent
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2,512 books
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Physical condition
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Good
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Scope and content
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The Códices collection of the Biblioteca da Ajuda comprises documents of several provenance and typologies. Regarding Jewish-related material, one of its highlights is the so-called "Bíblia da Ajuda" (52-XIII-1), a Spanish Judaeo-Romance Illuminated Bible, with some titles in Hebrew and incompletely decorated. Its translation and illustrations were made by Jews, although their identities are unknown. The Bible was copied in Spain around 1420-1430, but it was already in Portugal in the second half of the 15th century, in possession of King Afonso V. For more information on this manuscript, see Avenoza (2001).
References to Portuguese Jews before the late-15th century expulsion are dispersed among various codices of this collection. For instance, the document "Despezas que el Rey fez depois da tomada de Seita em espaço de cinquoenta e oito annos" (Expenses made by the King after the conquest of Ceuta over 58 years), of which the collection retains a few copies (49-XII-17, 49-XII-19 and 51-V-35), includes a mention to a Jew named Guedelha, son of Mestre (master) Abraão, who received a grant from the King in the amount of 3,000 réis (currency). This document was published in Faro (1965).
More numerous are the documents of the Códices collection related to New Christians and the Portuguese Inquisition. Indeed, in the Biblioteca da Ajuda's reading room, the readers can find a thematic catalogue with the inventory of the documentation related to these two topics. It includes several manuscript copies of Priest António Vieira's writings on the New Christian question (49-IV-19, 49-IV-20, 49-IV-21, 49-IV-22, 49-IV-23, 51-II-29, 51-II-30, 51-II-32, 51-II-33, 51-II-34, 51-II-37, 51-II-54, 51-II-55, 51-II-56, 51-II-57, 51-VI-6), two copies of the controversial writing on the Inquisition proceedings currently known as "Notícias Recônditas" (49-IV-18 and 49-IV-21), lists of autos-da-fé (49-IV-12; 49-IV-13; 49-IV-14; 49-IV-15; 51-VI-21; 51-VI-22), correspondence and other documentation from the four Portuguese courts of the Inquisition: Lisbon, Évora, Coimbra, and Goa. Some of these documents also contain information on the departure of New Christians from Portugal to the main destinations of the Western Sephardic Diaspora. Some examples are the following:
51-VIII-6, nº 486: Reflection on the departure of New Christians from Portugal to places such as Holland and Zeeland (January 13, 1613).
51-VIII-9, nº 12 and 51-VIII-4, nº 78: Letters by King Filipe III (II of Portugal) to D. Pedro de Castilho, the Chief Inquisitor, on the New Christians who clandestinely embarked for Holland (June 30, 1614 and July 29, 1614).
51-VIII-16, nº 13, fol. 24: Letter by D. Pedro de Castillo to the King explaining why Heitor Mendes should not be authorised to leave Portugal, since two of his brothers were public Jews in Venice and Salonica (August 2, 1612).
51-VIII-17, nº 54, fol. 68: Letter by D. Pedro de Castilho to the King on the departure of New Christians from Portugal and their settlement in Amsterdam, where the Jews lived in a separated quarter with a synagogue (July 6, 1614).
51-VIII-20, nº4: Letter by D. Pedro de Castilho to the Duke of Lerma on the flight of many Jews to Bordeaux and other places where they could live as Jews (August 15, 1608).
46-X-14 and 46-X-15: Eighteenth-century copy of a collection of accounts presented by the Portuguese New Christians before the Holy See against the proceedings of the Portuguese Inquisition.
The collection also includes a copy of the manuscript “Relacion de todo el distrito de Guinea y govierno de Caboberde” (Account on the district of Guinea and the government of Cape Verde) written by the New Christian Sebastião Fernandes Cação (cód. 51-IX-25). There is another copy in the Real Academia de la Historia de Madrid.
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Archival history
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The Códices is part of the Manuscripts Collection of the Biblioteca da Ajuda. It was initially based on the Royal Household’s collection. This was subsequently added to by incorporating the libraries of the Company of Jesus (from the Professed House of São Roque and the Santo Antão College), the Congregation of the Oratorio, and the Necessidades Palace. The resulting whole was further enriched by purchases or donations of important private libraries like those of the Second Count of Redondo, Tomé de Sousa, Pedro Mello Breyner, Francisco Maria Angelelli, José Monteiro da Rocha, Dom Luís de Sousa, Queen Dona Carlota Joaquina de Bourbon, Princess Dona Maria Francisca Benedita, King Pedro V, and King Luís I, among others.
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(source: Biblioteca da Ajuda website)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The Biblioteca da Ajuda is one of the oldest libraries in Portugal. It was first created to replace the Royal Library, or the king’s personal library, whose first collection was organised during the reign of King João I. However, the Biblioteca da Ajuda was only effectively created anew in the reign of King José I, when it was reconstituted after the 1755 earthquake by purchasing collections belonging to some of the great noble houses.
After the departure of the royal family to Brazil in 1808, following the French invasion of Portugal, the Biblioteca also travelled to Rio de Janeiro, together with the Crown’s collection of manuscripts. However, when King João VI returned to Portugal in 1821, only the latter accompanied him. The approximately 60,000 volumes that remained in Rio de Janeiro later gave rise to the National Library of Brazil.
The Biblioteca was again reconstituted by various initiatives undertaken by King João VI and King Miguel I, who imposed a legal deposit system and endowed it with archive and library functions to complement the work of the Imprensa Régia (Royal Press). In June of 1880, the Biblioteca was transferred to the current facilities in the Palace of Ajuda.
Until the Proclamation of the Republic in 1910, the Biblioteca was administered directly by the Royal House, with independence from the government. The librarians were appointed by the monarch, often among his personal confidants, such as Alexandre Herculano, Magalhães Coutinho, and Ramalho Ortigão.
The incorporation of several private libraries, collections of extinct religious orders, and later documentation from public bodies, enriched the Biblioteca da Ajuda holdings.
At present, the Biblioteca da Ajuda holds an important collection of heritage assets. Three kilometres of shelves are home to around 150,000 manuscripts and printed items.
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(source: Biblioteca da Ajuda website)
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System of arrangement
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Records are arranged sequentially.
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2021
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Bibliography
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Avenoza, Gemma. 2001. La biblia de Ajuda y la Megillat antiochus en romance. Madrid: CSIC.
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Green, Tobias. 2006. “Masters of Difference: Creolization and the Jewish Presence in Cabo Verde, 1497–1672.” PhD dissertation, Birmingham: Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham.
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Horta, José da Silva, and Peter Mark. 2004. “Two Early Seventeenth-Century Sephardic Communities on Senegal’s Petite Côte.” History in Africa 31: 231–56.
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Kayserling, Meyer. 2009. História Dos Judeus Em Portugal. 2a (1st Edition of 1867). São Paulo: Pioneira.
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Mark, Peter, and José da Silva Horta. 2013. “Being Both Free and Unfree. The Case of Selected Luso-Africans in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Western Africa: Sephardim in a Luso-African Context.” Anais de História de Além-Mar 14: 225–47. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/19532.
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Moita, Tiago. 2015. “‘Entre os Judeus Portuguezes e Espanhoes corriaõ algumas Traducções’: a Bíblia da Ajuda, um manuscrito em romance de iniciativa judaica.” INVENIRE: Revista de Bens Culturais da Igreja, no. special number: 64–128.
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Pinto, Pedro. 2020. Fora do secreto: um contributo para o conhecimento do Tribunal do Santo Ofício em arquivos e bibliotecas de Portugal. Lisbon: CEHR-UCP.
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Poettering, Jorun. 2019. Migrating Merchants: Trade, Nation, and Religion in Seventeenth-Century Hamburg and Portugal. München: De Gruyter Oldenbourg.
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Pulido Serrano, Juan I. 2006. “Las negociaciones con los cristianos nuevos en tiempos de Felipe III a la luz de algunos documentos inéditos (1598-1607).” Sefarad 66 (2): 345–76. https://doi.org/10.3989/sefarad.2006.v66.i2.414.
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Salomon, Herman Prins. 2018. “A Little-Known Gibe at the Inquisition by Father António Vieira (1608-1697).” In Portuguese Jews, New Christians, and “New Jews”: A Tribute to Roberto Bachmann, Claude Stuczynski and Bruno Feitler. Leiden: Brill.
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Salvador, José Gonçalves. 1969. Cristãos Novos, Jesuítas e Inquisição: Aspectos de Sua Atuação Nas Capitanais Do Sul (1530-1680). São Paulo: Pioneira; Universidade de São Paulo.
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Swetschinski, Daniel M. 2000. Reluctant Cosmopolitans: The Portuguese Jews of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam. London; Portland: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization.
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Valentim, Carlos. 2001. “Mestre João Faras – Um sefardita ao serviço de D. Manuel I.” Cadernos de Estudos Sefarditas 1.
