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The Caetano Prospect: An Eighteenth-Century View of Recife in Brazil
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
No city of south america has been more frequently or more carefully depicted in views of all kinds than Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, a port on the northern coast of Brazil, which this year is celebrating the 300th anniversary of one of the great events in its history. The iconography of Recife begins with the Dutch, who are responsible for its growth as a town. Before their conquest of Pernambuco in 1630, Recife had been only a village of fishermen dependent upon the old Portuguese town of Olinda, located a short distance to the north. Olinda, however, lacked port facilities, for it was built on hills dominating an open beach. Recife, on the other hand, is located at the confluence of the rivers Beberibe and Capibaribe, where there is a deep harbor protected from the sea by reefs of sandstone, which gives the place its name. The situation was, therefore, ideal for the needs of the Dutch West Indies Company, which for commercial purposes had brought about the conquest of the rich sugar and dye-wood-producing Portuguese colony of Pernambuco.
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1954
References
1 He is the author of the basic monograph Frans Post(São Paulo, 1948)Google Scholar and of “Frans Post en Albert Eckhout,” Maurits de Brazilaan (The Hague, 1953), pp. 19–25 Google Scholar. See also Thomsen, Thomas, Albert Eckhout (Copenhagen, 1938).Google Scholar
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3 Koster’s, Henry, Travels in Brazil (London, 1816)Google Scholar and Graham, Maria, Journal of a voyage to Brazil and residence there during part of the years 1821, 1822, 1823 (London, 1824) are typical.Google Scholar
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17 For complete title and legend see Figure II, Legend, p. 405.
18 Couto, op. cit., 155.
19 Loc. cit.
20 Ibid.
21 A lighthouse began to function at this point in 1822 (Ferrez, loc. cit.).
22 Op. cit., II, 815.
23 Smith, “The Wood-Beach at Recife,” THE AMERICAS, VI (October, 1949), 215–233. See also “More About the Wood-Beach at Recife”, ibid., X (July, 1953) 75–78 Google Scholar, by the same writer, where an attempt is made to identify the author of the painting with that José de Oliveira Barbosa (1753–1844), who became a marshal in the Portuguese Army, governor of Angola, and, in the Brazilian Empire, Baron of Passeio Público and Viscount of Rio Comprido.
24 Op. cit., II, 815–816.
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32 Because of the objections of the people of Olinda, who opposed the removal of Recife from the authority of the old city, the pelourinho was erected secretly at night. It soon was torn down by invaders from Olinda, thus precipitating a struggle which continued until in 1714 Recife emerged the winner ( Leite, , op. cit., V, 454–459 Google Scholar). Never, however, during the colonial period did it become a city. It was always known officially as the “Muita nobre e sempre leal vila do Recife.”
33 This custom of describing the circuit of the street in its name produced also in Recife the Rua do Rosário para o Carmo, which appears as no. 23 on the map. In Salvador the last part of the Rua Direita do Palácio became the Rua Direita que vai da Praça para a Sé (Rio de Janeiro, Bibliotheca Nacional, MS No. 11–33–23, 19).
34 For the most complete account of the construction see Mello, José Antonio Gonsalves de, Neto, , Tempo dos flamengos. Influência da Ocupação Holandesa na vida e na cultura do Norte do Brasil (Rio, 1947), pp. 106–113.Google Scholar
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39 Ferdinand Denis first made the comparison with a medieval bridge (Brésil [Paris, 1839], p. 254)Google ScholarPubMed. He stated that the bridge in Recife was 280 feet long.
40 Op. cit., p. 79.
41 Leite, op. cit., V, 464.
42 He constructed in 1684 at his own cost a fort near the Oratorian church (Costa, op. cit., IV, 235). Dedicated to the Mother of God, it was referred to as the Forte de Matos. The Rua do Matos nearby appears on the map of 1773 as no. 80.
43 In 1855 it was reinaugurated as the church of Espírito Santo and is now the headquarters of the Santa Casa da Misericòrdia of Recife and Olinda.
44 Like that of the old church of S. João in Olinda, which is believed by some to antedate the attack on the city by the Dutch in 1630, when almost all the buildings then standing were destroyed.
45 “… e ainda que a architectura faltou em elgua coiza às regras da arte soube o engenho ensinado da necessidade emendar o defeyto com valentia” (op. cit.). 4« Costa, op. cit., V, 388–390.
47 Couto found the towers “in course of completion” in 1757 (op. cit., p. 157).
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54 Governor of Pernambuco, 1749–1756.
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59 Op. cit., II, 817.
60 The Benedictine D. Frei José Fialho, 1672–1741, was Bishop of Pernambuco, 1722–1738, Archbishop of Bahia, 1738–1739, Bishop of Guarda in Portugal, 1739–1741.
61 Op. cit., II, 819. This bridge is thought to have been originally constructed by the Dutch (Melo, op. cit., p. 113).
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