A tipografia nacional finissecular: micro-história de um tipógrafo orientalista

Abstract

This essay investigates an orientalist typography operating in Portugal from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century by focusing on the typographer José António Dias Coelho (1858-1940). He served for almost fifty years at the national printing press (Imprensa Nacional) and was responsible for the composition of most of the works then published by well-reputed Portuguese orientalists. The essay is divided into two parts: first, evidence is provided of his notorious performance in using Oriental types based on testimonies extracted from books’ paratexts by Portuguese orientalists (such as Guilherme de Vasconcelos Abreu, Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado, or David Lopes); then, a micro-history of the Portuguese typographer is written so as to evince his role in the genealogy of Oriental Studies in Portugal.