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Remessa de animais de Santa Catarina (1791) para a “Casa dos Pássaros” no Rio de Janeiro e para o Real Museu da Ajuda (Portugal)

2013; Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo; Volume: 44; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.11606/issn.2176-7793.v44i4p185-209

2176-7793

Nelson Papavero, Dante Martins Teixeira,

History of Medicine and Tropical Health

The growing interest in Natural Sciences promoted by the Enlightenment would lead Dom Luís de Vasconcellos e Sousa, 4th Count of Figueiró and 12th Viceroy of the State of Brazil, to foster several measures directed both to the urbanization of Rio de Janeiro and to the better knowledge of the Colony’s natural products. He was the creator of the Passeio Público and the so-called Casa dos Pássaros, respectively the first public exhibit of animals and the first natural history museum in the New World. Dom Luís de Vasconcellos e Sousa and his successor, José Luís de Castro, 2nd Count of Resende, the 13th Viceroy of Brazil, received the incumbency of regularly sending specimens of the Brazilian fauna to the “Quintas Reais” and to the Ajuda Museum, in Lisbon. In the particular case of Santa Catarina, an “instruction” was elaborated in 1791, probably by the initiative of Francisco Xavier Cardoso Caldeira – the so-called “Xavier dos Pássaros” – to systematize and orient the collecting process, listing the desired animals and products of animal origin with commercial vale, also providing interesting details about techniques of preservation, packaging for transportation and the price paid for the specimens. Although very concise, this document constitutes a valuable testimony about Brazilian Natural History in the 18th century.