"Casa Fernando Pessoa acquires a collection of old books and papers at the auction of the estate of Fernando Pessoa's nephew"
Last week, at the auction of the estate of Fernando Pessoa's nephew, Luíz Miguel Rosa Dias, held in Lisbon, the Casa Fernando Pessoa acquired a collection of books, some from the poet's personal library, and old papers that "help tell the story of the writer." One of the works, "Reflections on the Portuguese Language," is cited as one of the narrator's "favorite readings" in The Book of Disquiet.
The auction of the private collection of Luiz Miguel Rosa, who died last August at the age of 88, was organized by Palácio do Correio Velho. The session was originally scheduled for March 18, but the situation created by the Covid-19 pandemic and the entry into force of the state of emergency forced the Lisbon auction house to postpone the sale twice, which ended up taking place last week, May 6, online. According to the newspaper Público, the auction lasted about four hours, raising close to 110,000 euros. A writing desk that belonged to Pessoa, one of the poet's many personal objects for sale, was auctioned for 41,000 euros, also according to Público.
One of the books acquired by the Fernando Pessoa House, Thuileur des 33 degrés de l'écossisme du rit ancien, dit accepté…, a Parisian edition from 1821 on the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, was part of Pessoa's private library and had already been digitized by the Fernando Pessoa House and made available for online consultation. This was the only lot in the auction over which the Lisbon City Council exercised its right of first refusal, with the remaining lots being acquired by the Fernando Pessoa House.
Another of the acquired works, and one that takes on special importance because it is referenced in The Book of Disquiet, is Reflections on the Portuguese Language, by Francisco José Freire, the main theorist of the literary academy Arcádia Lusitana, which operated in the 18th century. In an excerpt that begins “I know no pleasure like that of books, and I read little,” the narrator of The Book of Disquiet admits that his “favorite readings are the repetition of banal books that sleep with me at my bedside” and there are two that never leave him:
“My favorite readings are the repetition of banal books that sleep with me by my bedside. There are two that never leave me — Father Figueiredo's Rhetoric and Father Freire's Reflections on the Portuguese Language. I always reread these books with pleasure; and, while it's true that I've read them all many times, it's also true that I've never read any of them sequentially. I owe to these books a discipline that I almost believe is impossible for me — a rule of objective writing, a law of reason for things being written.”
The Fernando Pessoa House also purchased the books Versos, by Augusto Gil, published in Lisbon by the Guimarães publishing house, probably in 1919, and Voyages de Cyrus, by M. Ray, published in London by J. Nourse, in 1762.
A Dutch dictionary from his time in Durban, a gift from his brothers, and books that belonged to his uncle.
Among the objects acquired by the Casa Fernando Pessoa, which closed last year for renovations and remains without a reopening date, is a collection of items related to Pessoa's life in Durban, South Africa: a Dutch-Afrikaans-Dutch dictionary that belonged to one of the poet's brothers; a little-known portrait of his brother João; the book How to Fly or the Conquest of the Air, by Richard Ferris, illustrated with photographs and a dedication, which Pessoa received from his brothers; and also a visiting card from his brother-in-law Francisco Caetano Dias, married to his sister Teca, mother of Luís Miguel Rosa and Manuela Nogueira.
The organization also purchased at the Palácio do Correio Velho auction a set of seven volumes on subjects such as Portuguese literature and the republican revolution, dedicated to Henrique Rosa, Pessoa's stepfather's brother. An intellectual and poet, Henrique Rosa was an important influence on Pessoa during his youth. It was Rosa who introduced him to Camilo Pessanha at the Pastelaria Suíça in Lisbon, an encounter the poet later recalled in a letter to the author of Clepsydra.
The session organized last week by the Palácio do Correio Velho is the latest in a series of auctions recently held featuring the estate of Fernando Pessoa, classified as a national heritage item, which was in the possession of his nephews. They were the ones who, after the death of the poet's sister, Henriqueta Madalena Nogueira Dias, inherited the assets that had belonged to their uncle.
