Books, bookstores and authors in advertisements and literary sections of the newspaper A Província de São Paulo (1880-1889)

Abstract

The article intends to focus on a topic dear to the field of the history of books and reading, namely, the circulation of books and printed materials, having as its source specific sections and pages of advertisements published in the newspaper A Província de São Paulo, founded in 1875 by a commercial company, made up of liberal professionals and farmers linked to the Republican Party of São Paulo, with Francisco Rangel Pestana and Américo de Campos at the head of the enterprise. The newspaper played an important role in the transition process from the monarchy to the republic, whether in the strategies of intellectual and political sociability, by bringing together names such as Euclides da Cunha, Júlio Mesquita, among others, or as a source of criticism of the dominant political system. The work aims to map advertisements and sections of the newspaper in order to identify who the booksellers and private agents involved in the book trade were, what works and authors were published in these journalistic documents and what commercial and logistical mechanisms were used to get the printed materials to the readers. The methodological line of the text is based on the proposals of Robert Darnton (1990).