Cochineals in the Portuguese-Brazilian world: the eighteenth-century manuscript edited by Manuel Joaquim Henriques de Paiva

Abstract

A previously unpublished, modernized transcript of the manuscript Historia do descobrimento da cochonilha no Brasil (History of the discovery of the cochineal in Brazil), edited by the physician and chemist Manuel Joaquim Henriques de Paiva between 1774 and 1801, is presented. By bringing out this reviewed, annotated version of the pioneering study by his brother, the physician Jose Henriques Ferreira, Paiva wanted to encourage the culture and trade of the cochineal, an insect that produced a red dye that was in great demand in Europe. Historia... thus provides indications of the key role of so-called scientific knowledge in the development and growth of the Portuguese kingdom and their primary colony.