FIRST PORTUGUESE TRANSLATION OF 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES'.

DARWIN, CHARLES.

Origem das Espécies. [i.e. Portuguese: "Origin of Species"].

Oporto, Livraria Chardron, de Lello y Irmao, (1913).

8vo. Partly uncut in the original printed wrappers. Spine cracked and front hindge with repair. Wrappers with a few nicks. Half-title with previous owners names. Internally fine and clean. XVI, 477 pp.

The first edition, in the rarely seen wrappers, of the first Portuguese translation of Darwin's "Origin of Species". The comparatively late translation is partly due to the Portuguese 'Frenchism' at the time. The first French translation appeared in 1862 and was also widely circulated in Portugal. It also appears that the translator, a doctor and professor (who was also a Mason, a self-proclaimed poet, and the founder of the Spiritist Society of Portugal) named Joaquim [Marques] Dá Mesquita [Montenegro] Paúl (1875-1946), used the French translation rather than the English original. This apparently led to a number of errors and mis-translations that rendered the work unfaithful, to say the least. Unfortunately, this translation continued to be reprinted for the rest of the century in the Portuguese speaking world, oftentimes by simply changing the name of the translator for a spurious name.

The first Brazilian edition, in 1973, turned out to be nothing but an exact reproduction of the text of the Portuguese translation. It appears that even in the 21st century many of the purported new translations were still reprints of the first Portuguese edition. A proper translation from the English was made in 1982, but it was apparently condensed from the 6th ed. (1872). In 1985 a complete translation was published, but it was based on the first ed. (1859). In 2011 and 2014, finally, two different translations were published in Brazil that appear to be more legitimate, which, as a commentator avers (see links below) doesn't necessarily guarantee that they are faithful. Thus, the Portuguese OSS bibliography remains murky and convoluted to this day, and it appears to be a continuing saga.

Therefore this late, defective first translation, seems to have been crucial to the understanding-or misunderstanding- of Darwin's OSS for Portuguese readers for the remainder of the century, and then some.

The uncertainty regarding the publication year is quite puzzling for a modern book. Freeman (online) gives three different numbers (F743, F743a, and F743b, the latter being 1961 and 1990, both of which are by the same translator as the first), and he gives the date "[?192-]" and 1920 to the first. The entry in the Biblioteca Nacional de España states "1924", and two Brazilian libraries give "1900's" and the rather wide ranging "1910-1992," a Portuguese university library states "1900-80," and the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal says "1900." The year 1925 is given to the only two copies in US libraries, the American Philosophical Society and The Huntington. In the links below, the commentators assign it to the year 1913, and even though they don't justify that date, they seem to be quite familiar with Portuguese OSS editions in general. The date 1913 is also given by Ana Leonor Pereira in "The Reception of Darwin in Portugal (1865-1914)" Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia T. 66, Fasc. 3, Evolução, Ética e Cultura / Evolution, Ethics and Culture (2010), pp. 643-660, which perhaps makes it more plausible

As a final note, the 1961 translation at the Huntington purportedly by Eduardo Fonseca, is one of those spurious reprints with a made up name mentioned earlier. (http://catalog.huntington.org/record=b1703473 )

(For a few commentaries on the different editions and on various Portuguese OOS translations and purported translators, see:
http://observatoriodaimprensa.com.br/armazem-literario/_ed802_lendo_darwin_em_portugues/
and
http://naogostodeplagio.blogspot.com/2009/10/miseria-pouca-e-bobagem.html )

Freeman 743

Order-nr.: 55761