A commemorative edition and in facsimile from the 530th anniversary of the printing of the “Pentateuch”, carried out by Samuel Gacon, in Faro, in 1487, will be launched today at 11:30 am, in the Library of the Diocesan Seminary of Faro.
The Pentateuco was the first book printed in Portugal, in Hebrew, and that is why it marks the beginning of typography in our country. Given this historical circumstance, the Portuguese Communications Foundation will also announce the possibility of filing the terms of collaboration with the purpose of moving part of its museum's collection to Faro.
Part of this museological nucleus, it will be digitally presented on the occasion of the launch of this commemorative edition of the incunabula, whose only known copy is deposited in the British Library, in London.
«The impression of the Pentateuch (from Faro) is one of the most significant moments in the region's history, for what it is inaugural and, at the same time, for the evocation of a time when the Algarve coincided with the intellectual and technological avant-garde movements, inscribing Portuguese culture in the broad framework of the Renaissance, making use, for the first time, of Gutenberg's press and movable characters», stresses the publisher «Sul, Sol e Sal», which promotes the release.
It is this heritage that the new edition facsimile of the Pentateuch is intended to "underline appropriately and meaningfully".
The publication of the work results from the coincidence of wills and the joint effort of the publisher and Círculo Teixeira Gomes – Associação pelo Algarve and will be presented at the Library of the Diocesan Seminary of Faro, in consideration of the entity to whom in reality the incunabulum, from which he was removed during the incursion of the Earl of Essex.
“The symbolic character of this date constitutes a heritage that is not limited to the walls of a city. The printing of the Pentateuch is an event that magnifies the region and is a symbol of the weight of the Algarve's culture at the time».
This edition is accompanied by an introductory study by Manuel Cadafaz de Matos, from the Portuguese Academy of History, which contextualizes the edition in the History of the Portuguese Hebrew Incunabular Press.
In order to give a broader reading horizon, the introductory study was translated into English by Ana Isabel Soares, from CIAC, from the University of Algarve.
In the context of the celebration of the 530th anniversary of the printing of the Pentateuch, a text written and illustrated by students from the EB Alto de Rhodes and EB do Carmo schools will also be published.
It is “A great adventure… On the trail of the lost treasure”, a historical fiction that has as a backdrop the incursion of the armada that sacked and burned Faro, in 1597, taking, among other things, part of the library of the Bishop of Algarve, D. Fernando Martins Mascarenhas, and of which the Pentateuco was a part.
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