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Charles Marvin Fairchild (SFS '48) Memorial
Gallery and Woodstock Theological Center Library
September 17 to December 2, 2007
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The Special Collections Research Center
is pleased to announce the fall exhibit “Extraordinary
Journeys: Portuguese Rare Books at Georgetown
University, (1580-1726)” on view from September
17 to December 2, 2007 in the Charles
Marvin Fairchild Memorial Gallery
on the Library’s fifth floor. The exhibition, primarily
drawn from the holdings of the Woodstock
Theological Center Library, will extend
into the three Woodstock display cases
on the lower level. The inspiration for
Lauinger’s
exhibition came from the Smithsonian summer
exhibition “Encompassing
the World: Portugal and the World in the
16th and 17th Centuries” at the Sackler and Freer
Gallery of Art and the National Museum
of African Art. The latter
presents hundreds of extraordinary works
of art that explore the unity and diversity
of the cultures that
contributed to Portugal ’s
trading empire.
Portugal’s contacts with the kingdoms and empires
of Africa and Asia, and later with the vast expanse of
Brazil, led to unprecedented examples of cultural exchange,
including the creation of strikingly beautiful and highly
original literary productions. The exhibition at Lauinger
highlights the far-ranging Portuguese publications originating
from the world’s first truly global communications
system. “Extraordinary Journeys” includes
works in Latin, Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French.
“Extraordinary Journeys” features approximately
forty rare books, by noted Portuguese
authors such as Agostinho Barbosa (1590-1649),
Bartolomeu dos Mártires
(1514-1590), Jerónimo Osório (1506-1580),
Fernão
Mendes Pinto (d. 1583), Álvaro Semedo (1585-1658),
and António Vieira, (1608-1697). The exhibit displays
some of the rare and handsomly illustrated
works by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries
in Far East, detailing their explorations
and their often violent deaths. “Extraodinary Journeys” documents
the fragile political situation in Europe
at the time as well; the testimony of
Francisco de Faria (b.1653)
highlights the violent tension between
Catholics and Protestants in England during
the “Papal
Conspiracy” of
1679. Also shown in “Extraordinary Journeys” are
the theological contributions to Catholicism
by the Portuguese Jesuits during the late
sixteenth to the early eighteenth
centuries.
“Extraordinary Journeys” is organized by
Guest Curator Michael Ferreira, Assistant Professor in
the Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Guest Curator
Patricia A. Soler, ABD, Spanish and Portuguese; and Organizer
Ana Maria Dos Santos Silvia Delgado, Visiting Professor,
Spanish and Portuguese and the Camões Institute
.
For more information on "Extraordinary
Journeys",
please contact Art Curator LuLen Walker
at (202) 687-1469; llw@georgetown.edu.
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