What a prison guard of the Holy Office of Coimbra reads: The library of António de Morais da Costa (1769)

Abstract

Although owning books does not necessarily mean reading them, studying private libraries allows us to ascertain tastes and trends, as well as professional interests. Using the catalogues resulting from the 1769 edict of the Real Mesa Censória (Royal Censorship Board), a survey was carried out of the libraries of the minor officials of the district courts of the Portuguese Inquisition, and only one was found. In this sense, we sought to learn about the library of António Morais da Costa, a guard of the secret prisons of the Holy Office who, before joining the court, was an apothecary. We counted and identified his books and verified that it was not a professional library. The scarcity of book catalogues by servants of the Holy Office, as is the case in other socio-professional groups, allows us to consider the representativeness of the documentation, calling into question the average of one library for every 1,000 inhabitants for Portugal in the second half of the 18th century.