The library of Júlio Máximo de Oliveira Pimentel (1809-1884), 2nd. Viscount of Vila Maior

Abstract

This work characterizes the private library of Júlio Máximo de Oliveira Pimentel (1809-1884), 2nd Viscount of Vila Maior, which was put up for auction in March 1887 in the city of Coimbra, where he died and at whose University he was rector. Besides enumerating the variety of document typologies in the library, I identified the central thematic nuclei and the most represented languages. The publication of the catalog for bidding ensures a rigorous determination of the collection's value and facilitates the comparison with others put up for auction under similar conditions. The articulation with complementary information allows understanding some of the acquisition forms that the Viscount resorted to forming his library. The

brief and incomplete nature of a large part of the bibliographical references that make up the catalog, on the other hand, required a significant effort to identify each of the approximately 800 items. The result is an enriched and annotated revision of the catalog, which I included in this work, and aims to deepen the knowledge of a singular man of culture, science, and the public cause.