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Every day
On average, one hundred and fifty visitors come every day
Every day the library receives, on average, one hundred and fifty visitors. Its 350,000 volumes make the largest collection of Portuguese works outside Portugal, and it gets about six thousand new titles from Portugal each year. Among the rare works is a copy of the princeps edition of Os Lusíadas of Camões, printed in 1572.
The reading room
A chandelier and an iron skylight light the reading room
In the Reading Room, a chandelier hangs beneath a skylight set in an iron structure, the first example of this type of architecture in Brazil. The hall also holds the Altar of the Homeland, a monument of silver, ivory and marble, 1.7 meters high, that celebrates the time of the discoveries.
The front
The front is carved in Lisbon stone and was shipped to Rio
The facade was inspired by the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon. Germano José Salle worked it in Lisbon stone, and it was brought by ship to Rio. Four statues adorn it: Pedro Álvares Cabral, Luís de Camões, Infante D. Henrique and Vasco da Gama. Medallions show the writers Fernão Lopes, Gil Vicente, Alexandre Herculano and Almeida Garrett.
The founders
Forty-three Portuguese refugees founded it in 1837
The institution was founded in 1837 by a group of forty-three Portuguese immigrants, political refugees, to promote culture among the Portuguese community in the capital of the Empire of Brazil. It was the first association of this community in the city. The present building went up between 1880 and 1887, and Emperor Pedro II laid the cornerstone on 10 June 1880.
The Academy
The Brazilian Academy of Letters held its first sessions here
The history of the Brazilian Academy of Letters is linked to this house, since the first five solemn sessions of the academy, under the presidency of Machado de Assis, were held here. Machado de Assis, Olavo Bilac and João do Rio are named among its illustrious visitors from the past.
In this plan
It is one of the stops on this plan.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.