Between men and books: the Biblioteca do Itamaraty under the management of José Maria da Silva Paranhos Júnior (Baron of Rio Branco), 1902-1912

Abstract

The article presents the first results of an investigation carried out within the scope of the Research Group on Documentary Heritage; it is also the fruit of intense debate between the authors. The theme is the Itamaraty Historical Library, located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and linked to the current Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For this kind of what Matthew Battles called "Bibiography of a Library", when studying the "Widener Library" (2004), the aim was to understand and problematise, through documental resources, the context of creation in 1842. Reading and analysing the sources revealed the importance of certain collections considered to be foundational, due to the instrumental force they gave to the interests of the Ministry itself, as well as the chronological cut-off point for this work, i.e. 1902 and 1912. As Gabriel Naudé (1600-1653) once said, a library without organization and a purpose for its collection is a mere collection of books. Based on this premise, we conclude that during the period selected for this study, thanks to the forms of management devised by José Maria da Silva Paranhos Júnior, Baron of Rio Branco, books in the Itamaraty Historical Library became instruments that would subsidies’ the chancellery's decision-making processes, as well as acquiring a face associated with an information unit.