“Early Printing in Brazil” may appear to be an impossible subject to write about. A more accurate title might be “Books without a press: a history of early printing
in Brazil, mostly from abroad,” or “The non-history of printing in Brazil during the colonial period,” or even “The history of the absence of early books printed
in Brazil.” One might even ask: “What is early printing in Brazil, exactly?” There were practically no early Brazilian imprints, if we understand “early” to mean the colonial period which, in the case of Brazil, was a little over three centuries. It is not a common history compared to other colonies. The European discovery
(or arrival) by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral was in 1500; the first official printing press was installed in 1808
