An ingenious pioneer of type design in the nineteenth-century Brazilian Province of Gram-Pará
Printing authorization in Brazil was granted only after the arrival of the Portuguese royal family in 1808, with the installation of the Royal Press in Rio de Janeiro. João Francisco Madureira built “from zero” a complete type shop in 1821 and printed some material for the government “only by seeing pictures prints of it,” as he says in a document he delivered to the Portuguese King D João. He also affirms that he cut, made punches, and cast the type. Pará Province was a poor place in the 1820s. Certain that printing was important to his country, Madureira built the typeshop without previous knowledge or education, based only on the study of book prints. What makes his work more relevant, besides the construction of the press and other utensils to make the workshop feasible, is the fact that he created punches, made molds, and cast the metal types needed to fulfill his objectives. Madureira never left his home province; he only knew typography from books. There was no metal type, or strikes, or any material the he could use for the task. Orphan, poor, born in the distant Province of Gram-Pará, Madureira is a pioneer in the Brazilian type scene.
Edna Cunha Lima has a degree in visual communication from the Federal University of Pernambuco, a master's degree in design from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, and a Ph.D. in communication from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Lima is currently an adjunct professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and evaluator of the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research. Lima participated in the project PROCAD Memória Grafica Brasileira, or “Brazilian Graphic Memory,” which brought together professors from PUC-Rio, SENAC-SP, and UFPE for research purposes. Lima participates in the following research groups: Design, History, Critics, and Society at the University of São Paulo (USP), its press and circulation ideas such as the role of newspapers in the XIX, and XX centuries of the Casa Ruy Barboza, Rio de Janeiro—both certified by the Brazilian national agency of research.
Fernanda is a type designer, teacher and researcher, and lives in the Amazon region where she focuses on the interfaces between the formal and popular design. She graduated at São Paulo University, attended Basel Design School, master degree in Visual Culture at UFPA. Currently she holds a PhD in History of Design in ESDI/UERJ. Fernanda is an Ex-Board Director of ADG Brasil, dedicates efforts to Design policies, and is currently the Design representative to the National Council of Cultural Policy at Brazilian Ministry of Culture-MinC.
Edna Lucia Cunha Lima