The South American Tour

by Annie S. Peck

The Avenida do Rio Branco, so called since the recent death of the famous Baron of that name, formerly the Central, is claimed by Brazilians to be the most beautiful street in the world. Though, from one or another point of view, other partisans may dispute its pre-eminence, there is no question as to its splendid construction and imposing edifices, which for variety and beauty it would be difficult to match within the same distance in any other city. Every style of architecture is represented, Moorish, Gothic, Italian, etc., with varied and lovely coloring. Minarets and towers, unusual mosaic sidewalks, the welcome shade and friendly green of trees, the dashing automobiles, fashionable and beautiful women, men from almost every clime contribute to the wonderful Avenida. Made to order, so rapidly as to take one’s breath, it is indeed a notable, a marvellous achievement: begun in 1904, finished in 1906; and not this only, but the beautiful Beira Mar as well. It seems a transformation by magic. To mention the various attractive buildings is impossible. Many banks and important commercial houses may be found here, buildings of the leading newspapers, the Jornal do Comercio, the Jornal do Brazil, the O Paiz, and conspicuous near the south end, the National Library and the Art Museum on the left, the Municipal Theater on the right, and at the very end on the right the Monroe Palace.

NATIONAL LIBRARY

SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS

The National Library, called the most valuable in South America and, with more than 400,000 catalogued numbers, the largest south of the equator, is housed in a handsome building of the best modern equipment. This was designed and constructed by the Mayor, General Souza Aguiar, after an inspection of the libraries of Europe and America. It contains its own departments for printing and binding. The famous Ajuda Collection, which was brought over by Prince João in 1806, when Napoleon’s army invaded Portugal, was the nucleus. From the old Carmelite hospital in the rua Primeiro de Março it was moved to its own quarters in 1810, when it already numbered 60,000 volumes. All schools and periods of typographic art may here be found, examples of Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer, Aldins and Plautius, Ibarras, Elsivers, and many others. A permanent exhibition has been arranged of Books, Manuscripts and Charts, Engravings and Prints, Medals and Coins. In the rarity of some of its treasures, if not in number, the collection compares with the famous ones of Europe: a perfect copy of the Mazarin Bible printed in 1462, the first from movable type, the first edition of the New Testament by Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1514, a Novus Orbis Regionum with map of Brazil, 1532, a Roycroft Bible, London 1557, and many other rarities. Among the 300 engravings and prints are works of Dürer, Cranach, Rubens, etc. With over 100,000 prints and above 30,000 (many rare) numismatic specimens, a treat is afforded to the specialist.

The reading room, where it should be, on the main floor, is furnished with comfortable leather-covered armchairs and individual desks. In the side galleries around the rotunda are arranged in glass cases many of the especial gems of the rare specimens. In the great stack rooms, I observed many books in English, noticing the names of Mark Twain, Macaulay, Dickens, and others. The finest editions of the various works in handsome bindings seem to have been selected.

The library is open from ten a.m. to nine p.m. with the usual exception of Sundays and holidays.

Other libraries which only the specialist will be likely to visit are the Fluminense with 90,000 volumes, on the Ouvidor, the Libraries of the Army, and of the Navy, that of the Medical School with 70,000 volumes, of the Polytechnic with 70,000, the Senate Library, the Congressional, the Gabinete Portuguez de Leitura, occupying a beautiful building in the rua Luis de Camões near San Francisco Square, the Commerce Library in the Stock Exchange Building, and others.

Next to the Bibliotheca Nacional on the Avenida is the Escola de Bellas Artes, the Art School and Museum. Again the collection of Prince João was the nucleus to which many accretions have been made by Government grant and by private donations. Among original works of the old masters of various schools which are here to be seen are canvases of Caracci, Correggio, Greuze, Guido Reni, Jordaens, Lucas, Murillo, Poussin, Rubens, Snyder, Jan Stein, Teniers, Tintoretto, Van Dyke, Velasquez, Veronese, Wouvermans, and many others, besides more than 100 never positively identified. Among fine pieces of sculpture is one by Rodolpho Bernadelli of Christ and the Adulteress. A large number of productions of Brazilian artists is also included in the collection, which is said to be the largest and most important in South America.