Texts in context

comments to the experiences of Manuel Ferreira da Câmara on the obsidian of the Island of Kandia

Abstract

Manuel Ferreira da Câmara became known in the historiography for its profile of politician, especially his performance as parliamentary in the period of Brazilian Independence. His historical trajectory, however, is marked by the association between his political interests, and his naturalistic side. Due to an instruction from the Portuguese government, Câmara carried out a scientific trip for different regions of Central and Northern Europe (1790- 1798), where he visited important mining areas, and attended classes in important mining schools. In the context of this trip he wrote two articles about the obsidian present in rocks of the Island of Kandia. These articles remained in German until today. Given the importance of these articles, since one can notice the involvement of Câmara in the geological controversies of that period (transition to nineteenth century) we decide to translate them into Portuguese, in order to give other researchers access to it.