Um súdito capaz no Vale Amazônico (ou Landi, esse conhecido): um outro significado da descrição das plantas e animais do Grão-Pará

Abstract

Drawn up amid the interventions of the Portuguese administration in the Amazon Valley, Antonio Landi’s Descrição de várias Plantas, Frutas, Animais, Aves, Peixes, Cobras, raízes, e outras coisas semelhantes que se acham nesta Capitania do Grão Pará, written between the years of 1772 and 1773, has been seen by History as a result of the interests of the Portuguese Crown. This present work has as object of study such description, providing an understanding which is distinct from the commonly accepted one: Descrição das plantas e animais da capitania do Grão Pará emerged as a logical extension of the metropolitan policies. Thus, it is not a formulation suggested or determined by the colonial bureaucracy, but a work motivated by colonial demands. Moreover, this thesis aimed to understand the intents which were proper of the Italian architect’s condition of settler, avoiding to conceive his production as a naturalist only as a reflection of the scientific thinking in Europe. Formerly, seeking to understand this activity as something related to the context of the local colonial dynamics. Thus, this study seeks to demonstrate that the practices and specific shapes of the Amazon Valley society were instrumental in the development of Antonio Landi’s Natural History work.