It will analyze a historical book to verify that the notes present inside are, in fact, by Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, the.
The material was delivered to the National Institute of Criminalistics of the Federal Police, in, by IBRAM (Brazilian Institute of Museums), through the Inconfidência Museum (), on July 11. The work will undergo graphic examinations in the documentary expertise service.
Nicknamed “Book of Tiradentes”, the work is a copy of the “Retheil Des Loix Constitutive des États-Unis de l’érique” (“Collection of Constitutional Laws of the United States”). The book Compile American Laws published from 1776 to 1789, which directly influenced the Inconfidência Mineira, according to the museum director, Alex Calheiros.
Considered “forbidden book” at the time, the work was quoted several times in the records of Devassa, a process that incriminated the inconfidants.
There is also evidence in the Devassa file that Tiradentes made notes in this specific copy, who was with him at the time of his arrest in May 1789 and contains handwritten notes.
According to Calheiros, if the authorship of the notes is confirmed, “the historical, patrimonial and affective value of the good is enormously, offering new layers of understanding about Tiradentes’ performance and the Enlightenment thinking that influenced the inconfidence.”
For historian Kenneth Maxwell, the book is a central piece in the history of Minas Gerais conjuration. According to reports, Tiradentes even resorted to friends to translate the excerpts of the French and marked passages of the book that interested him the most.
After being attached to the records of Devassa, the book was for decades in the Public Library of, from where it was recovered and reinstated to the collection of the Museum of Inconfidência in the 1980s.
