THE QUESTION OF PAPER IN OS LUVADAS, 1572

The 1572 editions of Os Lusiadas are at the centre of a well-known polemic. Yet discussions have privileged comparison of errors and textual collation. This article inaugurates a research project applying in-depth bibliographical analysis to a large sample of exemplars. It conducts a census, compiling information on forty-six exemplars, including some hitherto unrecorded, and explains which material aspects are being documented. It summarizes how paper has been studied and explains how different methodologies were combined to document the paper types of Os Lusiadas. Finally, it proposes that Antonio Goncalves printed the first edition of Camoes's epic in three separate stages.