O bibliófilo e a cidade: relações entre a bibliofilia e a memória de Fortaleza

Abstract

A bibliophile is not only a collector, but a researcher and historian. They have vast knowledge about the book, its history, how and when it was made, by whom and what for. They are capable of reading in between the lines reflections of times past.The city of Fortaleza is home to the Associação Brasileira de Bibliófilos - ABBi (Brazilian Bibliophile Association - BBA), founded in 1985, however, the study of bibliophilia in the city is still rare and of low propagation. In this context, the present work has as its main objective to identity and analize the relationship between bibliophilia and the memory of Fortaleza. Therefore, the following specific objetives were chosen: to study the concepts of memory and bibliophilia and its interrelations; to research bibliophile organizations in Fortaleza, maping its bibliophile community and tracing their profile in order to verify if there really is any relationship between bibliophiles and the memory of a city. Showcases a bibliographic research about the concepts of memory under the perspective of Halbwachs and his studies on individual memory and collective memory. Also mentions places of memory, presenting the idea of a city as a place of memory. Brings, also the possibility of the memory of places through books, through the registry of oral memories and fiction books, question literature as a way to portray a social context, an era and time. Showcases next the concepts of bibliophilia and its possible origins and the different meanings that the term has carried throughout the centuries, and also some aspects of bibliophilia and an illustration of it through the history of José Mindlin, a famous brazilian bibliophile. Also conceptualizes rarity and its relationship with book collecting. For the completion of this research it was realized a field research and the use of interviews and a questionnaire for data collecting, applied to the subjects of this research: a bibliophile, a book seller and a collector. From the data analysis it was possible to conclude that a bibliophile does have a relationship with the memory of the city of Fortaleza in three different meanings: as a keeper of books, as a researcher of the history and content of these books and as a writer and propagator of his acquired knowledge.