The second work mentioned, titled Lusitania Illustrata, was part of an ambitious project on Portuguese studies that would have been one of the most significant contributions to this field had it been completed. This collection focuses on works about Portugal, of which only two volumes have been published. However, the initial plan included additional volumes dedicated to literature, history, and other areas of knowledge, such as archaeology and the " Antiquities ". The first volume, published in 1842 and dedicated to the Duke of Palmela, is a compilation of Portuguese sonnets presented bilingually. It features compositions by the most notable authors on this genre, spanning from the Renaissance to Pre-Romanticism. This volume is the first anthology of Portuguese lyric poets published in Europe, which highlights its innovative nature. It includes biographies of nearly all the selected authors, which Adamson extracted from his renowned library (of which we have the catalogue entitled Bibliotheca Lusitana (1836)), it was one of the largest private collections of Portuguese works in Great Britain at the time, with the Camões section standing out as the only part of the extensive collection that survived the fire that destroyed it in 1849. The second volume of Lusitania Illustrata (1846) introduced translations of four compositions from Romanceiro by Almeida Garrett (vol. I, Lisbon, 1843) to the British public for the first time. This volume, dedicated to the Portuguese poet, includes the original versions of the selected texts, but also provides commentary on them. It was an important work for promoting Garrett's contributions in that field and remains the only translation of that work to date in Great Britain. The work was quickly recognised in Portugal, particularly by Almeida Garrett and the Duke of Palmela, who urged Queen Maria II to award him the Order of the Tower and Sword and the Order of Christ, which were awarded in April and July of 1838, respectively. The two volumes of Lusitania Illustrata represented only the literary section of a broader project that included additional volumes, as indicated by the subtitle itself: Notices on the History, Antiquities, Literature, etc., of Portugal. Adamson's remarks in the dedication to the Duke of Palmela that precedes the first volume confirm that he had envisioned and outlined a much more ambitious plan from the beginning.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | (Pdf)