“HUMA OBRA ÍMPIA E SEDICIOSA”: ANÁLISE DE AUTORIA MECÂNICA E EDIÇÃO SEMIDIPLOMÁTICA DE DOCUMENTO APREENDIDO NO CONTEXTO DA CONJURAÇÃO BAIANA

Abstract

Peter Burke (1992), English historian, when dealing with the importance of adopting postures and methodologies that prevent the occurrence of interpretive mistakes, evaluates that for a correct interpretation of written content it is essential to understand and master the signs and other aspects that compose a handwritten document. In this context, the relevance and investigative potential of the philological work, the actions of reading, transcription and diplomatic-paleographical analysis of these writings are inserted, because as Celso Cunha (2004) addresses, “[...] a manuscript is only fully usable after being 'characterized', after undergoing a thorough examination from a codicological and diplomatic point of view”, and the results of this examination will be much richer when carried out also with the theoretical-methodological tools of history, presenting and correlating elements that – added to the fruits of the interpretations produced from the semantics and discursiveness of the texts – will enable the deepening of analyzes in nuances such as the “games” of power and dynamics of action of institutions and historical subjects. Therefore, the objective of this work is, from the analysis of the materiality of the manuscript BR BAAPEB TJBA SRB CAD 577/01 of the Public Archive of the State of Bahia and complementary manuscripts, to carry out a case study about the participation of Lieutenant Hermógenes Francisco de Aguillar Pantoja in the Conjuração Baiana, demonstrating aspects of the dynamics related to power and justice in colonial Bahia at the end of the 18th century. This study was conducted based primarily on the aforementioned manuscript BR BAAPEB TJBA SRB CAD 577/01 and the signatures contained in the investigation established to identify the authorship of the bulletins posted in public places, on August 12, 1798. Resulting in a vast set of documents counting with elements such as, for example, the considered “subversive” copy, translated from French to Portuguese of excerpts from the book Les Ruines de Palmira, or méditation sur les révolutions des empires, by the French philosopher Constantin-François Chassebœuf (Volney), the today's manuscript of notation BR BAAPEB TJBA SRB CAD 577/01 had the handwriting of Lieutenant Hermógenes, according to the accusation and conclusion of the experts of the Court of Appeal of Bahia. The methodology used in the research is the construction of a philological analysis that, articulated with paleographic, historical and diplomatic knowledge, presents all the complexity and richness of the textual records and, at the same time, constitutes, starting from the largest possible number of testimonies, a adequate reading, transcription and interpretation of writings, and other extrinsic aspects. With these data in hand, it is clear that there is a possibility of studying the cursivity, the weight of the writing, the inclinations of the instrument and the scriptor's hands; as well as the evaluation of the characteristics of the supports – namely, the paper – such as coloring, existence or not of watermarks, and sociolinguistic aspects, to establish the initial assumption about who was the mechanical author of the copy of the Enlightenment text. In this way, it is concluded that philology, in addition to its contributions to text studies, when articulated with other sciences, can support new fields of study, such as forensic paleography.