René Lommez Gomes - «To bring light to the pious reader»: references to information sources and transmission of knowledge in the artistic recipe book by João Stooter (1729-1732)

Aug 28, 2026

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The study examines how information sources and knowledge transmission shape João Stooter’s artistic recipe book (1729–1732), framing it through René Lommez Gomes’s analysis of references and authorship practices. It contextualizes Stooter’s background as a merchant and diamond cutter, his observations from European art markets, and the need to address Portuguese craftsmen with practical guidance. The article traces the compilation of recipes for varnishes, dyes, paints, and related materials, and follows the book’s experimentation, drafting, and publication trajectory from Porto to Antwerp, highlighting its prominence as an early Portuguese manual and its technical scope.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages61

Reading Time2 h 34 min

AccessFree to download

Knowledge transmission in Stooter’s recipe book

Stooter’s background and motivations

European sources and collection of recipes

Porto experimentation and Antwerp publication

Printing practice and publication context

Technical scope and impact on Portuguese literature

René Lommez Gomes «To bring light to the pious reader»: references to information sources and transmission of knowledge in the artistic recipe book by João Stooter (1729-1732)* «Since he had always been a merchant» and had excelled in diamond cutting, but had never taken «the art of lathing asa craft», let alone painting or sculpting, João Stooter felt it was inappropriate for him to write a speech to enrich the Portuguese craftsmen and artists’ way of working.1 However, having seen the best of Europe and admired the «multiplicity of arts» and the «perfect curiosities» ingeniously produced in the emporiums of Paris, London, Antwerp, and Amsterdam, on his return to the Kingdom, he noticed that in the cities of Lisbon and Porto there was not to be found «a couple of curious master turners who, in their small work, knew how * This work was developed within the scope of the author’s activities at the School of Information Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (BR) and has the support of the History Center of the Lisbon University (PT), the John Carter Brown Library (USA) and the Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Consciece (BE) . [https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3812-6234](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3812-6234) . 1 Stooter 1729, I, p. 65. To clearly reference the contents of the work, in the footnotes, the first book of the work, «Arte dos Vernizes» will be indicated by numeral I and the other, «Huma Offerta», by numeral II. [Bibliothecae.it](Bibliothecae.it), 10 (2021), 2, 362-422 <[https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2283-9364/14072](https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2283-9364/14072)>© The Author(s) 2021. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. [Bibliothecae.it](Bibliothecae.it) 10 (2021), 2, 363-422 Saggi René Lommez Gomes «To bring light to the pious reader» to give a brilliant luster or grace» .2 Nor did the Lusitanian craftsmen seem to him to exploit with the utmost refinement the raw materials that overseas trade harvested in the four corners of the world, to cast onto Iberian shores. Compassionate about «this great poverty» with which the raw materials were treated, especially the woods from Brazil, the Indies of Castile, Angola, and several European nations, the Flemish collected a large number of recipes for the production of varnishes, paints, glues and other artistic compounds, experimented them, corrected them and wrote them down in a book. It was in the city of Porto that Stooter experimented with the formulations he collected to compose the booklet entitled «Arte de Brilhantes Vernizes, & das tinturas. Fazelas, & o como obrar com elas (Art of Shining Varnishes, & Dyes. To make them, & how to work with them)» . However, it would be in Antwerp that the work would be published, starting in 1729. Despite the recent improvement in theart of printing and the expansion of the printing complex in Portugal, under the patronage of the monarch D. João V, the writer preferred to entrust the work to printers who like him were foreigners.3 Zealous about the quality of the printing he would get from the presses in his hometown, among the most important printing houses in that publishing center, Stooter chose the traditional Verdussen family house to convert his manuscripts into a printed book. Nevertheless, he did not discuss with the patriarch Hendrik Verdussen the execution of the work, as he had done ten years earlier when he published his first book. When the printer died in 1728, his widow took over the business; she, in turn, passed it on to her children, who became the fifth generation of printers to run the family business.4 2 Stooter 1729, I, p. VII-VIII. 3 Marques 2014, p. 17 et seq. 4 Hendrik and Cornelis Verdussen were memb

FAQs

What distinguishes Stooter’s book within Portuguese artistic literature?

It is presented as an unprecedented repository of recipes and technical precepts, combining chemical formulations and warnings on proper material use and craft processes, and it remained without a clear successor until the 19th century.

Aug 28, 2026

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