The Spiritist Magazine in Brazil

In order to disseminate Spiritism to the public, Alan Kardec launched in January 1858 the Spiritist Magazine, a monthly periodical that he directed until his disincarnating in March, 1869. The publication was a great success since it had the most diverse studies, messages of the Spirits, letters, reports of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies (the first official Spiritist Center in the world), and it was also very important because of the knowledge of the Spiritist principles and their application in life. Aware of the importance of the Spiritist Magazine even because the Encoder had recommended it in The Book of Mediums, two Brazilian Spiritists from Sao Paulo and of great relevance in the Brazilian Spiritist Movement decided to translate into Portuguese the 136 French editions that make up the 12 years (January 1858 to April 1869) in which Kardec was at the head of the prestigious magazine. We are talking about Julio Abreu Filho and Jose Herculano Pires.

In this text we intend to report a little of this saga carried out by the two translators, as well as the crucial participation of the publisher Frederico Giannini Junior, at the head of Editora Cultural Espirita - Edicel, responsible for the pioneering publication of the Spiritist Magazine collection in Brazil. Let's start by giving a biographical sketch about each of our characters, situating the reader in general lines about the leading figures of this beautiful story.

Julio Abreu Filho

He was born on December 10, 1893, in the city of Quixada (State of Ceara), and he moved to Salvador, Bahia, in 1911, living and working in the city of Ilheus. In 1921 he settled in Rio de Janeiro and then, due to his profession, he was transferred, and went to live in Sao Paulo, capital. He devoted himself to the teaching profession and also made a career as an employee of the Secretary of Agriculture of the State of Sao Paulo, having participated in the implementation of numerous rural projects. In the 1940s he was an active participant in the Sao Paulo Spiritist movement through the Uniao Federativa Espirita Paulista, and was widely involved in the Brazilian Congress of Spiritist Unification, held in 1947 in the city of Sao Paulo.

In 1949 he began to translate the Spiritist Magazine, having even founded a publishing house - Editora Edipo – to publish it. As the work was gigantic and resources scarce, the publisher did not succeed, but the translation efforts continued, until in the late 1960s it was possible to launch it by Edicel. Having collaborated in the Spiritist press and released some books, Julio Abreu Filho disembodied in Sao Paulo on September 28, 1971, at the age of 78.

Jose Herculano Pires

He was born on September 25, 1914 in Avare, SP, and lived in Cerqueira Cesar and later in Marilia, where he dedicated himself intensely to his literary and journalistic career. In 1946 he moved to Sao Paulo, where he published his first novel. He entered the Associated Diaries as a reporter, editor, secretary, parliamentary chronicler and literary critic. He graduated in Philosophy by USP, and as a young man he became acquainted with Spiritism, and since then he actively participated in the Spiritist movement. He founded the Spiritist Journalists Club of Sao Paulo (1948). A close friend of the medium Chico Xavier, he maintained for 20 years a daily column on Spiritism in the Associated Diaries.

Jose Herculano Pires’ biography is extensive. He led the foundation of the Union of Spiritist Societies of the State of Sao Paulo and the Spiritist Institute of Education. He created the Paideia Publishing House and his literary legacy consists of 81 books, besides the translation and/or revision of the works of Allan Kardec. He was a great defender of the education in the Spiritist vision; he disembodied in March 9, 1979, at the age of 65.

Frederico Giannini Junior

He was born in the city of Sao Carlos, State of Sao Paulo, on March 12, 1908. He was one of the pioneers in the edition of Spiritist books in Brazil, having founded Editora Cultural Espirita, known by the abbreviation Edicel, and it was in Sao Paulo that he worked and formed his family. With his friend Jose Herculano Pires, he accepted the challenge of publishing new translations of Allan Kardec's works, including the Spiritist Magazine, in a work that required a lot of dedication and financial resources when the Spiritist movement, in general, still did not have the importance to be studied or even publish books.

His efforts were successful with the launching of the first volume of the magazine's collection in 1967. A pioneer as a Spirit publisher, in 1972 he launched the first volume of the Spiritist Education Magazine in a new association with Herculano Pires. He disembodied on June 22, 1984, at the age of 76.

The Spiritist Magazine in Portuguese

For many years Julio Abreu Filho worked alone in the translation of the monthly volumes of the Spiritist Magazine, having started the work in 1949. A friend of Jose Herculano Pires, he entrusted to him the work of revision. The translation of French from the mid-19th century into Portuguese is not such an easy task, because one cannot simply translate the text literally, as this may distort the original meaning. There were two essential conditions for the work: a correct version for the Portuguese language and total doctrinal fidelity to Kardec.

Jorge Rizzini in his book Herculano Pires, the Apostle of Kardec, says that "Edicel's Advisor, Herculano Pires encouraged Frederico Giannini to publish the complete collection of Allan Kardec's works, including the Spiritist Magazine, with its twelve volumes in a total of 4,800 pages that the late companion Julio Abreu Filho had been translating for years, patiently, even though he was ill. The publishing venture was risky, and Giannini, although not having great financial possessions, signed the contract drawn up by Herculano Pires on October 18, 1966".

In his diary, Herculano Pires noted, with regard to this gigantic work of publishing the Spiritist Magazine: "A hassle without limits. I have to work hard in this job, because Kardec’s work has been accomplished through successive translations, one copied from another. The volumes are presented to the public today in the same text of a century ago, without information or an annotation, nothing at all, and generally in translations poorly cared for. I feel small for the greatness of the task, but I have to acknowledge that I have to do it alone, unless God allows the appearance of someone to help. We have tried to find people fit for this, but we found nobody. Giannini even promoted a contest, and nothing! You have the impression that French is, in Brazil, a language more unknown than the Etruscan... There are many translators traditori, but for a really serious work, no one turns up".

At the request of Herculano, God brought three collaborators: Sylvia Mele Pereira da Silva, a Teacher in French who also collaborated in the translation of works of Spiritism, and two French intellectuals living in Brazil: Miguel Maillet and Anne Marie, who dedicated themselves to the work of revision of the translation made by Julio Abreu Filho.

Herculano Pires was not satisfied with the translation of several passages, and dedicated many hours and dawns of his life in this revision. And this was not his only job. He translated the poetry of the Spirits and made a point of publishing them together with the original French text, and also prefaced several of the volumes, with deep and very important explanations. These prefaces appear in the editions of the years 1858, 1859, 1860 and 1861, remembering that the Spiritist Magazine Collection is composed of 11 complete volumes (1858-1868), each volume corresponding to the respective monthly editions, and the volume corresponding to the year 1869, with the magazines from January to July, being that from January to April with the complete writings of Allan Kardec, and from May to July with several articles left by the Encoder.

During the years in which Frederic Giannini, through Edicel, published the copies of the Codification, two graphic industries were used: Saraiva and Symbol, both with headquarters in the city of Sao Paulo.

Bases for the future

The pioneering work of Julio Abreu Filho, Jose Herculano Pires and Frederico Giannini Junior, to whom we owe our gratitude, opened new perspectives for the expanding of knowledge of Spiritism and the work of Allan Kardec. In the path of the repercussion of this work, two other Spiritist publishers also accepted the challenge of translating and publishing the Spiritist Magazine: the Spiritist Dissemination Institute (IDE) and the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB).

Nowadays, we do not have the important work of these companions available anymore, and they can only be found in bookstores, or with people who still have in their libraries this important collection.

We leave here this historical record, the year in which we celebrated 160 years of the launching of the Spiritist Magazine, an indispensable work for reading and study. And we conclude with the words of Herculano Pires in the preface to the first volume, in an invitation to all Spiritists to reflect on the importance of the Spiritist Magazine:

"We can follow in these pages, step by step, the great and meticulous effort of Kardec in the methodical construction of the Doctrine and in the structuring of the Spiritist movement". The History of Spiritism thus presents itself as a way of living that was self-set in writing... Nothing is hidden from the reader: Kardec's problems, concerns, his struggles inside and outside the Spiritist environment, his quiet victories, and his resistance to slander, lies, defamation, his unshakable faith, all this pulsates in these pages and gives us the impression of living next to the Encoder, in his time... For this reason we can say that the publication of this collection marks a new era of Spiritism in Brazil and in the whole continent”.

Bibliography:

Julio Abreu Filho - click on Julio Abreu on Wikipedia

Herculano Pires, Biography - click here

Biography of Herculano - click on this link

Marcus De Mario lives in Rio de Janeiro, where he Works in the Spiritist Group Seara de Luz and Rio de Janeiro Radio, the fraternity broadcaster. He is a writer, teacher, speaker and consultant.

Translation:
Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br