DIARIO DE FILADELFIA, 1798-1799

ABSTRACT
The Diario de Filadelfia by Hipólito da Costa is a refined, incisive, and enlightening account of the nascent United States at the turn of the 18th-19th century, an unequivocal premonition of its imminent role as a world power. But in addition, its young author, sent by the Portuguese government to the then American capital on a secret mission, surprises with his exquisite and dynamic prose, for his irony and his erudition, in a text that for him was nothing more than an intimate document that nobody should ever get to know. However, his later discovery came to reveal the harrowing circumstances of his trip and his daily life for more than a year in the United States, but above all the open contradiction with the official letters that he was sending to Lisbon, finally disclosing what was the “genius” truth about the alleged compliance of his assignment… This edition of the Diario de Filadelfia, the first translation from the original Portuguese into the Spanish language, includes abundant color illustrations and is limited to 300 copies.