Papel volante is a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

name that designates a form of popular literature that may include

popular prints Popular prints is a term for printing, printed images of generally low artistic quality which were sold cheaply in Europe and later the New World from the 15th to 18th centuries, often with text as well as images. They were some of the earliest e ...

. They date from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries, and are usually in an eight-page

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

format. They were at their height in the eighteenth century. They are similar to the

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than Fr ...

of colportage,

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

s or to the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

''pliegos'', ''papeles volantes'' or ''hojas volanderas''. They are also known as '' literatura de cordel'' (string literature), particularly in the northeast of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Two of the most famous authors of ''papéis volantes'' are

Baltasar Dias Balthazar, or variant spellings, may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Balthazar'' (novel), by Lawrence Durrell, 1958 * ''Balthasar'', an 1889 book by Anatole France * ''Professor Balthazar'', a Croatian animated TV series, 1967-1978 ...

(17th century) and

José Daniel Rodrigues da Costa José Daniel Rodrigues da Costa (31 October 1757–7 October 1832) was a Portuguese poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the c ...

(18th century), who wrote misogynous texts. Baltasar Dias's ''Malícia das Mulheres'' (Malice of Women) had more than eighteen editions from 1640 until the twentieth century.

External links

Baltasar Dias's "Marquês de Mântua" facsimile (Portuguese National Library)

Portuguese literature {{Portugal-hist-stub