ALPOIM, José Fernandes Pinto.- Exame de bombeiros, que comprehende dez tratados; o primeiro da Geometria, o segundo de huma nova Trigonometria, o terceiro da Longemetria[...] Obra nova, e ainda nam escrita de author Portuguez, utilissima para se ensinarem os novos Soldados Bombeiros, por perguntas e respostas...- En Madrid: En la Officina de Francisco Martinezabad, Año de M. DCC. XXXXVIII. [1748].- [40], 444 [i. é 442] p., 1 tabela desdobr.: 1 retrato, XVIII [i. é 20] gravuras desdobr.; 20 cm.- E. José Fernandes Alpoim (1700-1765) was born in Viana do Castelo and in 1738 he traveled to Brazil where he became famous as an architect and military engineer, having reached the rank of brigadier. In Rio de Janeiro he taught in artillery and fortification courses for which he wrote two treatises: “Exame de Artilheiros” (Lisbon, 1744) and the present “Exame de Bombeiros”. The edition is illustrated with a portrait of Gomes Freire de Andrade (1685-1763), governor of Rio, to whom the work is dedicated, engraved by Olivarius Cor (Ernesto Soares, História, p. 180 and nº 500), an allegorical vignette at the beginning of the dedication and 20 engravings (19 leaflets), numbered from I to XVIII (from engravings II and XI there are two different proofs) by José Francisco Chaves (Ernesto Soares, História, p. 171). Particularly enigmatic is Figure XVII that presents the subscription: José Franc. Chaves fecit — Rio 1749. This last indication has led some historians and bibliographers to support the hypothesis that the engraving (and even the edition) may have been opened in Rio de Janeiro, a controversial claim that remains unproven to this day. The pagination has an error: da p. 372 moves to p. 375, without any gaps in the text or in the section. Copy a little trimmed, but clean, keeping all engravings fresh and well folded. Contemporary binding, full sheepskin, slightly worn, with traces of wormholes (without affecting the core), retaining the original endpapers, red label and four raised bands on the spine. Inocêncio, IV, p. 326. Borba de Moraes (1983), p. 25/26 (These two famous and rare works by Alpoym constitute a veritable “bibliographic puzzle”). Army Library, 324.