VERNEY, Luís António.- [...] De re Metaphysica ad usum Lusitanorum adolescentium libri quatuor.- Romae: Ex Typographia Generosi Salominii in Foro S. Ignatii, 1753.- XXXII, 240 p.; 21 cm.- E. First edition (variant A) of one of the most important texts of the Pombal reform of education in Portugal. Luís António Verney (1713-1792), son of French parents, but born in Lisbon, the greatest exponent of the Enlightenment in Portugal and one of the most famous Portuguese "estrangeirados", studied at the College of Saint Antony the Abbot, in Lisbon and at the Oratorians, at the Convent of the Holy Spirit of the Quarry, before graduating in Theology at the University of Évora. Ownership manuscript of the time, on the title page: Coll: Anglor: Ulyssip: —Preston. Clean copy with large margins. Remarkable shagreen “vieux rouge” contemporary binding, slightly worn, with a slightly dehydrated spine and small damage to the turn in; identical covers with ornamental borders (roulette) and elaborate decoration in the corners with loose tools, similar to the éventail style; coat of arms of Portugal, engraved in gold on the central fleuron; gilded and chiseled edges; it preserves the original endpapers in marbled paper. Verneian Bibliography, 72 (p. 482).