Why it matters

Eighteenth-century Lisbon histories of the Portuguese campaigns against the Moors of North Africa and of the Estado da Índia are primary vehicles through which Portugal narrated its own imperial and crusading past, and they remain source material for historians of Christian–Muslim conflict and early European expansion. Surviving Portuguese imprints of this period are comparatively thin on the ground outside Iberia, since much of Lisbon's book stock and printing infrastructure was disrupted by the 1755 earthquake only three years after this date.

Why we're looking

A dated pre-earthquake Lisbon imprint in leather at US$295 is a modest ask for a mid-18th-century Iberian book, and the subject matter (Portuguese–Moorish warfare, Islamic North Africa and Asia) is squarely collectible. The seller presents as a rare-book, manuscript and map dealer, which makes the imprint claim worth a closer look.

Watch out for

The listing supplies no author, no title-page transcription, no collation and no condition report, so completeness cannot be assumed — ask for the full title page, page/leaf count, and confirmation that any maps, plates or engraved title are present. The headline mentions America while the description does not, so verify what the volume actually covers; also confirm whether this is a complete work or a single volume/bound-with fragment, whether the leather binding is contemporary or a later rebind, and check for the usual Iberian issues of worming, damp-staining and supplied leaves.