This article aims to follow the trajectory of a text known as 'Fundamento Histórico', from its production, in 1773, to its publication, in the periodicals of the joanino period (1808-1821). Fundamento Histórico is the introduction that Claudio Manuel da Costa wrote to the epic poem called Vila Rica. Probably concluded in 1773, this epic circulated in a manuscript form until 1813, when the periodical O Patriota (1813-1814) published only the introduction made to the poem, suggesting that it was just a work of historical nature, not poetic. Hipólito da Costa, editor of the Correio Braziliense (1808-1822), gazette written in London, repeated the procedure, publishing, in 1819, merely the Fundamento Histórico, as if it was a detached work with an unique purpose of restoring the origins of Minas Gerais' captaincy. The thesis defended here is that this text was appropriated by the joanina's press in order to forge the unity of the Portuguese territories in America.
epic genre; joanino's press; imperial unity