Rare Books
Macao Public Library house a collection of approximately 40,000 rare books, including Chinese and Western texts published before 1950 which are located at the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library and the Senado Library. The ‘Chinese Ancient Books Chamber’ (a rare- collections building) at Sir Robert Ho Tung Library currently has some 20,000 Chinese rare books, of which 16 are precious rare books from the Jiaye Book Library Tower previously collected by renowned modern bibliophile Liu Chenggan. Among these 16 books, the Manuscript of Siku Quanshu’s Synopsis by Weng Fanggang is of intrinsic value. Moreover, the Senado Library houses a collection of approximately 20,000 foreign ancient texts, varying from the 16th to 20th Century historical documents of the Portuguese presence in the Far East to literature of Portugal’s policy in its overseas colonies.
Rare Book Recommendations
Os rudimentos da lingua chineza: para uso dos alunos da Escola Central do Sexo Masculino，書名意譯： “初學義塾男生專用基礎漢語”。伯多祿在本書的前言裡提到，他編寫這本書的目的，是為澳葡政府開辦 “初學義塾” 的高小男生學習漢語之用。學生只需於兩年內，按其課本的進度，每天學習漢語一小時，就能掌握基礎漢語知識。
伯多祿將書編成兩部份：第一部份內容有：1) 漢語基楚概念：介紹中文字的組成、部首、聲調、漢字葡文拼音系統及漢字部首表；2) 漢語語法（18-30頁）：依照拉丁語系去介紹中國語法；接著從第31-37頁，以問題形式去複習前面所教的漢字和文法；3) 介紹中國虛字（助辭）的運用。如：於、而、所以、如何、然則等；4) 四篇的中葡文版聖諭廣訓：孝順爹娘、和愛弟兄、親愛族人、惜用錢財；5) 聖諭廣訓的翻譯練習。第二部份是一個共66頁、以67個主題分類的葡中生字表，中文字旁都配有葡文拼音，方便學童閱讀。
本書是伯多祿歸納前期四本葡童漢語課本後，有系統地建立一套為外籍兒童學習漢語的基礎課本。歐洲語言是用字母組合和語音拼寫而成，所以外國人不需硬背單詞，也不需練習抄寫，就能掌握該語言的基本「聽、讀、寫」。漢語則不然。中國人從小便需要練習抄寫，是因為很多漢字的字形和聲音沒有對應關係。歐洲人學習漢語的挑戰就是要克服不同的語言系統，和不一樣的語言思維習慣。
伯多祿強調「背誦」是增強兒童記憶能力的不二之法。學生應多讀、多背誦，透過背誦練習，就能體會生字、片語和語法的組合規律。這樣從小學打好基礎後，接上中學的漢語課程，就能順利地將 “漢語的寫和講” 學得更好，從而有效地應用到實際工作上。