The end of the 1880s has a special importance for the Brazilian constitutional history, since it marks the transition from the monarchical to the republican regime. Despite the various studies on the subject, there has still been no systematic comparison between monarchy and republic under the prism of the freedom of
expression. Without intending a definitive solution, the present work attempted to compare in which of the regimes such freedom has been broader, adopting the year of the transition as period of research. Adopting the historical method of Carlo Ginzburg, the main newspapers of the political press published in Curitiba during 1889 were analyzed. The results permit to hold that there was no superiority between the regimes under the prism of the freedom of expression, at least in the first months of the provisional government. In this respect, the transition from monarchy to republic seems to have been characterized by significant continuities, including the anti-egalitarian ideals dominant among the local oligarchies.