The Confraternities of Misericórdia and the Portuguese Diasporas in the Early Modern Period - (European Expansion and Indigenous Response)

About the Book

One of the first anglophone books dealing with the expansion of the confraternities of Misericórdia beyond the Portuguese world.

Book Synopsis

During the early modern period, the brotherhoods of Misericórdia were established not only in the overseas territories ruled by the Portuguese, but also beyond their empire, reaching as far as the Philippines and Japan. The twelve chapters of this book examine this expansion by discussing different dimensions of the Misericórdias, such as administration, politics, charitable practices, finances, and forms of discrimination related to social status, gender, and race. Filling a critical gap in anglophone scholarship on the Portuguese Misericórdias, this work's previous absence has been criticized by scholars who believe the Misericórdias are crucial to understanding the past and present of Portuguese communities, both at home and abroad.

Contributors are: Inês Amorim, José Pedro Paiva, Lisbeth Rodrigues, Sara Pinto, Juan O. Mesquida, Rômulo Ehalt, Joana Balsa de Pinho, Andreia Durães, Maria Antónia Lopes, Luciana Gandelman, Isabel dos Guimarães Sá, and Renato Franco.

Review Quotes

"This is the first extended study of the Portuguese misericórdias to be published in English, and thanks to its scholarly rigour and comprehensive scope will become the standard reference work in the field." - Nicholas Terpstra, in: Ler História, 85 (2024).

About the Author

Isabel dos Guimarães Sá, Ph.D. (1992), European University Institute, teaches Early Modern History at the University of Minho. She has researched widely in the fields of the history of Portugal and of its empire from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

Lisbeth Rodrigues, Ph.D. (2013), University of Minho, is an Assistant Professor of History at Nova School of Business and Economics, Nova University of Lisbon, and a researcher at ISEG, University of Lisbon. She has published widely on Portuguese welfare institutions and the credit market, including Debt Litigation and the Performance of the Law Courts in Eighteenth-Century Portugal (2019).