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: Inźs Amorim, José Pedro Paiva, Lisbeth Rodrigues, Sara Pinto, Juan O. Mesquida, Rōmulo Ehalt, Joana Balsa de Pinho, Andreia Durćes, Maria Antónia Lopes, Luciana Gandelman, Isabel dos Guimarćes Sį, and Renato Franco.
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
List of Maps, Figures and Tables
Introduction
Isabel dos Guimarćes Sį and Lisbeth Rodrigues
PART 1:The Misericórdias: Organization, Finances, and Relationship with Other
Institutions
1 Local Dynamics: Membership, Governance, and Relations with the Crown
Inźs Amorim
2 Bishops and Holy Houses of Mercy in the Portuguese Empire in the Early
Modern Age: Welfare, Cooperation, and Conflicts
José Pedro Paiva
3 Financing Early Modern Misericórdias in Portugal and Its Overseas
Territories (15001800)
Lisbeth Rodrigues
4 Transferring Inheritances across the Oceans: The Financial Role of the
Misericórdias
Sara Pinto
5 Contested Philanthropy in Spanish Manila: The Santa Casa de la Misericordia
(15941869)
Juan O. Mesquida
6 In Their Likeness: Japanese Misericórdias and the Limits of the
Misericórdia in Japan (15531633)
Rōmulo Ehalt
7 The Visual Culture of the Misericórdias: Art and Identity
Joana Balsa de Pinho
PART 2:Charity
8 Caring for the Sick: Hospitals under the Administration of the
Misericórdias
Andreia Durćes
9 Marrying with the Help of the Misericórdias
Maria Antónia Lopes
10 The Misericórdias and the Preservation of Female Honor
Luciana Gandelman
11 The Misericórdias and the Economy of Salvation: Inheritances, Masses, and
Funerals
Isabel dos Guimarćes Sį
12 The Santas Casas de Misericórdia and Care for Foundlings in the Portuguese
Empire (16th18th Centuries)
Renato Franco
Epilogue
Glossary
Index
Isabel dos Guimarćes Sį, 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).
