Over the past half millennium, from circa 1450 until the last third or so of the twentieth century, much of the worldâs history has been influenced in great part by one general dynamic and complex historical process known as European expansion. Defined as the opening up, unfolding, or increasing the extent, number, volume, or scope of the space, size, or participants belonging to a certain people or group, location, or geographical region, Europeâs expansion initially emerged and emanated physically, intellectually, and politically from southern Europeâspecifically from the Iberian peninsulaâduring the fifteenth century, expanding rapidly from that locus to include, first, all of Europeâs maritime and, later, most of its continental states and peoples. Most commonly associated with events described as the discovery of America and of a passage to the East Indies (Asia) by rounding the Cape of Good Hope (Africa) during the early modern and modern periods, European expansion and encounters with the rest of the world multiplied and morphed into several ancillary historical processes, including colonization, imperialism, capitalism, and globalization, encompassing themes, among others, relating to contacts and, to quote the EURO seriesâ original mission statement, âconnections and exchanges; peoples, ideas and products, especially through the medium of trading companies; the exchange of religions and traditions; the transfer of technologies; and the development of new forms of political, social and economic policy, as well as identity formation.â Because of its intrinsic importance, extensive research has been performed and much has been written about the entire period of European expansion.
With the first volume published in 2009, Brill launched the European Expansion and Indigenous Response book series at the initiative of well-known scholar and respected historian, Glenn J. Ames, who, prior to his untimely passing, was the founding editor and guided the first seven volumes of the series to publication. Being one of the early members of the seriesâ editorial board, I was then appointed as Series Editor. The seriesâ founding objectives are to focus on publications âthat understand and deal with the process of European expansion, interchange and connectivity in a global context in the early modern and modern periodâ and to âprovide a forum for a variety of types of scholarly work with a wider disciplinary approach that moves beyond the traditional isolated and nation bound historiographical emphases of this field, encouraging whenever possible non-European perspectivesâ¦that seek to understand this indigenous transformative process and period in autonomous as well as inter-related cultural, economic, social, and ideological terms.â
Despite, or perhaps because of, these new directions and stimulating sources of existing and emerging lines of dispute regarding the history of European expansion, I and the editorial board of the series will continue with the original objectives and mission statement of the series and vigorously â⦠seek out studies that employ diverse forms of analysis from all scholarly disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, art history, history (including the history of science), linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, and religious studies.â In addition, we shall seek to stimulate, locate, incorporate, and publish the most important and exciting scholarship in the field.
Towards that purpose, I am pleased to introduce volume 42 of Brillâs EURO series entitled: The Confraternities of Misericórdia and the Portuguese Diasporas in the Early Modern Period. A project that was guided and edited by Isabel dos Guimarães Sá and Lisbeth Rodrigues, this volume provides a rich and detailed comparative overview of the ubiquitous Portuguese sodality, the Santa Casa da Misericórdia (Holy House of Mercy), a Roman Catholic lay brotherhood association founded in Lisbon towards the end of the fifteenth century with multiple physical individual municipal or informal non-physical chapters that spread throughout the kingdom and overseas within and at diverse imperial and foreign communities in America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
This volume consists of an introduction, twelve essays, and an epilogue prepared by its two editors and joined by an additional ten contributors who are some of the leading experts on the history of this institution in Portugal,
The founding of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia (Holy House of Mercy) in Lisbon was Influenced by the remodeling of the Confraria de Caridade Nossa Senhora da Piedade (Brotherhood of Our Lady of Pietyâs Charity) an earlier Portuguese institution that provided burial services to the general populace and support to prisoners condemned to execution. Misericórdias modeled their functions, in general, along the lines defined by the Lisbon chapter, which were 14 in number, half spiritual and the other half corporal in nature, and oriented initially for charitable purposes and subsequently towards the early nineteenth century adding philanthropic activities to their charters. While the original founding of the institution was supported by the Crown, the functioning of a Misericórdia was individually and communally structured and driven. They, as non-governmental, social institutions, were politically, economically, and culturally integrated into and supported the societies that evolved, developed, and sustained variegated communities involved in the formal and informal expansion of the Portuguese Empire and its diasporas.
Consequently, an in-depth historical examination and overview of the Misericórdias is inherently fundamental in comprehending Portuguese participation in the process of expansion and it offers, potentially, insights and opportunities for comparison of their experience with those of other expanding societies, since this institution dealt with multiple social issues and racial and status anxieties, such as poverty, sickness, death, inheritance, orphans, and welfare, charitable issues and anxieties, which can be considered universal, if not global. The example of the Portuguese Misericórdias handling of those charitable issues, as this volume demonstrates, reveals the construction of an institution that was extraordinarily adept and capable of reacting to external difficulties and adverse exigencies and create and develop local solutions to the degree that resources could be marshalled and delivered. Perhaps, with this publication of a comprehensive overview of this charitable institution
Meanwhile, EURO seriesâ general and specialist readers should warmly receive this volume, The Confraternities of Misericórdia and the Portuguese Diasporas in the Early Modern Period for what it is and has achieved and for what it suggests and the evidence it offers for future multi-disciplinary enquiries that may incorporate comparative approaches in examining and engaging issues of early modern societies, European or otherwise, and their socio-economic and political participation and development.
George Bryan Souza
University of Texas, San Antonio