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Copyright of Via Spiritus: Revista de História da Espiritualidade e do Sentimento Religioso is the property of Instituto de Cultura Portuguesa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Via Spiritus: Revista de História da Espiritualidade e do Sentimento Religioso is the property of Instituto de Cultura Portuguesa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Via Spiritus: Revista de História da Espiritualidade e do Sentimento Religioso is the property of Instituto de Cultura Portuguesa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper transcribes two pedagogical regulations for female education, one from the Visitandinas Congregation, certainly written by Teodoro de Almeida [1722-1804], although reproducing French models, and the other one from the Ursulinas Congregation of Braga, likely «taken» from Paris, as happened with the regulations of the religious, which precede the disciples of the volume of the District Archives of Braga. Following the dissemination of these models of education, the authors study in their respective introductions, the organization, structure, and guidelines of a daily teaching procedure that became the basis of long term female education paradigms oriented to different social classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selecting as corpus a group of fictional prose narratives of considerable length, published in the 17th century, this paper, entitled '«Exemplary novels» and exemplary novels: the paratexts of fiction during the 17th century' aims to study the group of paratexts which accompany these works, paying special attention to censorship and dedications, and also to prologues, so as to identify networks of «cliental» relationships which may contribute to aiding the understanding of the circulation and «readings» in the sixteen-hundreds. Studying the paratexts, in relation to the texts, allows for the detection of ways in which fictional prose was legitimised, many times in an adverse context, with regard to censorial mechanisms, also contributing to the study of the censorial institution in the 17th century in Portugal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paratexts are presentation means for works, authors and genders. They format readers perception about literary texts, taking into consideration the author, the intended public and the work's merit. Taking as starting point the paratexts that precede the Portuguese feminine narratives published in Portugal from 1555 to late XVIII th century, this paper aims to provide a framework of the feminine editorial visibility and of women's writer's image, considering the articulation between gender, production origin and literary function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

St Ursula is the patron saint of the Ursulines. In the 16th century, two Portuguese versions were produced of the section of the Legenda Aurea Sanctorum by Blessed James of Voragine O.P. containing the Legend of Saint Ursula and her eleven thousand virgin companions. In addition, two types of images of these martyr saints appear in the Legendaries of Saints that appeared in Portugal during that century: one of these portrays the martyrdom of the Saints and the other shows them standing, their heads surrounded by a nimbus. This paper discusses the above-mentioned texts and illustrations. It also discusses the recent discovery in the Public Library in Evora of a woodcut printed in a book published in the same century representing the Holy Trinity as a single figure on a throne. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spreading of letter-writing and its social implication during the Modern Age resulted in the appearance of books in vernacular languages to learn how to write a letter correctly from the mid-Sixteenth century in Spain, as well as the rest of Europe. Among the varied examples offered to the readers to adapt their correspondence to the customs and conventions of this time, it's possible to find some letters directed to the Pope, who certainly had to be one of the most demanding addressees. In these treatises the Pontiff not only appears as the absent to whom the missives are written, but he also sometimes takes the quill. This collection of model letters makes up a imaginary correspondence that must be studied from the perspective of the epistolary theory, analyzing the typologies of letters proposed, the epistolary topics and themes allowed - the matters that could be discussed directly with the Pope, and those other ones that required intermediaries -, the authorized senders and their self-representative strategies on the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When we think about cloistering what immediately comes to mind are the histories of women who, for various reasons, were forced by their families to become nuns. For noble families, the dissolution of the family's state by dowry was a major concern, as was the dishonor of a marriage with a groom of inferior social status. Most of the time, instigating a daughter to join a nunnery could be a dignified way to avoid these undesirable consequences, and one of lower cost to parents, even if it would cost these women's «freedom». By the analysis of Fr. Agostinho de Santa Maria's book, entitled Historia da vida admiravel & das acções prodigiosas da veneravel Madre Soror Brizida de S. Antonio [...] published in 1701, I was able to notice that the opposite also was possible, that is to say, that the nunnery might also represent a place of female autonomy. Sister Brígida's (Brizida) case differs in many aspects from the general scenario presented above. She, then called Leonor de Mendanha, was the only heir of a very noble family; she had a rich dowry and many wooers, attracted by her « fermosura » [beauty] and virtue (or maybe by her many possessions) and her mother was eager to marry her. However, Leonor did not share her mother's feelings and decided to live her life in a very different manner. In this paper I'll attempt to analyze the strategies used by this future nun to impose her will, and I'll attempt understand the characterization of the models of female sanctity existent in this period, especially with regards to one of its aspects, that of ascetic practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we are going to deal with charters of forgiveness of King John II's chancery concerning sex crimes such as concubinage, panderism, incest, witchcraft, ruffianism, bigamy and adultery. These relationships are prone to be punished by royal legislation. The charters of forgiveness are part of the royal centralization process and of the acting of power throughout the ability of acting upon, governing and transforming a specific geographical area. It's possible to infer that the chancery serves the power considering that writing is an essential element to prove and verify rights, properties, privileges and a great deal of juridical acts, such as the charters of forgiveness in which it is determined that only the king himself is able to grant benefits and forgiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Via Spiritus: Revista de História da Espiritualidade e do Sentimento Religioso is the property of Instituto de Cultura Portuguesa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)