The chivalric tomb in fifteenth-century Portugal

The fifteenth-century Portuguese nobility was a proud and image-conscious social group that transformed tombs into opportunities for self-promotion. Manifesting changing conceptualizations of history and agency, the nobility’s elaborately sculpted sepulchres also reveal the means of successful social advancement in this society. The ruling dynasty of Avís encouraged the chivalric ethos of the long fifteenth century to exert control over the powerful nobility and validate their expansionist agenda in Africa. This profoundly shaped the visual idiom of funerary sculpture, resulting in the emergence of the ‘chivalric tomb’ in Portugal. Taking advantage of the blurred lines between chivalry and politics and between history and propaganda, Portuguese aristocrats began to manipulate their posthumous images to construct enduring, positive legacies in the public imagination. Aristocratic Portuguese tombs remain virtually untapped sources of social-historical information, particularly through their display of consistent commemorative strategies ranging from genealogical epitaphs to figural portrayals of Africans. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival research and offering a close examination of these monuments through visual, literary and historical evidence, this article explores the artistic intersection of death and memory in late medieval Portuguese society and elucidates how aristocratic funerary monuments performed a persuasive, as well as memorial, function.

Everyday life under the PIDE: A quantitative survey on the relations between ordinary citizens and Salazar’s political police (1955–74)

This article examines the relations between Portuguese society and Salazar’s political police (PIDE) from the perspective of the everyday lives of ordinary citizens – in contrast to the small minority of oppositionists that has so far monopolized the attention of historians. It is based on a quantitative survey of 400 respondents in four separate locations across Portugal and addresses two main research questions: To what extent did the sample of ordinary citizens experience the PIDE as a disruptive influence on their daily lives? Was the PIDE ‘normalized’ by them as part of the framework of everyday life? The data analysis calls upon the inputs of the international bibliography of everyday life under dictatorship and critically engages with the existing historiography of the PIDE.

Learning from Lisbon Or, how postmodernism conquered Portugal

The Amoreiras shopping centre in Lisbon is an icon of Portuguese postmodernism. When it first opened in 1985, its kitsch design stood out conspicuously amidst a landscape of smart Pombaline shopping streets, social housing tower blocks and tourist-friendly houses clad in “traditional” azulejo tiles. But it also reflected a pivotal moment in Portuguese history and still stands today as a reminder of the consumerist aspirations of post-revolutionary Portugal, the neoliberal policies that have come to dominate life in many Western nations and the stark contradictions of global capitalism. Departing from an initial discussion of Amoreiras, this short essay critically explores recent transformations to Lisbon’s urban and architectural landscape and traces their political and economic origins. In so doing, it suggests ways in which postmodernism might be considered a relevant concept for describing contemporary Portuguese society.

New Christians, Converted Hindus, Jesuits, and the Inquisition

This paper analyses the complex relationship between Jesuits, New Christians, converted Hindus, and the Inquisition. The collaboration of Jesuits with the Holy Office did not prevent voices from being raised within the Society of Jesus against the tribunal’s practices, which were observed with caution by the first Jesuit leaders. For their part, conversos were initially welcomed into the Society and even assumed high positions in the Society, such as the second superior general. Despite the difficult history of intolerance and inquisitorial persecution against New Christians, in the seventeenth century, Jesuits in Portugal became prominent advocates of their cause. In turn, Hindu conversion strategies fueled disputes and tensions between the Society of Jesus and the Inquisition of Goa. Their strained relations make these disputes an important historiographical subject for understanding many of the plots and dramas of Portuguese society under the Old Regime.

As mulheres que acompanharam as rainhas de Portugal : os séquitos femininos de Leonor Teles, Filipa de Lencastre e Leonor de Aragão (1371-1445)

This article aims to study the women who made up the entourage of Leonor Teles, Filipa de Lencastre and Leonor de Aragão, three Portugueses medieval queens. These women are often overtlooked, despite having played na importat role in the lives of the queens they served, and therefore, through the study of chionicles and chancelleries, and using the specialized bibliography, devoted making themselves known, families, positions and some episodes of the ladies lives. We also sought to understand the importance of Casa da Rainha in medieval Portuguese society. Attachef are four genealogical schemes, elaborated based on the research carried out na which aim to show how family relationships among the ladies mentioned in the article.

Everyday life under the PIDE: A quantitative survey on the relations between ordinary citizens and Salazar’s political police (1955–74)

This article examines the relations between Portuguese society and Salazar’s political police (PIDE) from the perspective of the everyday lives of ordinary citizens – in contrast to the small minority of oppositionists that has so far monopolized the attention of historians. It is based on a quantitative survey of 400 respondents in four separate locations across Portugal and addresses two main research questions: To what extent did the sample of ordinary citizens experience the PIDE as a disruptive influence on their daily lives? Was the PIDE ‘normalized’ by them as part of the framework of everyday life? The data analysis calls upon the inputs of the international bibliography of everyday life under dictatorship and critically engages with the existing historiography of the PIDE.