Within the intercultural activity that the Portuguese Crown developed in the 16th-18th centuries, the reports on the New Worlds occupied an important space, supported by a relevant manuscript production in Portuguese, Latin and ‘exotic’ languages (Zwartjes, 2011, p.1). Non-native figures also contributed to the circulation of this knowledge; they considered the Lusitan vernacular a comprehensive, influential and respected linguistic environment at the crossroads of colonial empires. In this study, we will deal with manuscript 536, «Noticias do Reyno do Malabár», without signature and date, and preserved in the National Library of Lisbon: we will put it in dialogue with other archive sources, by analyzing its contents in the light of the socio-cultural and linguistic panorama in which it was probably written. We will also reflect on the explicit and implicit positions adopted by the author – an indigenous priest from Malabar (India), a student of the Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide in Rome – concerning the information conveyed in the work, and we will finally highlight the role of the Portuguese language at the time of the decline of its prestige in the colonial network. That the testimony of our interest offers, both for the data itself and for the way they are collected and presented, is a clear adherence to a cultural, religious and linguistic policy focused on the construction of a copious collection of texts, of different typologies; texts concerning the knowledge of non-European lands and peoples – although filtered by the Eurocentric perspective – which constitute the foundations for the action of evangelization and the maintenance of the possessions.
O português como língua veicular na divulgação das culturas «exóticas» no século xviii: o caso do manuscrito 536 «Noticias do Reyno do Malabár»
Matteo Migliorelli
2024-01-01
Abstract
Within the intercultural activity that the Portuguese Crown developed in the 16th-18th centuries, the reports on the New Worlds occupied an important space, supported by a relevant manuscript production in Portuguese, Latin and ‘exotic’ languages (Zwartjes, 2011, p.1). Non-native figures also contributed to the circulation of this knowledge; they considered the Lusitan vernacular a comprehensive, influential and respected linguistic environment at the crossroads of colonial empires. In this study, we will deal with manuscript 536, «Noticias do Reyno do Malabár», without signature and date, and preserved in the National Library of Lisbon: we will put it in dialogue with other archive sources, by analyzing its contents in the light of the socio-cultural and linguistic panorama in which it was probably written. We will also reflect on the explicit and implicit positions adopted by the author – an indigenous priest from Malabar (India), a student of the Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide in Rome – concerning the information conveyed in the work, and we will finally highlight the role of the Portuguese language at the time of the decline of its prestige in the colonial network. That the testimony of our interest offers, both for the data itself and for the way they are collected and presented, is a clear adherence to a cultural, religious and linguistic policy focused on the construction of a copious collection of texts, of different typologies; texts concerning the knowledge of non-European lands and peoples – although filtered by the Eurocentric perspective – which constitute the foundations for the action of evangelization and the maintenance of the possessions.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
