Between enchanted Moors and Dom Sebastian: analysis of the manuscript reports of Maria de Macedo (1650 - 1658)

• Grant number: 19/09307-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2019
• End date: May 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Luis Filipe Silverio Lima
• Grantee: Victoria Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project proposes the analysis of two manuscripts included in the inquisitorial process of Maria de Macedo (1666), condemned for the crimes of pretense of visions and spiritual revelations. The manuscripts bring the reports of her travels to a "Hidden Island" and her meetings with "enchanted Moors" and with king Dom Sebastian of Portugal. Based on her process and considering the relation with Dom Sebastian, historiography understood Macedo's experiences as much representative of the visionary phenomenon as of the "popular Sebastianism". However, the manuscripts narrative, disregarded almost entirely until then, allows problematize the application of such categories for the understanding of her case. Therefore, the purpose of the research is the reflection around the understanding of the experiences of Maria de Macedo, based on the report of the two manuscripts. For this, the research is divided in three central points: the transcription and the semidiplomatical edition of the two manuscript versions; the comparison between them and, finally, the analysis of the construction and articulation of the ideas of Maria de Macedo, especially in what regards to the development of the elements related to Dom Sebastian, the "enchanted Moors" and the "Hidden Island".