Missionary analogies in the colonial Congo and Brazil at the end of the XVIIth century:

a rhetorical-literary study of the accounts written by the capuchins Martin de Nantes and Girolamo Merolla da Sorrento

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22199/issn.0719-8175-2019-0005

Keywords:

Mission, Capuchins, Africa, South America, Rhetoric

Abstract

A comparative study between two missionary accounts which were written by two Capuchin priests: the French Martin de Nantes, author of (Relation Succincte et Sincère [...], 1707), and the Italian, Girolamo Sorrento (Breve e Succinta Relatione [...], 1692). This essay intends to highlight, through a rhetorical-literary study, the very similar modus operandi present in both texts, to achieve this objective, an imagological analysis of the descriptions about the evangelized people and the places of Brazil and Congo carried out by French and the Italian priests will be taken as starting point. Additionally, I will mention the main lines of every missionary ministry and I will pore over how their mission’s responsibilities were incorporated within their texts. Likewise, I will analyze the scriptural elements concomitant to the preacher’s zeal when performing their religious duties.

References

Balandier, G. (1965). Le royaume de Kongo du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle. Hachette: Paris.

Cornevin, R. (1966). Histoire de l’Afrique (Vol. 2). Paris: Payot.

Cro, S. (2016). El buen salvaje y la edad moderna: Hackluyt, Montaigne y Pedro Mártir. Alicante: Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/2ZrT4jy

Cuvelier, J. (1946). L’Ancien royaume de Congo. Desclée de Brouwer: Bruges.

De Castelnau-L’Estoile, C. (2006). The uses of shamanism: evangelizing strategies and mis-sionary models in seventeenth-century Brazil. En J. O’Malley, G. Bailey, S. Harris y T. Kennedy, (Eds.). The Jesuits II: cultures, sciences, and the arts, 1540-1773 (pp. 616-637). Toronto: Univer-sity of Toronto Press.

Filesi, T. (1968). Le relazioni tra il regno del Congo e la sede apostolica nel XVI secolo. Como; Cairoli.

Gadenne, C. (1997). Martin de Nantes – prédicateur capucin, missionnaire apostolique dans le Brésil parmi les indiens appelés cariris. Cahiers du Brésil contemporain, (32), 41-58. Recupe-rado de https://bit.ly/2MArCuJ

Gray, R. (1984). Fra Girolamo Merolla da Sorrento, the congregation of propaganda fide and the atlantic slave trade. En U. Marazzi, (Ed.). La conoscenza dell’Asia e dell’Africa in Italia nei secoli XVIII e XIX (Vol. 2, pp. 803-811). Naples: Instituto Universitario Orientale.

Gril, A. (1869). Historique du Concile de Trente. Paris: Librairie Adrien Le Clere et Cie.

Jezernik, M. (1971). Il collegio urbano di propaganda. En J. Metzler, (Ed.). Sacrae congregatio-nis de propaganda fide memoria rerum (Vol 1, pp. 465-482). Fribourg: Herder.

Langfur, H. (Ed.). (2014). Native Brazil: beyond the convert and the cannibal, 1500-1900. Albu-querque, NM: University of New Mexico Press.

Martin de Nantes (1706). Relation succincte et sincère de la mission du Père Martin de Nantes, prédicateur capucin, missionnaire apostolique dans le Brésil parmy les indiens appellés cariris. Quimper: Chez Jean Perier.

Martin de Nantes (1888). Histoire du P. Martin de Nantes, capucin de la province de Bretagne chez les Cariris, tribu sauvage du Brésil (1671-1688). Rome: R. P. Apollinaire de Valence.

Mary, A. (2000). Conversion et conversation. Cahiers d'études africaines, 40(160), 779-800. https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesafricaines.49.

Merolla da Sorrento, G. (1692). Breve e succinta relatione del viaggio nel regno di Congo nell’ Africa meridionale, fatto dal P. Girolamo Merolla da Sorrento, sacerdote cappuccino, missionario apostolico: continente variati clima, arie, animali, fiumi, frutti, vestimenti con proprie figure, diuersità di costumi, e di viueri per l’vso humano. Napoli: Per Francesco Mollo.

Metzler, J. (1971). Orientation, programme et premières décisions (1622-1649). En su Sacrae congregationis de propaganda fide memoria rerum (Vol 1, pp. 146-196). Fribourg: Herder.

Regni, P. (1988). Os capuchinhos na Bahia. Uma contribuição para a história da igreja no Brasil. Porto Alegre: Escola Superior de Teologia São Lourenço de Brindes.

Sarzi Amade, J. (2016a). Édition critique de la breve e succinta relatione del viaggio nel Regno di Congo [...] (1692) de Girolamo Merolla da Sorrento (Thèse de doctorat). Aix-Marseille Université, Sciences de l'Homme et Société. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/362iZRr

Sarzi Amade, J. (2016b). Réédition, contextualisation et analyse du récit de Girolamo Merolla da Sorrento, missionnaire capucin au Royaume de Kongo de la fin du XVIIe siècle, (Thèse de doctorat). Aix-Marseille Université, Sciences de l'Homme et Société. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/2EZgJ1q

Sarzi Amade, J. (2017a). Un récit de colonisation, d’évangélisation et d’affabulation au congo: Girolamo Merolla da Sorrento et sa breve e succinta relatione. Rio de Janeiro: Dialogarts. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/39l1zBm

Sarzi Amade, J. (2017b). Girolamo Merolla au Congo: récits de ‘colorisme’ chez un mission-naire capucin de la fin XVIIe siècle. Multilinguales, (8), 134-150. https://doi.org/10.4000/multilinguales.406.

Sarzi Amade, J. (2018). Trois missionnaires capucins dans le Royanme de Congo de la fin du XVIP siécle: Cavazzi, Merolla et Zucchelli. Forcé et prose dans les récits de spectacles punitifs et de chátiments exemplaires. Veritas, (39), 137–160. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-92732018000100137.

Capuchins. (1951). Lexicon Capuccinum promptuarium historico-bibliographicum ordinis fra-tum minorum capuccinorum (1525-1950). Romae: Bibliotheca Collegii Internationalis S. Lau-rentii Brundusini.

Thornton, J. (1983). The Kingdom of Kongo: civil war and transition, 1641-1718. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.

Thornton, J. (1998). The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement, 1684-1706. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Toso, C. (1992). Il contributo dei religiosi italiani al pacifico sviluppo dell’antico Congo (sec. XVII-XVIII). Africa: Rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione dell’Istituto italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, 47(2), 184-220. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/2QtrIW4

Published

2019-12-30

How to Cite

Sarzi Amade, J. (2019). Missionary analogies in the colonial Congo and Brazil at the end of the XVIIth century:: a rhetorical-literary study of the accounts written by the capuchins Martin de Nantes and Girolamo Merolla da Sorrento. Cuadernos De teología - Universidad Católica Del Norte (On Line), 11, e3713. https://doi.org/10.22199/issn.0719-8175-2019-0005

Issue

Section

Papers