Inhalt: | Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Jews in Portugal and the Beginnings of Polemical Literature -- Portuguese Anti-Semitic Literary Production: Forms, Objectives, and Reception (17th – 18th Centuries) -- The New Christian Image -- Continuity and Change: The Different Currents of Anti-Jewish Literature -- Conclusions -- Annex 1: Inquisitorial Medals and Diplomas -- Annex 2: The Auto-da-Fé Sermon in Lisbon on May 5th, 1624 -- Sources and Bibliography -- Index of Names and Places. This book scrutinizes literary works based on Judaism, Jews and their descendants, written or printed by the Portuguese, from the forced conversion of Jews in 1497, until the ending of the distinction between New and Old Christians in 1773. It tries to understand what motivated this vast literary production, its different currents, and how they evolved. Additionally, it studies the image of New Christians and seeks the reasons for the perpetuation of this perception of Jewish descendants in the Early Modern Portuguese world. The Imaginary Synagogue seeks to identify which Jews and which ‘synagogue’ those authors constructed in their texts and their reasons for doing so, and offers conclusions on the self-affirmed Catholic importance of this literary current |
