As lágrimas e as setas Os Pia Desideria de Herman Hugo, S.J., em Portugal : os Pia Desideria de Herman Hugo, S.J., em Portugal

Abstract

This essay is an attempt at identifying the most conspicuous moments of the diffusion and editorial success of the Pia Desideria, by H. Hugo, S.J., in Portugal. After a reference to the main readers of the work in the second half of the 17th century (Francisco Manuel de Melo, Frei António das Chagas, OFM., Padre Manuel Bernardes, C. Orat.), the Desejos Piedosos, by José Pereira Veloso is analysed, using one of the rare surviving copies of its first edition (Lisbon, 1687). The latter work is an adaptation of the Pia Desideria based, for the iconography, on the 1658 Castillian translation by A. Salazar, S.J. The work enjoyed a relatively successful diffusion as a manual for the preparation for confession and for communion. It is this use that this essay aims at contextualizing within the spiritual currents of late 17th century Portugal.