Esta dissertação objetiva compreender a prática dos descimentos indígenas no Estado do Maranhão e Grão-Pará, entre os anos 1680 e 1750. Além de buscarmos entender de que forma esta política contribuiu para a expansão das fronteiras coloniais e para a inserção de mão de obra no Estado, analisamos a atuação e os interesses dos agentes envolvidos na realização dos descimentos, a saber: principais indígenas, missionários, funcionários régios, moradores, deputados da Junta das Missões e populações nativas / The aim of this dissertation is to understand the practice of descimentos in the state of Maranhão e Grão-Pará, between the years 1680 and 1750. Besides, this work also aims to understand how this policy contributed to the expansion of colonial borders and to the inclusion of labor in the state. Furthermore, we analyze the performance and the interests of the agents involved in the descimentos, such as: Indian leaders, missionaries, royal officials, settlers, members of the Tribunal da Junta das Missões and native populations

Esta dissertação objetiva compreender a prática dos descimentos indígenas no Estado do Maranhão e Grão-Pará, entre os anos 1680 e 1750. Além de buscarmos entender de que forma esta política contribuiu para a expansão das fronteiras coloniais e para a inserção de mão de obra no Estado, analisamos a atuação e os interesses dos agentes envolvidos na realização dos descimentos, a saber: principais indígenas, missionários, funcionários régios, moradores, deputados da Junta das Missões e populações nativas / The aim of this dissertation is to understand the practice of descimentos in the state of Maranhão e Grão-Pará, between the years 1680 and 1750. Besides, this work also aims to understand how this policy contributed to the expansion of colonial borders and to the inclusion of labor in the state. Furthermore, we analyze the performance and the interests of the agents involved in the descimentos, such as: Indian leaders, missionaries, royal officials, settlers, members of the Tribunal da Junta das Missões and native populations

Castrati were without doubt, an extraordinary phenomenon in the vocal world. Four centuries of history exist from the first evidence of their presence in music, dating from the 1550s, and the death of the last castrato Allessandro Moreschi, in 1922. A tradition almost solely practiced in Italy, the castrati experienced their halcyon days in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. At first, they were recruited and castrated as young boys to sing in the soprano sections of the church choirs. They enjoyed an extensive training in specialized conservatorios and grew to be the most accomplished vocalists the world had known thus far. Inevitably, their art was noticed by opera composers of the time. They flourished and were celebrated in Italy and abroad. Their vocal technique and artistic skills dictated the bel canto style for nearly two hundred years. At the end of the eighteenth century, the growing awareness in moral philosophy, and a series of political shifts in Europe put an end to the overwhelming success of the eunuchs. Yet their influence on opera composition of the time and of the subsequent decades was of immense consequence. An important question should be raised when performing the opera roles written for castrati nowadays. Who will sing the castrato roles? As a logical solution, women or countertenors should adopt these roles into their repertoire. A study of opera roles written for castrati by a baroque master in the genre, Georg Friedrich Handel, sheds some light on the music for these rare birds. The castrato role-study encompasses Handel’s operas written for the First Royal Academy of Music (1720-1728). By disclosing some particular aspects in the music and the drama, it becomes clear what voice type should be singing these roles in present day Handel opera production. / text

This dissertation deals with how the concept of virtue (dygd) is used in Swedish occasional poetry addressed to merchants before 1780. Occasional poetry was the major kind of literature in Sweden in the seventeenth and the eighteenth century, and usually addressed to the nobility and other dominant groups. As a part of the elites’ conspicuous consumption, and mainly aimed to demonstrate the addressees’ virtue, it played an important role in legitimising the social and political dominance of the elite. Merchandise, however, was regarded with moral suspicion. The main purpose of the thesis is to study the argumentative strategies the poets use to honour merchants, and to determine in what ethical traditions they have found the arguments to back up their reasoning. It is thereby possible to detect subtle changes in how they use the concept of virtue. These strategies and arguments are seen from a rhetorical point of view; the poets’ main purpose was to praise the tradesmen persuasively. The dissertation consists of three parts, dealing with, respectively, the period before 1650, the years 1670–1680 and the period 1770–1780. Each part is divided into three chapters: a brief presentation of the main ethical discussion of the period, a concise examination of the occasional poetry written for groups other than merchants, and an analysis of the argumentative strategies used in honouring tradesmen. The earliest merchant prints are constructed as defences rather than actual complimentary poems. Whereas the poems written for other addressees mainly make use of an Aristotelian concept of virtue, focusing on the services done for society and on the honour that follows from this, the merchant poems take a Lutheran law conception of ethics as their starting point. The key point is to claim that the merchant in question has not broken the Ten Commandments, or any other law belonging to man. Neither has he ever done any harm to his neighbours. In the 1670’s, this argumentative strategy is still abundant, but the poets also claim that the merchants have contributed to society, either through Christian charity or, with an allusion to mercantilism, by always trading with the aim of enriching their fatherland. In some cases, economic success in itself is regarded as a ground for honouring the merchant, the claim being that this was necessary for his charity, or by reference to the Lutheran ethics of calling or vocation. A main point is that the poets sometimes use the word virtue to describe these qualities, thereby in effect widening the concept itself. In the 1770’s, all earlier argumentative strategies are still used by the poets. In some cases, however, the texts consist in an attack on the Aristotelian concept of virtue. The poets argue that virtue is an inner, almost invisible quality having nothing to do with performing an occupation or belonging to a special social stratum. Instead they focus on sincerity as a quality essential to real virtue and as an important virtue in itself, thereby also claiming that virtue and glory could and should be separated.

La tesi ricostruisce alcuni momenti fondamentali della storia della contea principesca di gradisca, per approfondire i rapporti intercorsi tra 'centro' e 'periferia', tra gli Eggenberg/Asburgo e la nobiltà della contea. / The dissertation reconstructs some fundamental moments of the history of the princely county of Gradisca, in order to study relationships between 'centre' and 'periphery' in depth, between the Eggenberg/Habsburg and the nobility.

This study explores the rediscovery and development of a tradition of Ciceronian academic scepticism in British philosophy between c.1660-c.1760. It considers this tradition alongside two others, recently recovered by scholars, which were recognised by contemporaries to offer opposing visions of man, God and the origins of society: the Augustinian-Epicurean, and the neo-Stoic. It presents John Locke, Conyers Middleton and David Hume as the leading figures in the revival of the tradition of academic scepticism. It considers their works in relation to those of Anthony Ashley Cooper, third earl of Shaftesbury, and Bernard Mandeville, whose writings refashioned respectively the neo-Stoic and Augustinian-Epicurean traditions in influential ways. These five individuals explicitly identified themselves with these late Hellenistic philosophical traditions, and sought to contest and redefine conventional estimations of their meaning and significance. This thesis recovers this debate, which illuminates our understanding of the development of the ‘science of man’ in Britain. Cicero was a central figure in Locke’s attempt to explain, against Hobbes, the origins of society and moral consensus independent of political authority. Locke was a theorist of societies, religious and civil. He provided a naturalistic explanation of moral motivation and sociability which, drawing heavily from Cicero, emphasised the importance of men’s concern for the opinions of others. Locke set this within a Christian divine teleology. It was Locke’s theologically-grounded treatment of moral obligation, and his attack on Stoic moral philosophy, that led to Shaftesbury’s attempt to vindicate Stoicism. This was met by Mandeville’s profoundly Epicurean response. The consequences of the neo-Epicurean and neo-Stoic traditions for Christianity were explored by Middleton, who argued that only academic scepticism was consistent with Christian belief. Hume explored the relationship between morality and religion with continual reference to Cicero. He did so, in contrast to Locke or Middleton, to banish entirely moral theology from philosophy.

Cette thèse porte sur les gestes et attitudes qui ont caractérisé la figure aristocratique dans l’art européen entre 1661 et 1789. Cet intervalle correspond à la durée de vie d’un paradigme corporel noble appelé « le bon air et la bonne grâce », de son élaboration à la cour de Louis XIV et de sa diffusion hégémonique en Europe, jusqu’à son rejet définitif à la Révolution française. La société d’Ancien Régime a déployé tout un arsenal de moyens (exercices, instruments orthopédiques,…) pour intérioriser une grâce qui devait paraître innée et prouver la noblesse. Le maître à danser détenait le monopole de l’inculcation de cette grâce et de son élaboration suivant des critères hautement esthétiques. Les gestes et positions inventoriés ici, sont décrits et associés à leurs connotations d’origine, montrant qu’une connaissance approfondie et minutieuse de la gestuelle peut affiner notre compréhension d’un large pan de l’art des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. L’auteur démontre que cette hexis corporelle contemporaine transcende tous les domaines concernés par le corps noble (éducation, théâtre, danse, opéra, arts martiaux, etc.) et en vient à infiltrer la majorité des genres picturaux, bousculant les traditions artistiques déjà en place et s’affichant comme une alternative moderne à la grâce des Anciens. Le portrait, la gravure de mode, les figurines de porcelaine, les vues de villes et de jardins sont les plus touchés par ce phénomène. La bonne grâce s’affirme ainsi dans une culture visuelle qui, par ricochet, en vient à renforcer les pratiques sociales dont elle était le reflet. Cet aller-retour des attitudes aristocratiques entre l’art et la vie occasionne la standardisation de la figure et du corps aristocratiques. Dans la pastorale, la peinture d’histoire et la scène de genre, l’idéal aristocratique se manifeste, tantôt en négatif dans la figure du paysan, du Pierrot et de l’Arlequin, tantôt de manière idéalisée dans celles du berger et du héros galants. La substitution de gestes emphatiques et d’expressions faciales explicites par une gestuelle fondée sur la retenue et la dissimulation des passions, fondera une nouvelle historia moins lisible que la traditionnelle, mais plus subtile et insinuée, répondant ainsi mieux au goût et à la sensibilité aristocratique. / This thesis concerns the characteristic gestures and attitudes of the aristocratic figure in European art between 1661 and 1789. This period corresponds to the lifetime of a noble bodily ideal named “le bon air” and “la bonne grâce”, from its formulation at Louis XIV’s court and hegemonic propagation until its decline with the French Revolution. A panoply of means (exercises, orthopaedic instruments…) have been invented by the Ancien Régime society to embody a grace that should appear inborn and testify to noble birth. The dancing-master enjoyed the monopoly of inculcating this grace and elaborating it in accordance with highly aesthetic criteria. Most of the bon air and bonne grâce gestures and postures are here catalogued, described and associated with their original connotative values, showing that a deep and meticulous knowledge of body techniques can sharpen our understanding of a great proportion of Early Modern artworks. The author agues that this bodily habitus transcended every field concerned with the noble body (education, theatre, dance, opera, martial arts…) and came to infiltrate most pictorial genres, challenging age-old artistic traditions and imposing itself as a modern alternative to the grace of the Ancients. Portraiture, fashion plates, porcelain figurines, city and garden landscapes were the most affected by this phenomenon. Bonne grâce thus affirmed itself in a visual culture, which in return reinforced the very social practices that mirrored. The circular migration of aristocratic gestures between life and art caused a standardisation of both aristocratic body and figure. Within pastoral, history painting and genre scenes, the aristocratic ideal reveals itself antithetically in the figure of the peasant, the Pierrot and the Harlequin, and idealistically in those of the gallant shepherd and gallant hero. The substitution of emphatic gestures and strong facial expressions for ones based on restraint and dissimulation gave birth to a new historia that was less legible, but more subtle and suggestive, in accordance with aristocratic taste and sensibility.

Cette thèse porte sur les gestes et attitudes qui ont caractérisé la figure aristocratique dans l’art européen entre 1661 et 1789. Cet intervalle correspond à la durée de vie d’un paradigme corporel noble appelé « le bon air et la bonne grâce », de son élaboration à la cour de Louis XIV et de sa diffusion hégémonique en Europe, jusqu’à son rejet définitif à la Révolution française. La société d’Ancien Régime a déployé tout un arsenal de moyens (exercices, instruments orthopédiques,…) pour intérioriser une grâce qui devait paraître innée et prouver la noblesse. Le maître à danser détenait le monopole de l’inculcation de cette grâce et de son élaboration suivant des critères hautement esthétiques. Les gestes et positions inventoriés ici, sont décrits et associés à leurs connotations d’origine, montrant qu’une connaissance approfondie et minutieuse de la gestuelle peut affiner notre compréhension d’un large pan de l’art des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. L’auteur démontre que cette hexis corporelle contemporaine transcende tous les domaines concernés par le corps noble (éducation, théâtre, danse, opéra, arts martiaux, etc.) et en vient à infiltrer la majorité des genres picturaux, bousculant les traditions artistiques déjà en place et s’affichant comme une alternative moderne à la grâce des Anciens. Le portrait, la gravure de mode, les figurines de porcelaine, les vues de villes et de jardins sont les plus touchés par ce phénomène. La bonne grâce s’affirme ainsi dans une culture visuelle qui, par ricochet, en vient à renforcer les pratiques sociales dont elle était le reflet. Cet aller-retour des attitudes aristocratiques entre l’art et la vie occasionne la standardisation de la figure et du corps aristocratiques. Dans la pastorale, la peinture d’histoire et la scène de genre, l’idéal aristocratique se manifeste, tantôt en négatif dans la figure du paysan, du Pierrot et de l’Arlequin, tantôt de manière idéalisée dans celles du berger et du héros galants. La substitution de gestes emphatiques et d’expressions faciales explicites par une gestuelle fondée sur la retenue et la dissimulation des passions, fondera une nouvelle historia moins lisible que la traditionnelle, mais plus subtile et insinuée, répondant ainsi mieux au goût et à la sensibilité aristocratique. / This thesis concerns the characteristic gestures and attitudes of the aristocratic figure in European art between 1661 and 1789. This period corresponds to the lifetime of a noble bodily ideal named “le bon air” and “la bonne grâce”, from its formulation at Louis XIV’s court and hegemonic propagation until its decline with the French Revolution. A panoply of means (exercises, orthopaedic instruments…) have been invented by the Ancien Régime society to embody a grace that should appear inborn and testify to noble birth. The dancing-master enjoyed the monopoly of inculcating this grace and elaborating it in accordance with highly aesthetic criteria. Most of the bon air and bonne grâce gestures and postures are here catalogued, described and associated with their original connotative values, showing that a deep and meticulous knowledge of body techniques can sharpen our understanding of a great proportion of Early Modern artworks. The author agues that this bodily habitus transcended every field concerned with the noble body (education, theatre, dance, opera, martial arts…) and came to infiltrate most pictorial genres, challenging age-old artistic traditions and imposing itself as a modern alternative to the grace of the Ancients. Portraiture, fashion plates, porcelain figurines, city and garden landscapes were the most affected by this phenomenon. Bonne grâce thus affirmed itself in a visual culture, which in return reinforced the very social practices that mirrored. The circular migration of aristocratic gestures between life and art caused a standardisation of both aristocratic body and figure. Within pastoral, history painting and genre scenes, the aristocratic ideal reveals itself antithetically in the figure of the peasant, the Pierrot and the Harlequin, and idealistically in those of the gallant shepherd and gallant hero. The substitution of emphatic gestures and strong facial expressions for ones based on restraint and dissimulation gave birth to a new historia that was less legible, but more subtle and suggestive, in accordance with aristocratic taste and sensibility.