This project aims to analyze the role of public rituals in the making of the early-modern Portuguese empire. Public rituals were held in cities, towns, and villages throughout the empire to celebrate a wide range of occasions, from solemn entries, royal births
and marriages to Catholic feast days. They were intended to forge or strengthen social integration, to expand political power, and to facilitate political communication. Occasionally, public rituals could also be sites of discord, expressing the tensions and
contradictions of the imperial arrangements. To explore these questions, this project will study public rituals through a comprehensive analysis of more than 1000 printed accounts (c. 30 000 pages of texts and images), displayed in a digital platform with
OCR, hosted in ICS-UL and in the Luso-Brazilian Digital Library (http://bdlb.bn.br). An exhibition, an international book, a special issue and several articles in international journals will be other outcomes.

RITUALS é financiado por fundos nacionais através da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., no âmbito do projeto “PTDC/HAR-HIS/28364/2017”