Brasile biblico

The discovery and colonization of the New World required a constant investigation process and interpretation in respect of an unknown reality that in many ways seemed to subvert the body of knowledge on which the Portuguese and Spanish culture of the time was based on. In this perspective, the auctoritas of the Holy Scriptures, that prevailed unquestioned in every field of knowledge, will be crucial in understanding the reality of the Colonial Iberia. The nakedness of Abraham, the crossing of the Red Sea, the patience of Job, the hospitality of Raab, the idolatry of Baal are just some of the biblical topoi that recur more frequently. This essay attempts to identify the function of the biblical metaphors among the chronicles of the Colonial Iberia, from the diaries of Columbus and the letter of Caminha up to works composed in the late seventeenth century. From the comparison between the Spanish and Portuguese sources of the New World will emerge shared attitudes and peculiarities.