La diffusion de la législation royale au Portugal et dans ses possessions atlantiques, 1621-1808

Abstract

This article examines the processes through which royal legislation was circulated in Portugal and across its Atlantic territories between 1621 and 1808. Based on a large selection of sources (most of them documents emanating from town councils), the article begins by analyzing the procedures for issuing royal laws followed by Crown officials in the capital. Subsequently, it focuses on the means available to royal authorities for the diffusion of legal decrees – handwritten or printed – across peninsular Portugal, the Atlantic archipelagos, Brazil, and Angola. The topics analyzed include the role of messengers in the transmission of laws; the oral proclamation of new laws and attendant practices; the impact of the printing press and the persistence of manuscript copies; and the role played by Brazil’s colonial governors in publicizing the laws sent from Lisbon. This study also takes into account the population of Amerindian and African descent living in areas under Portuguese control, and more specifically the form and extent to which these legal norms and proclamations reached them. The final part of the article is devoted to the process of registering the laws in local archives. The overall conclusion is that knowledge of royal legislation varied immensely across the Portuguese Atlantic.

Keywords

• Atlantic History
• 17th century
• portuguese empire
• legal history