A inquisição portuguesa no Rio de Janeiro: o processo por judaísmo de Isabel da Silva (1710-1716)

Abstract

This dissertation examines the inquisitorial process brought against Isabel da Silva, a New Christian woman from Rio de Janeiro accused of Judaism between 1710 and 1716, using it as a key to understanding practices of repression, surveillance, and disciplining carried out by the Inquisição Portuguesa in colonial Brazil. Anchored in the frameworks of Global and Connected History, the investigation demonstrates how Isabel’s trajectory reveals the articulation between gender, ethno-religious lineage, Atlantic circulations of knowledge, and colonial domination. Based on critical analysis of the trial records preserved at the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, the study mobilizes contributions from microhistory, intersectionality, and women’s social history to show how her position as a woman, a New Christian, and a property owner intensified inquisitorial suspicion while allowing only limited margins of agency and negotiation. The research highlights the centrality of domestic marranism and private ritual practices as forms of transmitting religious memory and resistance, revealing the household both as a site of vigilance and as a space of preservation. It also examines the legal and ritual procedures of the Santo Ofício, emphasizing the institutional production of guilt, the confessional performativity imposed on the accused, and the exemplary character of the penalties, particularly property confiscation and the 1713 auto-da-fé. By reconstructing the trajectory of Isabel da Silva, the dissertation broadens the understanding of women’s experiences under the inquisitorial regime and their insertion within the wider dynamics of the Portuguese Atlantic world.