François Soyer
Biographic Data
| ID | 182162 |
|---|---|
| NAME | François Soyer |
| GIVEN NAMES | François |
| FAMILY NAME | Soyer |
| SIGNATURE | SOYER F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Southampton |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1890-3043 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 17 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Tears and Contrition in Early Modern Iberian Inquisitorial Trials (1560–1610)
The History of Emotions has been establishing itself as a field of historical research since the 1980s, but, to date, almost no attempt has been made to approach the study of the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions through the history of emotions. Focusing on the period 1560–1610, which followed the conclusion of the Council of Trent, this essay endeavours to offer a preliminary analysis of Iberian inquisitorial trials for the history of emotions…
Emotions in Europe 1517–1914
From Medieval Ritual Murder to Modern Blood Libel
Emotions in Europe, 1517-1914
The Royal African
This popular pamphlet purported to give an account of the life of Prince William Ansah Sessarakoo, a noble from present day Ghana, sold into slavery between 1744 and 1748. The anonymous account is not considered accurate, but rather reflects the celebrity potential of Sessarakoo to sell products after he arrived in Britain in 1748. The story draws on a number of popular tropes of the period found in novels, newspapers and similar writings. As can…
Jews and the child murder libel in the medieval Iberian Peninsula
This article examines the history of the child murder libel – the claim that Jews abducted and murdered Christian children for religious or magical purposes – in the Iberian Peninsula before the expulsion of the Jews from the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon in 1492. After analysing the documentary evidence and the number of alleged cases from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, this article seeks to answer the following questions: Are the m…
Medieval Antisemitism?
Is it possible to talk about antisemitism in the Middle Ages before the appearance of scientific concepts of "race"? In this work, François Soyer examines the nature of medieval anti-Jewish sentiment and violence. Analysing developments in Europe between 1100 and 1500, he points to the tensions in medieval anti-Jewish thought amongst thinkers who hoped to convert Jews and blamed Talmudic scholarship for their obduracy and yet who also, conversely…
Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories in the Early Modern Iberian World
In Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories in the Early Modern Iberian World: Narratives of Fear and Hatred, François Soyer offers the first detailed historical analysis of antisemitic conspiracy theories in Spain, Portugal and their overseas colonies between 1450 and 1750. These conspiracy theories accused Jews and conversos, the descendants of medieval Jewish converts to Christianity, of deadly plots and blamed them for a range of social, religious, mi…
Admiration and Awe
As Christian conquerors from the north of the Iberian Peninsula gradually gained possession of Islamic Spain during the medieval reconquista (largely between 1085 and 1492), they not only took control of lands, cities and peoples but also came into contact with a very different architectural style. The result was a fascinating coexistence of cultural hybridity and anti-Islamic prejudice. While some Islamic buildings were torn down and replaced wi…
Moors Dressed as Moors’
On 1 January 1567, the government of King Philip II of Spain issued a decree banning the Morisco men and women living in the kingdom of Granada (the descendants of Muslims forced to convert to Christianity) from wearing ‘Moorish clothing’. The aim of the royal decree, which also targeted other Morisco cultural practices, was to help enforce the religious assimilation of those Moriscos who continued to follow the Islamic faith of their ancestors. …
The Inquisition and the Repression of Erotic and Pornographic Imagery in Early Nineteenth‐Century Madrid
This article focuses on the repression of erotic and pornographic imagery (artworks, statues and figurines) by the Inquisition in Madrid during the last six years of its existence between 1814 and 1820. This period in the Inquisition's history has tended to be overlooked and dismissed as insignificant. After tracing the history of the Spanish Inquisition's desultory attempts in earlier years to suppress sexual imagery deemed to offend public piet…
All one in Christ Jesus”? Spiritual closeness, genealogical determinism and the conversion of Jews in Alonso de Espina’s Fortalitium Fidei
Alonso de Espina’s vitriolic polemic, Fortalitium Fidei (The fortress of faith, c. 1458–1464), includes a ferocious attack upon both Jews and the descendants of converts, who were collectively accused of judaizing. This would seem to set him at odds with the Apostle Paul’s formulation in Galatians 3:28 of a powerful notion of equality between Christians that transcended ethnic divisions. Espina has become notorious among modern historians as an i…
Women, Crime, and Forgiveness in Early Modern Portugal
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Public Baptism of M uslims in Early Modern S pain and P ortugal
This article seeks to consider the role played by emotions, or rather emotional display, in the public spectacle of the conversion of infidels in early modern S pain and P ortugal. It begins with a concise examination of the ritual of public baptism, based chiefly on evidence gleaned from surviving accounts of four large ceremonies held in L isbon (1588), S eville (1625 and 1672), and B arcelona (1723), as well as two smaller public baptisms in t…
Enforcing Religious Repression in an Age of World Empires
This article highlights how the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions endeavoured to police religious orthodoxy on a global scale in an era without modern means of communication or personal identification. It examines how the inquisitors struggled to deal successfully with the high mobility of individuals who not only moved within the Spanish and Portuguese empires but also across political boundaries. The first section examines the means by which …
Manuel I of Portugal and the End of the Toleration of Islam in Castile
In 1505, King Manuel I of Portugal (1495-1521) ordered the public printing of a letter officially addressed to Pope Julius II. In the letter, the Portuguese King defended his role as a champion of Christendom and scourge of Islam in the Indian Ocean. The most remarkable claim made by Manuel in this letter was that he was directly involved in persuading the Catholic monarchs of Spain Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragón to put an end to the to…
The Inquisitorial Trial of a Cross-Dressing Lesbian
This article analyzes the inquisitorial trial of Maria Duran, a Catalan novice in the Dominican convent of Nossa Senhora do Paraíso in Portugal. Maria Duran was arrested by the Inquisition in 1741 and, after a lengthy trial, condemned in 1744 to a public lashing and exile. She was suspected of having made a pact with the Devil and was accused by many female witnesses of possessing a "secret penis" that she had allegedly used in her amorous relati…
Faith, culture and fear
In 1609, King Philip III of Spain ordered the expulsion from his kingdom of circa 300,000 Moriscos (Muslims forced to officially convert to Christianity). This expulsion marked the end, and failure, of over a century of concerted efforts by both the Spanish government and Catholic Church to assimilate this minority by destroying its culture. This article explores how the fate of the Moriscos was not inevitable but rather the result of an explosiv…
Ambiguous Gender in Early Modern Spain and Portugal
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions conducted a number of trials against individuals accused by members of their communities of being of the other gender – men accused of being women and women accused of being men – or even hermaphrodites. Using new inquisitorial sources, this study examines the complexities revolving around transgenderism and the construction of gender identity in the early mod…
Ambiguous Gender in Early Modern Spain and Portugal
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions conducted a number of trials against individuals accused by members of their communities of being of the other gender – men accused of being women and women accused of being men – or even hermaphrodites. Using new inquisitorial sources, this study examines the complexities revolving around transgenderism and the construction of gender identity in the early mod…
It is not possible to be both a Jew and a Christian’
This work analyses the previously unedited inquisitorial trial of Custodio Nunes, a converso who lived in the Portuguese town of Évora and who was put on trial for crypto-Judaism by the Portuguese Inquisition in 1604–5. Custodio Nunes was accused by the Inquisition of being a crypto-Jew, but defended himself, somewhat remarkably, by claiming that he was both a Jew and a Christian. This article will examine the manner in which the trial of Custodi…
El comercio de los esclavos musulmanes en el Portugal medieval
Actualmente existen muy pocos estudios acerca de la esclavitud musulmana en Portugal. Cuando se trata el comercio de los esclavos en la historia portuguesa, generalmente los trabajos se refieren al comercio de los esclavos africanos que los navegantes portugueses comenzaron traer de vuelta a Europa desde el año 1441 en adelante, a pesar de que desde el siglo XI existía una pobulación de esclavos musulmanes —los llamados mouros cativos—. En este a…
Muslim Slaves and Freedmen in Medieval Portugal
El estudio de la esclavitud en el Portugal medieval ha sido dominado por estudios sobre los esclavos oriundos del África subsahariana que comenzaron a ser importados en aquel reino desde 1441. La obra de A. C. de C. M. Saunders, A Social History of Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal 1441-1555 (Cambridge University Press, 1982) ha sido particularmente importante a este respecto. En contraste con esta situación, se sabe relativamente poco de los…
Faith, culture and fear
In 1609, King Philip III of Spain ordered the expulsion from his kingdom of circa 300,000 Moriscos (Muslims forced to officially convert to Christianity). This expulsion marked the end, and failure, of over a century of concerted efforts by both the Spanish government and Catholic Church to assimilate this minority by destroying its culture. This article explores how the fate of the Moriscos was not inevitable but rather the result of an explosiv…
Enforcing Religious Repression in an Age of World Empires
This article highlights how the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions endeavoured to police religious orthodoxy on a global scale in an era without modern means of communication or personal identification. It examines how the inquisitors struggled to deal successfully with the high mobility of individuals who not only moved within the Spanish and Portuguese empires but also across political boundaries. The first section examines the means by which …
Muslim Slaves and Freedmen in Medieval Portugal
El estudio de la esclavitud en el Portugal medieval ha sido dominado por estudios sobre los esclavos oriundos del África subsahariana que comenzaron a ser importados en aquel reino desde 1441. La obra de A. C. de C. M. Saunders, A Social History of Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal 1441-1555 (Cambridge University Press, 1982) ha sido particularmente importante a este respecto. En contraste con esta situación, se sabe relativamente poco de los…
Tears and Contrition in Early Modern Iberian Inquisitorial Trials (1560–1610)
The History of Emotions has been establishing itself as a field of historical research since the 1980s, but, to date, almost no attempt has been made to approach the study of the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions through the history of emotions. Focusing on the period 1560–1610, which followed the conclusion of the Council of Trent, this essay endeavours to offer a preliminary analysis of Iberian inquisitorial trials for the history of emotions…
Jews and the child murder libel in the medieval Iberian Peninsula
This article examines the history of the child murder libel – the claim that Jews abducted and murdered Christian children for religious or magical purposes – in the Iberian Peninsula before the expulsion of the Jews from the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon in 1492. After analysing the documentary evidence and the number of alleged cases from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, this article seeks to answer the following questions: Are the m…
It is not possible to be both a Jew and a Christian’
This work analyses the previously unedited inquisitorial trial of Custodio Nunes, a converso who lived in the Portuguese town of Évora and who was put on trial for crypto-Judaism by the Portuguese Inquisition in 1604–5. Custodio Nunes was accused by the Inquisition of being a crypto-Jew, but defended himself, somewhat remarkably, by claiming that he was both a Jew and a Christian. This article will examine the manner in which the trial of Custodi…
Muslim Slaves and Freedmen in Medieval Portugal
El estudio de la esclavitud en el Portugal medieval ha sido dominado por estudios sobre los esclavos oriundos del África subsahariana que comenzaron a ser importados en aquel reino desde 1441. La obra de A. C. de C. M. Saunders, A Social History of Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal 1441-1555 (Cambridge University Press, 1982) ha sido particularmente importante a este respecto. En contraste con esta situación, se sabe relativamente poco de los…
El comercio de los esclavos musulmanes en el Portugal medieval
Actualmente existen muy pocos estudios acerca de la esclavitud musulmana en Portugal. Cuando se trata el comercio de los esclavos en la historia portuguesa, generalmente los trabajos se refieren al comercio de los esclavos africanos que los navegantes portugueses comenzaron traer de vuelta a Europa desde el año 1441 en adelante, a pesar de que desde el siglo XI existía una pobulación de esclavos musulmanes —los llamados mouros cativos—. En este a…
It is not possible to be both a Jew and a Christian’
This work analyses the previously unedited inquisitorial trial of Custodio Nunes, a converso who lived in the Portuguese town of Évora and who was put on trial for crypto-Judaism by the Portuguese Inquisition in 1604–5. Custodio Nunes was accused by the Inquisition of being a crypto-Jew, but defended himself, somewhat remarkably, by claiming that he was both a Jew and a Christian. This article will examine the manner in which the trial of Custodi…
Ambiguous Gender in Early Modern Spain and Portugal
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions conducted a number of trials against individuals accused by members of their communities of being of the other gender – men accused of being women and women accused of being men – or even hermaphrodites. Using new inquisitorial sources, this study examines the complexities revolving around transgenderism and the construction of gender identity in the early mod…
Ambiguous Gender in Early Modern Spain and Portugal
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions conducted a number of trials against individuals accused by members of their communities of being of the other gender – men accused of being women and women accused of being men – or even hermaphrodites. Using new inquisitorial sources, this study examines the complexities revolving around transgenderism and the construction of gender identity in the early mod…
Faith, culture and fear
In 1609, King Philip III of Spain ordered the expulsion from his kingdom of circa 300,000 Moriscos (Muslims forced to officially convert to Christianity). This expulsion marked the end, and failure, of over a century of concerted efforts by both the Spanish government and Catholic Church to assimilate this minority by destroying its culture. This article explores how the fate of the Moriscos was not inevitable but rather the result of an explosiv…
Manuel I of Portugal and the End of the Toleration of Islam in Castile
In 1505, King Manuel I of Portugal (1495-1521) ordered the public printing of a letter officially addressed to Pope Julius II. In the letter, the Portuguese King defended his role as a champion of Christendom and scourge of Islam in the Indian Ocean. The most remarkable claim made by Manuel in this letter was that he was directly involved in persuading the Catholic monarchs of Spain Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragón to put an end to the to…
The Inquisitorial Trial of a Cross-Dressing Lesbian
This article analyzes the inquisitorial trial of Maria Duran, a Catalan novice in the Dominican convent of Nossa Senhora do Paraíso in Portugal. Maria Duran was arrested by the Inquisition in 1741 and, after a lengthy trial, condemned in 1744 to a public lashing and exile. She was suspected of having made a pact with the Devil and was accused by many female witnesses of possessing a "secret penis" that she had allegedly used in her amorous relati…
The Public Baptism of M uslims in Early Modern S pain and P ortugal
This article seeks to consider the role played by emotions, or rather emotional display, in the public spectacle of the conversion of infidels in early modern S pain and P ortugal. It begins with a concise examination of the ritual of public baptism, based chiefly on evidence gleaned from surviving accounts of four large ceremonies held in L isbon (1588), S eville (1625 and 1672), and B arcelona (1723), as well as two smaller public baptisms in t…
Enforcing Religious Repression in an Age of World Empires
This article highlights how the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions endeavoured to police religious orthodoxy on a global scale in an era without modern means of communication or personal identification. It examines how the inquisitors struggled to deal successfully with the high mobility of individuals who not only moved within the Spanish and Portuguese empires but also across political boundaries. The first section examines the means by which …
All one in Christ Jesus”? Spiritual closeness, genealogical determinism and the conversion of Jews in Alonso de Espina’s Fortalitium Fidei
Alonso de Espina’s vitriolic polemic, Fortalitium Fidei (The fortress of faith, c. 1458–1464), includes a ferocious attack upon both Jews and the descendants of converts, who were collectively accused of judaizing. This would seem to set him at odds with the Apostle Paul’s formulation in Galatians 3:28 of a powerful notion of equality between Christians that transcended ethnic divisions. Espina has become notorious among modern historians as an i…
Women, Crime, and Forgiveness in Early Modern Portugal
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Inquisition and the Repression of Erotic and Pornographic Imagery in Early Nineteenth‐Century Madrid
This article focuses on the repression of erotic and pornographic imagery (artworks, statues and figurines) by the Inquisition in Madrid during the last six years of its existence between 1814 and 1820. This period in the Inquisition's history has tended to be overlooked and dismissed as insignificant. After tracing the history of the Spanish Inquisition's desultory attempts in earlier years to suppress sexual imagery deemed to offend public piet…
Medieval Antisemitism?
Is it possible to talk about antisemitism in the Middle Ages before the appearance of scientific concepts of "race"? In this work, François Soyer examines the nature of medieval anti-Jewish sentiment and violence. Analysing developments in Europe between 1100 and 1500, he points to the tensions in medieval anti-Jewish thought amongst thinkers who hoped to convert Jews and blamed Talmudic scholarship for their obduracy and yet who also, conversely…
Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories in the Early Modern Iberian World
In Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories in the Early Modern Iberian World: Narratives of Fear and Hatred, François Soyer offers the first detailed historical analysis of antisemitic conspiracy theories in Spain, Portugal and their overseas colonies between 1450 and 1750. These conspiracy theories accused Jews and conversos, the descendants of medieval Jewish converts to Christianity, of deadly plots and blamed them for a range of social, religious, mi…
Admiration and Awe
As Christian conquerors from the north of the Iberian Peninsula gradually gained possession of Islamic Spain during the medieval reconquista (largely between 1085 and 1492), they not only took control of lands, cities and peoples but also came into contact with a very different architectural style. The result was a fascinating coexistence of cultural hybridity and anti-Islamic prejudice. While some Islamic buildings were torn down and replaced wi…
Moors Dressed as Moors’
On 1 January 1567, the government of King Philip II of Spain issued a decree banning the Morisco men and women living in the kingdom of Granada (the descendants of Muslims forced to convert to Christianity) from wearing ‘Moorish clothing’. The aim of the royal decree, which also targeted other Morisco cultural practices, was to help enforce the religious assimilation of those Moriscos who continued to follow the Islamic faith of their ancestors. …
Emotions in Europe 1517–1914
From Medieval Ritual Murder to Modern Blood Libel
Emotions in Europe, 1517-1914
The Royal African
This popular pamphlet purported to give an account of the life of Prince William Ansah Sessarakoo, a noble from present day Ghana, sold into slavery between 1744 and 1748. The anonymous account is not considered accurate, but rather reflects the celebrity potential of Sessarakoo to sell products after he arrived in Britain in 1748. The story draws on a number of popular tropes of the period found in novels, newspapers and similar writings. As can…
Jews and the child murder libel in the medieval Iberian Peninsula
This article examines the history of the child murder libel – the claim that Jews abducted and murdered Christian children for religious or magical purposes – in the Iberian Peninsula before the expulsion of the Jews from the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon in 1492. After analysing the documentary evidence and the number of alleged cases from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, this article seeks to answer the following questions: Are the m…
Tears and Contrition in Early Modern Iberian Inquisitorial Trials (1560–1610)
The History of Emotions has been establishing itself as a field of historical research since the 1980s, but, to date, almost no attempt has been made to approach the study of the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions through the history of emotions. Focusing on the period 1560–1610, which followed the conclusion of the Council of Trent, this essay endeavours to offer a preliminary analysis of Iberian inquisitorial trials for the history of emotions…
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