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Religious Cultures

Featured Items

A hand-colored woodcut depicts a man with a walking stick. In the background a ship and palm trees are visible. Some text in French is visible.

Le Vrai Portrait du Juif Errant

circa 1820s
Detail from the binding of a manuscript codex shows text in Spanish "3. Soledad."

Spiritual autobiography

María de San José
1703-1710
Detail of a printed book shows title page with text in Massachuset and English.

The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

John Eliot
1661
Detail of a leaf of the Gutenberg bible printed in black and red ink shows Latin text.

The Gutenberg bible

Johann Gutenberg
1455-1456
Detail of a blockbook shows woodcut illustration of biblical scene in the garden of eden. A woman holds an apple and is talking to a large snake. Text in Latin also visible.

Biblia pauperum

1460-1470
Detail of an embroidered cloth book binding shows letters "JHS" in gold and green beads.

[Abecedario]

1813
Detail of a frontispiece shows four animals grouped between two pillars. In the background, castles sit on either side of a harbor where ships wait. Text in Latin.

Biblia Sacra Hebraice, Chaldaice, Graece, & Latine Philippi II

1573
Book bound in white silk and decorated with the coat of arms of the Portuguese family and silver and gold beads.

Diario ecclesiastico para os Bispados do Rio de Janeiro, S. Paulo, e Marianna

1808

Related

Engraving of two Nahua men speaking to one another. An angel hovers behind one of the men, preventing him from producing idolatrous speech, while the other has a snakes stemming from his mouth, which is representative of such language.
Fellow's Talk

"Brute animals" and "rational creatures": Defining humanity in the Indigenous-language vocabularies and pedagogies of New Spain

JCB Fellow Juan Cobo Betancourt views an exhibition at the John Carter Brown Library
Our Fellows

Juan Cobo Betancourt, Donald L. Saunders Fellow

November 25, 2019
image of terrestrial sphere including Africa, Asia, and the Americas

Lecture on the African-European Encounter to Kick Off New JCB Initiative (and 75th Anniversary Meeting)

August 23, 2019
cover of the book Paradis du Nouveau Monde by Nathan wachtel
Our Fellows

Fresh Ink: Paradis du Nouveau Monde by Nathan Wachtel

June 29, 2019
Image depicting an angel hovering over Mary and Jesus

Women of the Page: Convent Culture in the Early Modern Spanish World

Spring 2017
Black people work at a sugar mill with clouds and a palm tree outside

The Americas on Fire

printed title page of a religious text in Algonquian and English
Collections Up Close

A healthy conversion: John Eliot, Robert Boyle, and the Algonquians

January 1, 2019

See Also

Slavery and the Slave Trade

History of Knowledge / Intellectual History / Philosophy