What was the importance of encouraging writing in the context of Jesuit missionary duties during the early days of colonial Brazil? The descriptive-narrative record of nature and of men (Indians, blacks and whites) that were subject to (re)Christianization, became mandatory (quarterly and then yearly) for all officers of the "Society". The most concerned writers left letters of a narrative nature, while the most contemplative and curious of them described landscapes, plants, animals and men with great pre-scientific interest. Having become the "Language of Empire", Portuguese was, however, insufficient for missionary activity, and the "Brazilian language" was studied and annotated, promoted as the "language of culture". Internally, to the Jesuits, writing was a way of representing the "Companion" (overcoming homesickness) and thus contributing to the formation of a mystical (institutional) body that went beyond the Portuguese Empire and reinforced the Christian Republic.
Language of the Empire; language of culture; annual letters; pre-scientific legacy