Abstract
The religious and medical concepts about gluttony and also about its effects are still under explored by Portuguese-Brazilian historiography that has focused on aspects such as consumption, restriction and interdiction of certain foods and drinks, as well as on prescriptions and the promotion of cures through mixtures of elements of vegetal and animal origins. In this article, we consider discourses produced about gluttony disclosed in religious manuals and medical treaties in the 18th century, detaining ourselves on the different understandings that their authors had of this “deadly sin” and the approximations and distinctions between their perceptions of the effects of alimentary excess for the body as well as for the soul. To this end, we analyse five religious books and four medical books, not necessarily written by Portuguese authors, that circulated in Portugal throughout the 18th century. With a historical-cultural approach, we seek to comprehend the cultural significance attributed to gluttony in a social universe collectively marked by strong Catholic belief and by Hippocratic-Galenic medical concepts, concluding that the understanding regarding unrestrained eating pointed to medical interests in the reaffirmation of their knowledge about health and disease and religious interests in the reinvigoration of a faith capable of indicating harm and paths to salvation.
Keywords:
gluttony; religious literature; medical treaties