Glory and mission: a comparative study between the Portuguese writings Os Lusíadas and Dialogue on the conversion of the gentile

Abstract

This study examines the representations of the Other in two central texts within the framework of Portuguese maritime enterprises and conquests in the sixteenth century: Os Lusíadas, by Luís de Camões, and Diálogo sobre a Conversão do Gentio, by Manuel da Nóbrega. Although distinct in their genres — epic and dialogical — both works converge on a broader purpose: the validation of Portuguese supremacy from a providentialist perspective. In Camões’s poem, the celebration of maritime expansion is figuratively exalted, whereas in Nóbrega’s dialogue the focus falls upon the practical and spiritual challenges of the evangelizing mission. Through a rhetorical-poetic analysis, this article explores the differences and intersections of these works, with particular attention to the characterization of the Other and to the theological foundations that justify the Portuguese civilizing mission. It concludes that, despite their formal differences, the texts share a providentialist outlook that underlies both the spiritual and territorial mission of sixteenth-century Portugal.