“O demônio não é tão feio como se pinta”: representações do inferno e dos demônios na obra Desengano dos Pecadores, do padre Alexandre Perier (1724)

Abstract

Current paper investigates Christian representations of hell and the devils in the Jesuit priest Alexandre Perier´s Desengano dos Pecadores . Discourses and engravings that illustrate the book, published in Portugal in 1724, are analyzed to identify representations of the devil, associations established between sin, hell and the damnation of souls and the effects of the author´s experience who worked in the northeastern region of Brazil by the end of the 17 th century. Fourteen discourses are included, with suggestions for a virtuous and holy life.