Abstract

The colony of ‘France équinoxiale’ existed for only around four years (1612–15) in what is now the Brazilian state of Maranhão. Amongst the building of fortifications and looming war with the Portuguese, a group of French Capuchin friars arrived to preach to the native Tupinamba peoples, and conduct natural historical enquiries into the region’s plants, animals and insects. The results were two comprehensive travel accounts by Fr. Claude d’Abbeville and Fr. Yves d’Évreux, detailing their extensive contact with the locals, which were suppressed for political reasons by the French government in 1615. Nevertheless, the works show the influence of a tradition of Franciscan education in both natural philosophy and the teaching of religion, which, I argue, creates a direct connection between the medieval bestiary tradition and the teaching of catechism by analogy. Drawing on the work of Charlotte de Castelnau-L’Estoile and Hélène Clastres, I explore how these projects of collecting local nature and converting local peoples worked in concert to foster a localised form of theological teaching, which used native flora and fauna to explain complex theological matters.