Peoples living on the shores of the South Atlantic during the first sixty years of the seventeenth century were confronted with challenges imposed by colonial occupation, disputes between empires and continuous warfare. While the future of the Dutch and Portuguese empires was being decided with unparalleled violence, common people faced daily challenges to survive institutional and political interests beyond their control. This book takes the perspective of individuals, families and groups of interest in their daily strive to survive a European pursuit of empire. Contributors are: Catia Antunes, Francisco Bethencourt, Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, Jose Manuel Santos-Perez, Marco Antonio Nunes da Silva, Bruno Romero Ferreira Miranda, Anne B. McGinness, Thiago Nascimento Krause, Christopher Ebert, and Amelia Polonia.

The Accademia Pontaniana: A Model of a Humanist Network is an exploration of the vast intellectual networks which developed around the fifteenth century humanist Pontano. It includes the densely knit network which emerged in Naples, the Accademia Pontaniana, as well as the loosely knit networks which developed between the members of this academy and other humanists and academies outside of Naples. Shulamit Furstenberg-Levi points to the links between the Accademia Pontaniana and other sodalities in Southern Italy, and to the lineage between fifteenth century informal academies and sixteenth century institutional Academies. In this study recent sociological theory is applied to understand Renaissance academies and the vertical and horizontal links between them.