This is a study that emphasises an important figure in the administration of Portuguese America in the eighteenth century, little observed by Luso-Brazilian historiography until then: the clerk. The research addresses the definition of the position of clerk; it analyses the rituals of the office required under the maxims of the Ancien Régime and the context in which it was inserted in Portugal and Portuguese America and, finally, it reflects on the role of these individuals in municipal bureaucracies and the administrative circumstances to which they were subject. In short, this research is an adventurous introduction, and an invitation to reflect, on a topic rich in possibilities that still lacks more in-depth historiographical research.

Ariane Pereira Lima a obtenu une licence en histoire à l'Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP Franca en 2011, et a présenté sa monographie sur les commis dans l'Empire portugais au XVIIIe siècle comme travail de fin d'études, sous la direction du professeur Denise Aparecida Soares de Moura.