Ao longo do século XVII, a elite política de Salvador, capital do Estado do Brasil, apropriou-se de um vocabulário social tradicional no reino, passando a se identificar como uma nobreza local e a ser reconhecida como tal. Tal processo deu-se a partir dos embates e contatos políticos com a Coroa portuguesa e seus representantes no ultramar, especialmente a partir da Restauração portuguesa de 1640.

This article shows how, throughout the seventeenth-century, the political elite of Salvador, capital of the State of Brazil, claimed the social classification common in Portugal as their own, thus representing itself as a local nobility and being recognized as such. This process took place because of the confrontations and negotiations with the Portuguese Crown and its representatives, markedly since the Portuguese Restoration of 1640.