Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Vitorino Magalhães Godinho and the Annales School: history as a way of thinking

2011; Volume: 9; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

1645-6432

José Luís Cardoso,

History of Colonial Brazil

Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho (1918-2011) was one of the leading Portuguese historians of the 20th century. His books and essays, his devotion to the teaching profession and his civic activities, the influence that he left on many of his disciples and followers – both in Portugal and in Brazil – are lasting marks of a life that was dedicated to thinking and writing about Portugal, the Portuguese, their history and their coming into being as a nation. Students of his work have available to them the vast legacy of his writings, which cover a wide and diversified range of subjects: from the theory and methodology of history and the social sciences to the history of the Portuguese expansion and the discoveries; from the dissemination and analysis of sources to his essays speculating on the problems faced by Portugal as an Atlantic, Iberian and European country. Among the many tributes that have already been paid to his work, special mention should be made of the book Estudos e Ensaios (1988), published on the occasion of his retirement from the New University of Lisbon, which is a collection of papers written by some of the most prominent disciples and admirers of the historian’s profession that Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho had served for so long. More recently, there was also the special issue of the journal Arquivos do Centro Cultural Calouste Gulbenkian (2005), which was a collection of the papers presented at a conference held in his honor. Also worthy of mention is the special issue of the journal Review, Fernand Braudel Center (2005), in which it is expressly regretted that, because of language barriers, the work of Magalhaes Godinho is so little known among Anglo-Saxon historioans. In fact, this is a serious impediment to a wider dissemination and sharing of his work by modern international historiography, which is why it is always worth talking about his work when addressing a broader linguistic universe.