Historian José Mattoso (1933-2023) will be the focus of a bibliographical exhibition at the National Library of Portugal (BNP), in Lisbon, from July 10, which will showcase the most important milestones in his work.
The “astonishing reality” of History – that’s what the exhibition is called – is free to enter and covers his entire career, from his degree and doctoral theses to the last publications published while he was still alive, announces the BNP on its website.
José Mattoso presented his academic theses at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, specifically his degree thesis on “L’Abbaye de Pendorada des Origines à 1160” (in 1960), and his doctorate thesis on “Le Monachisme Ibérique et Cluny. Les Monastères de la Diocèse de Porto de l’An Mille à 1200” (in 1966).
These are just two of the milestones in the work of this historian, a key figure in the renewal of Portuguese historiography in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of this century, which will be on display in the BNP’s Reference Room until October 12.
In addition to Medieval History, the exhibition also includes works reflecting on the discipline he cultivated, such as the collections “The Writing of History. Theory and Methods” (1988) and “Contemplative History. Essay” (2020).
The exhibition reserves a section for Archivistics, an area to which José Mattoso also paid great attention, especially as president of the Portuguese Institute of Archives (1988-1990), director of the Institute of National Archives/Torre do Tombo (1996-1998) and in his work during his stay in East Timor, with a view to setting up that country’s National Archives.
A renowned medievalist, it is practically unanimous to consider that there is a before and after to his work on the formation of the Portuguese kingdom, on the Social, Political, Cultural and Religious History of Portugal in the Middle Ages, says the BNP.
In books such as “Rich Men, Infants and Knights. A Nobreza Medieval Portuguesa nos Séculos XI e XII” (1982) or in the various chapters of “História de Portugal” (History of Portugal) that he directed for Círculo de Leitores (1992), the author presents a general review of the process of formation and consolidation of the kingdom of Portugal as an independent political entity, at the western end of medieval Hispania.
The BNP recalls that the importance of his work – as a researcher and professor at the Faculty of Letters of Lisbon and the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the New University of Lisbon – was recognized with the award of numerous scientific and cultural distinctions, including the first Pessoa Prize in 1987.
José Mattoso died a year ago, on July 8, 2023, at the age of 90. Born in Leiria in 1933, José João da Conceição Gonçalves Mattoso lived in the monastery of Singeverga, in Santo Tirso, as a Benedictine monk, for 20 years, and was also in Belgium, where he obtained a doctorate in History from the Catholic University of Louvain. After his doctorate, he began studying the religious orders in Portugal between the 6th and 15th centuries and the aristocracy of the 10th to 13th centuries.
Author of more than 30 works (some in collaboration), he renewed his interest in the study of the Portuguese Middle Ages, an area in which he published most of his work, namely “Identification of a Country” (1985), which presented new lines of research on this period.
