/ Projects

Coimbra Institute Project

Between July 2008 and June 2014, as part of its activities to support teaching and research, the General Library developed the Coimbra Institute Project, whose objectives were:

The production of a digital edition of O Instituto: Revista Científica e Literária (1852-1981) and the developmentan of an innovative full-text search tool for the General Library Digital collection, which enables the downloading of articles and the retrieving of information by author, title, and meaningful word;
The cataloguing of the Institute's library and archival collection;
Supporting new research work on the history of this scientific and literary academy.

The project was fully funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) by means of two Science and Technology Management fellowships and one Research fellowship.

The cataloging of the library was not completed within the scope of this project.

History

Founded in 1852, the Coimbra Institute was one of the prestigious national academies, whose objectives were enshrined in the first draft of its Statutes: to develop the Sciences, Letters and Arts. It was organized into three Classes – Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Moral and Social Sciences, Literature and Fine Arts – and it published its own journal, O Instituto (1852-1981), which in its 141 volumes brings together more than 5,000 scientific and literary articles.

This academy is strongly linked to the history of education in Portugal, in such a way that, by decree of 1853, its journal obtained royal funding in exchange for the publication on its pages of official documents from the Higher Council of Public Instruction. In this context, the Institute took the initiative of organizing popular courses – where, among others, Afonso Costa and Bernardino Machado taught –, as well as hosting numerous conferences.

Among its many activities, the archaeological exploration of the Conímbriga Ruins deserves special mention. The Institute thus brought together a valuable collection of objects from the past, which later gave rise to the Machado de Castro National Museum.

Its members included nationally and internationally renowned figures such as António Feliciano de Castilho, Alexandre Herculano, Júlio de Castilho, Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos, Júlio Henriques, Ricardo Jorge, Joaquim de Carvalho, Egas Moniz, Eugénio de Castro, Sousa Viterbo, Alfred Baudrillart, D. Carlos I, Raymond Poincaré, Miguel de Unamuno, Anselmo Ferraz de Carvalho or Luís de Albuquerque.

Collection

Library

The Coimbra Institute's documentary collection was incorporated into the BGUC in October 2005.

It is mostly made up of monographs and periodical publications, the latter being the most significant, representing close to 70% of the collection.

The large number of periodicals is mainly due to the exchange of publications that was established very early on between the scientific and literary academy of Coimbra and other national and foreign institutions. Titles such as Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia, Brotéria, Seara Nova, Bulletin of the New York Public Library, Smithsonian Year and Revue des Deux Mondes, among others, stand out in bibliometric terms.

Around 28% of the collection is made up of monographs. Of this segment, the highlights are the reprints of articles published in the journal O Instituto, academic dissertations presented in several universities, works offered by the partners of the Coimbra Institute and even a small set of old books.

Archive

The archival collection is made up of 93 boxes of documents dated between 1851 and 1999, which contain books, bundles, catalogues, booklets, printed documents, photographs, receipts and files. This collection includes minutes of meetings of the Management, General Assembly and Classes; Library, membership and accounting records; miscellaneous correspondence; files of members, subscribers and journal exchange; registration of enrollments in courses for the general public; proposals from partners; photographs and other separate documents.

The archive contains the subarchives of Academia Dramática, Club Académico, Júlio de Castilho, Associação Portuguesa para o Progresso das Ciências and the Coimbra District Council of the Portugal/RDA Association, consisting of member registration forms, publicity of activities, expense documents and correspondence.

The description of the archive is available in the Archeevo system of the University of Coimbra Archive at the following URL.

The archive can be consulted in the Restricted Access Items Reading Room and is subject to the BGUC document reproduction regulations.