António Sérgio replied (Paris, 1932) in a text later published in Volume IV of his Essays. While never expressly naming his critic, Sérgio accused him of being a reactionary making allegations lacking any historical basis, relying on declarations of principle about the way in which interpretive ideas about reality were formulated. At the time the matter rested there, in the absence of any response by Mário de Albuquerque. The intrinsic value of the latter’s objections was quickly forgotten, extinguished by the habitual reach of Sérgio’s positions amongst intellectuals and academics.

Outstanding amongst his theses were those on the history of Portugal, such as O claro génio lusíada and O mito da decadência, both for their critical elements and their innovative characteristics, contributing to a full anthropological definition of the Portuguese, and demolishing preconceptions about the “false idea of Portuguese decadence”. In his essay on O Simbolismo do Escudo Nacional he put forward original interpretive ideas. In the remaining theses, O Falso Helenismo da Renascença, A Renovação Científica do Século XVI and As linhas Políticas da Arquitectura, we find the same concern with defining concepts and questioning received ideas, an approach that informs the whole of his activity as a university lecturer.

Just a few months after receiving his doctorate, on 29 April 1931, he gained the state teaching diploma (fifth group) from the Liceu Pedro Nunes, with 16 marks out of 20. His move into secondary school teaching, however, was brief, with a year as an associate teacher in the Liceu Sá da Bandeira (Santarém), and the Liceu Passos Manuel (Lisbon). The retirement of Francisco de Paulo Reis Santos allowed him to obtain a position as an interim assistant lecturer in the Lisbon Faculty of Letters (15 November 1932) teaching the course in General History of Civilization and practical research, which post he held until 1947.

A few months earlier, in Almada, on 18 June 1932, he had married D. Maria Manuela Joana Ferreira Côrte-Real de Albuquerque, with whom he had five children. Their two boys, Rui and Martim, took degrees and doctorates in law, devoting themselves to history as teachers and researchers in the historical-juridical sciences section of the Faculty of Law, in Lisbon.

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