An accomplished palaeographer and diplomatist, he also dedicated himself to the critical editing of cartularies, censuses, chancery books, records, and obituaries, as well as many hundreds of loose Latin documents from the High Middle Ages. In this context, we must mention the Liber Fidei, the emblematic cartulary of the Cathedral of Braga, whose advanced but incomplete edition was finalised by Professor José Marques, in collaboration with Maria Teresa Nobre Veloso and Joaquim Tomás da Silva Pereira, in 2017. Another monumental and invaluable contribution to medieval Portuguese historiography is the edition of the Livro Preto da Sé de Coimbra [Black Book of the Cathedral of Coimbra], which he took on with Leontina Ventura and Maria Teresa Nobre Veloso, but which he concluded as scientific director under Manuel Augusto Rodrigues in 1999.

In co-authorship with Maria Alegria Marques, he initiated what would become one of his most challenging lines of critical editions: that of medieval records. Unfortunately, only those of Innocent III (1198-1216) have been published, totalling 228 bulls and other documents, with indexes by Marcellin Pereira. As Maria Helena da Cruz Coelho emphasises, from 1959 to 1962, he undertook an "insane task" by "going through the main Portuguese archives and the ecclesiastical archives of Astorga, Compostela, Lugo, Mondonhedo, Orense, Samora, Tui, and the Vatican Secret Archive, in order to inventory the 13th-century pontifical documents relating to Portugal" (Maria Helena da Cruz, "Doutor Cónego Avelino de Jesus da Costa. O Professor, o Mestre”, 1990, p. 314). The excellent study on the beginnings of the Portuguese royal chancellery, La Chancellerie Royale portugaise jusqu’au milieu du XIIIème siècle (1975), is indispensable and exemplary in its methodology. It is an area that many of his disciples have chosen as the subject of conferences or major works, which he has accompanied and guided with wise and rare dedication.

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