Lindley Cintra graduated with his thesis O ritmo na poesia de António Nobre [ Rhythm in the P oetry of António Nobre), which, although remembered by the author himself as a pre-structuralist study, nevertheless contained a recognised historical component: “ The fact that most poems in Só […] are dated has allowed me to link the study of the verses themselves to the history of how they are employed” [Cintra 2002: 30]. Then, the romantic allure that the Middle Ages exerted on him and the attraction of making critical editions contributed to the decision to study the General Chronicle of Spain with the aim of carrying out linguistic research.

In addition, the choice of this subject for his doctorate was conditioned by a déjà vu effect following what made him choose the Romance Philology degree – the profusion of lecturers and researchers in the field of literature and the relative scarcity in the field of linguistics [org. Faria 1999: 38-39].

Having started out as a project to edit and carry out a linguistic study of the manuscript from the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa [ Academy of Sciences of Lisbon] of the Crónica Geral de Espanha [ General Chronicle of Spain ] , the result ended up being, as expected, an edition of the text (still unexcelled to this day) and, unforeseen, a history of the origins of Portuguese medieval historiography, carried out under the guidance of Ramón Menéndez Pidal. At the age of 23, Cintra published the first work at this stage of his academic career, “ Sobre o Sumário de Crónicas até ao ano de 1368 da Biblioteca Real de Madrid ” [ On the Summary of Chronicles up to the Year 1368 from the Royal Library of Madrid ] , Boletim de Filologia , Lisbon, IX, 1948, p. 299-320. Here, one can already discern some of the main strands of his historical thought, which are most fully represented in his doctoral thesis. This work, initially in its original form as an academic paper and later published, is the most imposing and impactful work he left us .

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