A university professor, historian, and critic of Portuguese literature, Costa Pimpão (CP) studied under renowned and influential figures in the history of Portuguese literature and culture during his degree in Romance Philology, which he completed in 1927. His teachers included Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos, Joaquim Mendes dos Remédios, António de Vasconcelos, Eugénio de Castro, and Joaquim de Carvalho. Later, after obtaining his diploma from the Escola Normal Superior in 1930, he joined the secondary school teaching profession, serving as the headmaster of the secondary schools in Funchal, Figueira da Foz, and Viseu. Except for a brief stint in France (at the University of Bordeaux) as a lecturer in Portuguese (1937–1939) and a period as a visiting professor at the Federal University of Bahia and the University of São Paulo (1954–1957), his university career was based at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra, where he worked from 1939 until his retirement in 1972. He also served as a member of the Conselho Superior do Instituto de Alta Cultura [High Council of the Institute of High Culture] (1963–1970) and as a delegate to the Câmara Corporativa [Corporative Chamber], representing the literary profession.

His research spanned the three main areas characteristic of a philologist’s work: the editing of works , textual hermeneutics, and literary historiography. Following the tradition of his predecessors, CP always upheld the principle that literary history can only be written based on meticulously edited works. It is no surprise, therefore, that he devoted a significant part of his knowledge and time to this task.

Among the various editions he prepared, his work on the writings of Luís de Camões and Gil Vicente is particularly noteworthy . Regarding the former, Rimas, Autos e Cartas [Sonnets, Plays, and Letters] were first published in 1944, compiled into a single, deluxe volume. His editorial work on Camões’s texts continued until the end of his academic career. In 1953 and 1973, after revisions, Rimas [Sonnets] were published separately, first by the Biblioteca Geral [General Library] of the University of Coimbra and later under the imprint of the Livraria Almedina . In the same year, Os Lusíadas [The Lusiads] was published in a carefully annotated edition, preceded by an extensive and comprehensive preface and enriched with a valuable index of proper names.

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