Agostinho Fortes was the first Professor of History at the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Humanities (Faculdade de Letras, FLUL) to have himself taken Humanities at university level. He entered the Humanities Course (Curso Superior de Letras, CSL) in 1888/89, studying under Teófilo Braga and Zófimo Consiglieri Pedroso, who were to strongly influence the way in which his thinking was constructed. At the same time he worked as a journalist – a profession he was to pursue for the rest of his life.

In 1904, A.F. applied for a teaching post on his former course, but the appointment went to Manuel de Oliveira Ramos, with whom he was to work later on. When Consiglieri Pedroso died and Ramos moved across to the History of Portugal, A.F. was invited to take up the vacant place in General History – a controversial decision that led others who applied for the post in the same year to ask for the appointment process to be repeated. In 1911, he became a full member of the FLUL staff, as Extraordinary Professor. His teaching output over the course of a career that lasted roughly thirty years was exceptional, covering more than twenty subjects from four different groups (the only ones he never taught were Germanic Philology and Geography). He was also reappointed Faculty Secretary – a post he had already held during the time of the CSL – for successive terms (1911-1929), before finally becoming Director of the Faculty of Humanities (1931-1933).

A.F.’s political activities were always characterised by his support for the struggle for republicanism, and he was a town councillor during the ‘first republican local authority government’ of Lisbon Municipal Authority (CML, 1908). He also became a Mason. Under the Republic itself he was a Senator (1915-1919), and Mayor of Oeiras. In 1919, he joined the Portuguese Socialist Party (PSP). Despite his former ties to Portuguese republicanism and socialism, he retained his faculty job and even his position on the FLUL governing board after the New State regime came to power. He founded the Paiã Agricultural School (EAP), the Estefânia School (EE) and the National Education Library (BEN) collection, all with a view to promoting knowledge about Portuguese history and mankind’s civilizational evolution among the less well educated segments of the population. His public work was guided by the desire to spread knowledge more widely and educate. He founded the newspaper A Reforma Social (1910), the Alentejan League (LA) and the Alentejan Club (Grémio Alentejano). He translated countless books, such as those by Vicente Blasco Ibañez and a variety of contemporary thinkers (Le Bon, Nordau, Novicow). The publications to which he contributed particularly included Anais da Academia de Estudos Livres (Universidade Popular) – behind which he was one of the driving forces – Revista de Assistência, Revista Pedagógica and A Tutoria. From 1912 onwards he dedicated himself to the Free University in Lisbon (ULL), where he was to give various conferences.

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