He directed the two volumes of Os Grandes Portugueses [The Great Portuguese Individuals ], a luxury publication in which important scholars collaborated and for which he wrote, besides introductions, eight biographies, most of which revisit ing old acquaintances of his. Of an admittedly popularising nature, the small volumes of Cultura Portuguesa [Portuguese Culture] (1967-1977; 1 to 11, with Carlos Selvagem; 12, alone; 13-14, with Ruy d ’ Abreu Torres – the subsequent volumes, 15-17, due to Cidade ’ s death, are signed by Torres alone) are also biographical, since the approach to each era is the result of very small monographs, generally around kings, scholars , institutions, with the whole collection adding up to an “ introductory summary ” . He enjoyed the biographical genre just as much as he generously regarded those he wrote about. He wrote profiles of professors and honoured colleagues (Teófilo Braga, José Leite de Vasconcelos, José Maria Rodrigues, David Lopes, João da Silva Correia, Simões Neves, Luís Cardim), mostly published in the Revista da Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa . In the 1960s, Arcádia ’ s collection “ A Obra e o Homem ” [ The Work and the Man ] published volumes on Camões, Vieira, Bocage , and Antero, partly recycling previous works . It should be noted that, largely due to the division suggested by the title, these books scarcely succumb to the limitations of biography when considered as literary studies . While he was not seduced by the abstraction of structuralist analyses, he also rarely anchored his commentary on the texts outside the observation of language and the historical-cultural and sociological framework. Some interpretations are based, here and there, on the psychology of the authors, but there is never the “ biographical snooping ” that he himself advised against in Camonian studies.

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