In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he launched yet another important collective project, this time funded by JNICT, entitled A Crise do Antigo Regime e as Cortes Constituintes de 1821-1822 (The Crisis of the Old Regime and the Constituent Cortes of 1821-1822), following in the footsteps of Albert Sibert’s work on the Agriculture Commission of the Cortes in Le problème agraire portugais au temps des premières “Cortès” liberàles. Its aim was to study and publish a selection of petitions sent to five other Cortes Commissions, from the Arts and Crafts Commission to the Finance and Civil Justice Commission, including the Public Health Commission. During the research, the objective was broadened to include some of the many projects and memoirs sent to the Cortes, including on constitutional matters, which provided a more complete view of the expectations and desire for participation in public life that accompanied the 1820 revolution and the meeting of the “Sovereign Congress”. This project resulted in the publication in 1992 by the CEHCP and Edições João Sá da Costa of five books, one of which was written by him.

His work and other works that followed, and above all his vast knowledge of the archives and their precarious situation and difficult access, reflected in the Roteiro das Fontes de História Contemporânea (Guide to Contemporary History Sources), as well as in her many public interventions alerting to the need for the preservation and organisation of contemporary history archives, led to her appointment as Director-General of the National Archives/Torre do Tombo, becoming the first woman in Portugal to hold this high- r position (2001-2004). Her work highlighted the importance she attached to contemporary history document collections, which are generally overshadowed by those related to modern and medieval history, and to the incorporation into the national archive of important collections that were scattered, as well as the publication of the first assessment of some of the intermediate archives of the civil service and the first digitisation plan.

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