At the Liceu Gil Vicente in Lisbon, he joined an impressive group of colleagues who had been chosen to teach at the new Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto, founded by Leonardo Coimbra in 1919. The same happened to Damião Peres. Aware of the didactic needs of secondary education he had published textbooks in collaboration with Manuel Paulo Merêa (1921) and F. J. Cardoso Júnior (1923). A notable orator – whose lectures inspired his students – he had a great impact on the teaching of History in the Faculty of Letters in Porto. He founded and edited the Revista de História da Faculdade de Letras do Porto, 1925-1927 (the first history journal of a Portuguese university) in which articles appeared that would later be collected in one volume entitled Estudos de História (Studies of History, 1926) together with texts on Indo-Portuguese coins in the Municipal Museum of Porto (whose catalogue he had written). He was also Director of the Historical Archive of the City of Porto (1925-1927).

Right from his very first writings, his fondness for topics related to the history of the Discoveries and the Portuguese expansion was evident and he presented new data that was the result of research carried out in the Municipal Historical Archive in Funchal. His liking for numismatics, a field in which he was recognised as an expert, also revealed itself early on.

In 1928 he brought out 1580. O governo do Prior do Crato (1580. The government of Prior do Crato), a small book supported by solid documentary evidence that shows us he was familiar with a variety of archives (Torre do Tombo, the Academy of Sciences, the Municipal Council of Porto and Simancas). Damião Peres reconstituted, virtually day by day, D. António Prior do Crato’s government from his acclamation in Santarém on June 19 to his exile from the north of Portugal, some time after October 1580. The poor conduct of the rulers to whom D. Henrique had entrusted the regency while the Duke of Alba was advancing with his troops is described but, curiously, little is said of D. Álvaro de Bazan, the future Marquis of Santa Cruz, despite the importance of his galleys in this conflict. The author reviews those moments when D. António tries to establish his precarious royal claim by giving favours to his supporters, his dealings with the royal exchequer (and devaluation of the currency) and his attempts to defend himself. He focuses on trying to clarify what D. António’s negotiations with Philip II were, negotiations by which he primarily sought to gain more time since it was by force of arms that Portugal capitulated and had to surrender to the Austrian in Madrid.

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