From his collected historical research, it is apparent that António Vasconcelos inherited much from the Coimbra archaeologists, historians and antiquarians who had come before him and who focused on items of local history. In 1939, Octaviano de Sá, hailing the appearance of the first volume of Escritos vários (Various Writings), recognizes his authority “in everything that represents erudition and precise knowledge of our city’s academic life, its monuments, documentaries and artists, from both the past and the present” (António de Vasconcelos, 2000, p. 524). In effect, it was in Coimbra, and about Coimbra, that António Vasconcelos wrote and researched all his life, giving birth to local history professionally and accurately described, even when nostalgia for his country’s roots led him to write a biography, albeit still a local genre, of the rebellious life and literary path of Brás Garcia Mascarenhas. According to Virgílio Correia, who also focused on local places in his Archaeology and History of Art studies in the same Faculty, all António Vasconcelos’ work “exalted in their love of the Conimbrigan annals” («Inês de Castro», O Instituto, 75, 1928, p. 642). This was the local history where there was much to improve before attempting to elevate and edify it, which had become urgent after the archives were opened to the public and the Faculty of Letters was created. António Vasconcelos made a significant contribution to this local history by tracing guidelines through religious and university representations of it, giving it unity and direction through monographs that became identity markers of the city he always loved and liked to appreciate from the site of Nossa Senhora da Esperança, the chapel from which the missionaries departed and to which the old Brazilian students returned.

As the Archdeacon of the Vouga, he was the capitular dignitary of the Sé Cathedral in Coimbra. He was a member of the Institute (Coimbra) from 1887, the Lisbon Academy of Sciences (from 1897), the Royal Academy of History (Madrid) and the Portuguese Academy of History, founded in 1937, of which he was the first president though already nearing the end of his life. To honour his scientific, literary and artistic merit, he received the insignia of the Grand Cross of the Order of Santiago da Espada in 1936.

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