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THE TEAM
CONTACT
The spirit of this new generation clearly stood in stark contrast with that of the much older full members of the class of moral sciences and fine arts, such as Tomás António de Vila Nova Portugal, Francisco Recreio, and even José Liberato—intellectuals with very different doctrinal orientations, which is symptomatic of a particular intention within the ACL to fuse conflicting ideological positions rather than to bring together academic figures attuned to new ideas. By failing to assimilate these values, with their overflowing energy and new visions, the class and the ACL distanced themselves dangerously from the new era. They were unable to influence it or to create a platform where old and new historiographical references and scholars could learn from one another and develop new historical languages and tools. Although military peace had been restored (there were no longer political assassinations or acts of political guerrilla warfare, as in the 1830s), prior to Herculano (with the sole exception of the Viscount of Santarém in 1821-22, and only in relation to diplomatic documents), a resurgence was not observed in the search for unpublished sources by civil and ecclesiastical archives across the kingdom, as had happened between 1788 and 1794. The aula de diplomática [Diplomatics discipline], that long-standing project of Fr. Manuel do Cenáculo, brought to life with remarkable dynamism by João Pedro Ribeiro, was not producing enough students to generate a collective demand for historical documents, as was the case with the École des Chartes in France (with the publication of the Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes). The Colecção de Livros Inéditos [Unpublished Books Collection] (1790-1824), like other historical collections of the ACL, did not maintain a pace of publication comparable to that of its French counterpart, which continued to publish new volumes every year. The history and publication commissions for the traditional Portuguese courts, the only noteworthy ones in the class of Portuguese literature/moral sciences and fine arts from the 1810s to the 1840s, consisted of very few members—the same members were always involved, and there was no logical renewal of these groups with younger individuals properly trained in palaeographic studies.
