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While Fidelino de Figueiredo (1889-1967), leading the Revista de História [History Journal](1912-28), Letras [Journal of Letters](S. Paulo, 1938-54), and the National History Society, bound nationalist historiography, he did so considering the Hispanic character (Notas para um Idearium Português [Notes for a Portuguese Ideology], 1929), a colloquy with Ganivet ((Idearium español [Spanish Ideology], 1897), to which he tried to erect the beams of the theoretical debate. Often misinterpreted (to which academic alignment, the plight of the Biblioteca Nacional, the revolt of the fifis are not unrelated), Figueiredo interpreted in the Martinian style the "regenerative heterodoxy that did not fit within the short Portuguese horizon" (As Duas Espanhas [The Two Spains], 1932; in the 1959 ed.; p. 193) in the Generation of the 70s. Attached to the "humanistic" field and the history of literature, also to the theory of history (O espírito histórico [The Historical Spirit], 1910), he aimed to found the "synthetic and philosophical spirit in historical studies" in an "interpretative organisation" (Torgal, Mendes & Catroga, História da história [History of History], 1996, pp. 227-31), from which approaches to literary history (História da crítica literária em Portugal, Estudos de Literatura [History of Literary Criticism in Portugal, Studies of Literature], 1915-1951, Depois de Eça de Queirós... [After Eça de Queirós...], Antero) and typically elitist approaches to essayism would stem, influenced by Ortega's rebellion of the masses (Menoridade da inteligência [Inferiority of Intelligence], 1932, O Dever dos intelectuais [The Duty of Intellectuals], 1935), which typifies the "predominance of the crowd, the consequent lowering of the moral and mental level of the average man, the rise of chieftains who live on these inferiorities and flatter them, and the undeniable nervous health of the multitudinous and vegetative man compared to the chosen man" (Cultura Intervalar [Interval Culture], 1944, pp. 17-18), at a time when the vox populi deafened those living in ivory towers.
