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In Subsídios para a bibliografia da história Local portuguesa [Contributions for the bibliography of Portuguese local history] (1933), A. Mesquita de Figueiredo, the National Library archivist, organises the presentation of publications into six provinces: Entre-Douro-e-Minho, Trás-os-Montes, Beiras, Estremadura, Alentejo, and Algarve. The archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira were excluded from project. Within each province, he presents the “local monographs” in alphabetical order of the towns. It is no coincidence that this work is organised in such a manner. The previous counterpart, written by Brito Aranha for the Paris exhibition in 1900, offers a more descriptive presentation, referencing cities, towns, and places, as well as monuments, institutions, customs, and traditions, etc. In this context, some publications referring to particular provinces are mentioned, and those of the Algarve and Alentejo immediately stand out. The provinces are not forgotten, but they do not structure the work's presentation. A change occurred in the meantime with the emergence of regionalism in the political and cultural debate, especially in the 1920s and 1930s. However, the province did not have great political and administrative influence and, from the point of view of historiographical production, the bulk of what scholars produced was more local than regional. As noted by L. Fernández Prieto, “o espazo de análise histórica é sempre um território para a lexitimación: local, comarcal, rexional, nacional, estatal, europeo…” ("Historia local, nacional e transnacional" In Maia. História Regional e local, 1999, p. 102). As entities without an established political-administrative expression across Portugal, the provinces failed to capture the attention that was instead directed to municipalities and municipalism. This tradition dates back to A. Herculano himself, as is well known. In the archipelagos, it was the island that garnered the interest of most scholars, although the municipalities and other administrative divisions were not ignored. Meanwhile, the district, an administrative division created in 1835, did not excite much enthusiasm from researchers either, being generally considered an artificial administrative unit—more an extension of central power in the regions than a reality with meaning for the identification of the populations. Finally, at the base of the spatial scale are the smallest territories: parishes (later referred to as freguesias), cities, towns, and places. The local refers to a delimited part of a larger territory that must be constructed as an object of study. The same may be said of other scales of spatial analysis, whose historical-cultural significance naturally depends on emotional factors and affective ties woven through relationships with that territory and its people. For obvious reasons, most studies refer to lived spaces, spaces of sociability and proximity between populations who have their roots and experiences in them. This explains why, in this historiographical genre, curiosity seekers, amateurs and members of the local cultural elites who distinguished themselves in the public life of their regions and localities played a very important role.
