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The 19th Century and Its Precursors
The origins of regional studies and the interest in local history can be traced back to the 16th century. Noteworthy examples include Saudades da Terra [Longing for Home] by Gaspar Frutuoso, Descrição da cidade de Lisboa [Description of the City of Lisbon]by Damião de Góis, and História da Antiguidade da cidade de Évora [History of the Antiquity of the City of Évora] by André de Resende. However, it was during the 18th century, under the influence of the development of academies, that the study of regions and localities began to gain momentum. This burgeoning interest was driven by both political and cultural factors. Politically, the need to understand the territory and its people was essential for the modern state to establish itself and operate across the entire country, which led to the development of chorographies, topographies, "statecraft", descriptions, and memoirs that facilitated an understanding of the kingdom. Culturally, the humanist and Enlightenment contexts sparked a renewed interest in advancing knowledge across various fields, particularly those concerning the life of nations and their diverse parts, their past, and their origins. Thus, the Royal Academy of History (1720) sponsored several topographies and at least one work, História de Santarem [History of Santarém] by Ignacio da Piedade e Vasconcelos (1740, 2 volumes). The Royal Academy of Sciences (1779) also included the different regions and lands of Portugal in its published economic, agricultural, and historical memoirs.
In the early 19th century, despite the particularly challenging context marked by the French invasions and civil wars, chorographic, statistical, and topographic approaches had a significant role in the framework of regional studies, a trend that continued throughout the century. Examples of such studies include Joaquim Baptista's Memoria estadistica sobre o concelho de Lafões [Statecraft Report on the Municipality of Lafões](1823) and João Baptista da Silva Lopes’ Corografia ou memoria economica, estatistica, e topografica do reino do Algarve [Chorography, or Economic, Statistical, and Topographical Memoir of the Kingdom of the Algarve] (1841). Over time, history and geography began to permeate these studies, enriching them with new elements. A notable example is the work of Henriques Seco, a professor at the University of Coimbra, titled Memoria historico-chorographica dos diversos concelhos do districto administrativo de Coimbra [Historical and Chorographical Memoir of the Various Municipalities of the Administrative District of Coimbra] (1853).
