History of Science in Portugal: Where Do We Stand Today?
Nineteenth-century chemical laboratory, University of Lisbon (Photo courtesy P. Cintra, Museum of Science of the University of Lisbon).
As often happens in peripheral countries like Portugal, the combination of international networking and the efforts of a foreigner, in this case Aldo Mieli of Italy, led to the creation of the Portuguese Group of History of Science (Grupo Portugues de Historia das Ciencias). Formed in the early 1930s, during the dictatorial regime of Oliveira Salazar, the group was responsible for the organization of the Third International Congress for the History of Science (1934),(1) in which George Sarton, then president of the Académie Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences, delivered the inaugural speech. They launched a journal, Petrus Nonius,(2) which lasted from 1937 to 1951, the year in which the group dissolved. Eclectic in composition, the group included mostly university professors and academicians, physicians, and mathematicians, whose approach was typical of scientist-historians. Many held positions at the University of Coimbra, the oldest institution for higher education in Portugal, and some members explicitly endorsed the politics of Salazar.
A decade after the group’s disappearance, another external connection influenced the history of science in Portugal, by introducing history of science courses to undergraduate science students at the University of Coimbra. It came via the connection between mathematician-turned-historian Luís de Albuquerque, an international specialist on the history of nautical sciences, and Dutch historian of science R. Hooykaas, who played a leading role in putting the Portuguese contributions to the emergence of modern science on the international agenda of historians of science. This attempt failed due to the lack of political and financial support, and it was only in democratic Portugal, after 1974, that history of science courses were successfully introduced to science undergraduates in some Portuguese universities.(3) I profited from this happy turn of events, having attended in the late 1970s the introductory course on “History of Ideas in Physics,” delivered at the University of Lisbon by the physicist Andrade e Silva, former Ph.D. student and long-time collaborator of Louis de Broglie and an enthusiast of history of science à la Koyré.
Replica of mathematical game Ludus Regularis, 10th century.
The task fell on those who profited from these initial courses to foster the history of science at the national level, to raise it to international standards of scholarship, and to participate actively in international networks and implement undergraduate and graduate courses. But while a discipline’s consolidation is usually associated with the increasing professionalization of its practitioners, along with their internationalization, in Portugal the past 15 years reveal the cohabitation of different stages of development. Together with episodic contributions to the discipline by people marginally related to it, and the still large participation of scientist-historians (especially mathematician-historians), a steady increase of professional historians of science is taking place. By professional historians of science I mean those who hold Ph.D. degrees in the field and/or those who, irrespective of their fields of origin, publish regularly in international forums. Opposing an old trend in which the great majority of professional historians of science held a scientific undergraduate degree, some hold undergraduate degrees in history – the interface with economic history, history of culture, and history of ideas being noticeable.
At the present time, the community of Portuguese professional historians of science includes roughly 20 senior historians of science, and a few post-docs (around five, some of whom are foreigners). Senior historians of science are mostly professors affiliated with major Portuguese universities (Lisbon, Évora, Coimbra, and Aveiro), a few being researchers associated with universities, research institutes or museums of science.(4) There are around 20 Ph.D. students and an equivalent number of M.Sc. students.(5) Recently, the Portuguese government launched a program aimed at hiring junior post-docs at an international level – the history of science is already benefiting from this program.
M.Sc. students at work. Course on "Collections, Museums and History of Science"
In Portugal, scientific research is funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Foundation for Science and Technology - FCT),(6) not by university departments. At present there are three research centers on the history of science and technology accredited and funded by the FCT (two in Lisbon, one in Évora). They are evaluated periodically by an international panel and their budget depends both on the number of their Ph.D. members and on the evaluation’s grade.(7) There are two graduate programs on the history and philosophy of science, both in Lisbon (one including both a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. program, the other just a Ph.D. program). Presently, the fusion of different programs, as well as their reformulation to focus more on the history of science and technology, are under discussion.(8) Next year, a minor in history and philosophy of science (corresponding to one semester out of a three-year undergraduate degree) will be launched in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon(9) as well as an M.Sc. program in History and Heritage of Science, Technology and Innovation at the New University of Lisbon.
An on-line international journal specifically devoted to the history of science and technology (HoST) was launched in 2007,(10) the first after the short-lived attempt associated with Petrus Nonius, but there is no active scientific society.(11) A considerable number of national and international meetings have recently been organized by the Portuguese scholarly community. During 2008 Lisbon housed (or will house) the Board Games Studies Colloquium XI (April), the XXVII Symposium of the Scientific Instruments Commission (September), SHOT 50, the Society of the History of Technology Annual Meeting (October), and the HoST Annual Meeting (November), all headed locally by members of the community of historians of science (and technology).(12) Portuguese historians of science have been participating on a regular basis in international forums such as the STEP – Science and Technology in the European Periphery International Group,(13) and European networks such as “Circulation of Knowledge in Early Modern Science,” “Scientific Periodicals in Modern Europe,” and “Thesaurus - Network of Portuguese and Brazilian Museums of Science.” Additionally, there has been a concerted effort to organize exhibitions that offer history of science topics to the public at large.
The scarcity of a history of science bibliography in Portuguese libraries and the limited access to on-line journals still haunts historians of science. Added to this are difficulties in accessing many archives, which are often poorly – or not at all – organized. Small improvements include translations of recent landmark literature on history of science,(14) and publication of primary sources, both printed and manuscript.(15) The recent offer of the private library of historian of science S.G. Brush to the Center for the History of Science of the University of Lisbon, located at the Faculty of Sciences, has been a major event in the community’s life.
The community of professional historians of science covers a wide variety of thematic areas, ranging from the 16th to the 20th century. Most publish on Portuguese topics, which indicates not a lack of internationalization but a willingness to unveil and interpret many new episodes, revise received views in the few cases in which they exist, and offer case studies informed by recent mainstream historiographical trends – thus enriching international scholarship with case studies from the history of science in Portugal. They apply a broad range of methodological approaches, including essentially descriptive ones, internalist-oriented, and those more consonant with recent trends in science and technology studies, including an integrated approach to material culture and collection-based history of science. Especially important has been input from STEP. Among Portuguese STEP members, many have framed the study of science in Portugal by shifting the emphasis from transmission to appropriation, from the perspective of the center to the perspective of the periphery, and from the isolated study of the periphery to the comparative assessment of developments.(16) At this juncture and despite the small community of professional historians of science, it is not too optimistic to predict that a first preliminary overview of many episodes can be offered, answering new questions, and contributing in the not-so-distant future to a sketch of a “big picture” of the history of science in Portugal, a framework in which detailed case studies should find a place.
– by Ana Simões
Centre for the History of Science, University of Lisbon
1 Ana Simões, Ana Carneiro, Maria Paula Diogo, “Perspectives on Contemporary History of Science in Portugal,” Nuncius (forthcoming).
2 The journal’s title is the Latin version of the name of Pedro Nunes (1502-1578), the 16th-century Portuguese mathematician and chief cosmographer who fostered the move of navigation from a practical art to a scientific subject.
3 The exceptions to this trend were history of medicine courses, which were part of the curricula of students of medicine and were taught by physicians.
4 For a discussion of the community’s profile and publication patterns see the section “History of science after 1992: The very recent past” in op.cit. (1).
5 There are around 10 million inhabitants of Portugal.
6 In many ways equivalent to the French CNRS.
7 The two Lisbon centres, one of which has been directed by myself since its creation in 2003, have submitted a fusion proposal presently under evaluation, which aims at reinforcing common projects and publication patterns.
8 See http://chcul.fc.ul.pt and http://chfct.fct.unl.pt
9 The Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon is responsible for one of the M.Sc. and one of the Ph.D. programs offered. One of the FCT research centres is also located at these premises.
10 To access HoST see http://www.johost.eu
11 A Portuguese Society for the History and Philosophy of Science was founded in 1988 but its existence never went beyond the formalities of its creation.
12 See http://ludicum.org/bgs08/; http://chcul.fc.ul.pt/sic2008/index.htm; http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting.htm
13 Several Portuguese historians of science are founding members of STEP. In June its sixth meeting was held in Istanbul. Called “Looking back, stepping forward” it is mostly dedicated to scientific and technological controversies in the European Periphery. See http://chcul.fc.ul.pt/act_ii/step_2008/htm and http://www.bilimtarihi.org/step
14 I refer to the collection titled History and Philosophy of Science published by the well-known publisher Porto Editora and organized by Ana Simões and Henrique Leitão. Since 2003, 11 volumes have been published. See http://chcul.fc.ul.pt/livros/publica2.htm
15 Several projects are under way in this realm: publication of the Complete Works of Pedro Nunes with extensive critical comments; Science and Enlightenment published by Porto Editora and organized by Ana Simões, José Luís Cardoso and Francisco Contente Domingues (starting in 2003, 6 volumes came out). See http://chcul.fc.ul.pt/publica.htm; inventory, classification and critical studies of the scientific manuscripts (15th-18th centuries) held at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (National Library of Portugal); on-line availability of primary sources, either printed or manuscript. See http://chcul.fc.ul.pt/textos.htm
16 Kostas Gavroglu, Manolis Patiniotis, Faidra Papanelopoulou, Ana Simões, Ana Carneiro, Maria Paula Diogo, José Ramón Bertomeu Sánchez, Antonio García Belmar, Agustí Nieto-Galan, “Science and Technology in the European Periphery. Some historiographical reflections,” History of Science 46 (2008), 153-175, and references therein to the output of the STEP group.