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U.Porto Memory

Teachers and students of the first Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto

Torquato Brochado de Sousa Soares

	1903-1988 University Teacher and Medieval Historian

He was born in Porto on 7 March 1903, completed his high school education in 1920 at the Rodrigues de Freitas High School, and then enrolled in Historical-Geographical Sciences at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra. One year later, he asked to be transferred to an equivalent course at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto, having completed his degree with a final mark of 19 out of 20 on 5 November 1924.

On 5 March 1927, he was appointed Assistant to the Historical Sciences Group (4^th Group) at that Faculty, and took up office on the 25^th, a post which was renewed annually until the extinction of the Faculty was announced by Decree 15 365, of 12 April 1928. The following academic year, he taught at both Alexandre Herculano and Rodrigues de Freitas High Schools, in Porto, and because the Faculty was still open so that students could complete their degrees, he was hired as Assistant Professor of the 4^th Group, a position he held until the end of the academic year 1929-1930. While he was at the Faculty of Arts of Porto, he held the chairs of History of the Discoveries and Portuguese Colonization, History Education, Palaeography and Diplomatics.

After completing his academic career at the University of Porto, Torquato de Sousa Soares continued to prepare his PhD at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra, and obtained the status of scholarship student from the Institute for Advanced Culture, by appointment of Professors Paulo Merêa and Damião Peres. Between 1934 and 1937, he travelled to Spain and Belgium to research and compile documentation from various medieval archives about the political and municipal organization of medieval Portugal. In 1935, he presented the dissertation entitled "Organização Municipal da cidade do Porto durante a Idade Média" [Municipal Organization of the City of Porto in the Middle Ages], and obtained the degree of Doctor in Historical Sciences.

In 1937, he sat the public exams for the position of Assistant Professor of the 4^th Group at the Faculty of Arts of Coimbra, where he pursued his career as teacher and historian, being responsible for the chairs of Medieval History, General History of Civilization, Palaeography and Diplomatics, History of Portugal, History of the Discoveries and Portuguese Colonization, General History of Civilization, History of Roman Civilization, Archaeology and Epigraphy [the study of inscriptions]. At the Institute of Historical Studies of the Faculty of Arts of Coimbra, he founded and organized the "Revista Portuguesa de História" [Portuguese Journal of History] (1941) and an archive with the reproduction of medieval documents kept in Portuguese and foreign archives.

The recognition of his scientific merit earned him invitations to conduct courses and give conferences at universities in Spain and Brazil in the following years. Between 1957 and 1958, he held the post of Professor of History of Iberian Civilization at the University of S. Paulo, at the invitation of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Arts. He was a member of the Portuguese Academy of History, the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, the Geography Society of Lisbon, the Royal Academy of History of Madrid and the Royal Academy of Galicia. He participated in several congresses, such as the International Congress of History of Art (1949), the Luso-Spanish Congresses for the Advancement of Sciences (1950, 1956), the 4^th Congress of National History (Rio de Janeiro, 1949), the 9^th International Congress of Historical Sciences (Paris, 1950), the 10^th Congress of Historical Sciences (Roma, 1955), among others. As a lecturer, he was a member of the Centre for Humanistic Studies, linked to the University of Porto, the forerunner of the 2^nd Faculty of Arts.

In 1962, he sat the exams for the position of Tenured Professor at the University of Coimbra, and presented the dissertation "Reflexões sobre a origem e formação de Portugal" [Reflections on the origin and formation of Portugal], followed by the public exams for the position of Full Professor in Historical Sciences, with the lecture "Antecedentes da Crise de 1580" [Background events of the 1580 Crisis]. His work "Reflexões sobre a origem e a formação de Portugal" earned him the Ocidente Award in 1964 for the best written work in prose.

Between 1965 and 1970, after being sent on a service commission, he worked as Full Professor at the General University Studies of Luanda (later known as the University of Luanda, in 1968), as the delegate of the Rector, and founded the magazine "Estudos de Humanidades" [Humanity Studies]. He returned to Portugal and continued his academic career at the University of Coimbra, where he taught History of the Middle Ages and Medieval History of Portugal, and directed the University Archive. He retired in 1973.

He continued to dedicate his life to research and to managing his farming estate Casa do Marmoiral, in Vila Meã, Amarante, where he died on 10 December 1988.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2008)