MODERNISM ONLINE: VIRTUAL ARCHIVE OF THE ORPHEU GENERATION

This archive aims to bring together literary texts, manuscripts and documentary sources from the protagonists who are connected to «Orpheu», a short-lived magazine founded in 1915, gave birth to Modernism in Portugal.

It began in 2011 with the digitalization and cataloguing of the estate of Almada Negreiros and Sarah Affonso. Since 2014 it has included a project to digitalize the literary and artistic modernist journals published in Portugal, and in 2016 a digital edition of texts of literary theory written by Fernando Pessoa and held in his estate in the National Library of Portugal.

 

ALMADA NEGREIROS AND SARAH AFFONSO ARCHIVE

2001-2006

Research into the Almada Negreiros and Sarah Affonso estate began on the initiative of Luis Manuel Gaspar, who was working on the publication of Almada Negreiros' literary work by the Assírio e Alvim publishing house (an editorial team consisting of Fernando Cabral Martins, Luis Manuel Gaspar and Mariana Pinto dos Santos).

Based on the work of Luis Manuel Gaspar and Mariana Pinto dos Santos, numerous manuscripts, drawings and typewritten texts in the custody of Almada Negreiros' heirs (José Affonso Almada Negreiros and Maria José Almada Negreiros) were located, identified and catalogued, and their research in the National Library and the Hemeroteca of Lisbon, allowed to locate a vast quantity of scattered texts. This was followed by their collation, transcription and editing.

The research work was funded for around 10 months by the publisher Assírio & Alvim.

 

2006-2010

Continuation of the inventory of the Almada Negreiros and Sarah Affonso estate, with the contribution of a new team member, Sara Afonso Ferreira. A new survey began in Bicesse, under the responsibility of Sara Afonso Ferreira. During this research, a vast collection of documents, drawings, books and objects belonging to the Almada Negreiros - Sarah Affonso couple was located.

 

2011-2014

Development of the project ‘Modernismo Online - Arquivo virtual da Geração de Orpheu’ (Modernism Online - Virtual Archive of the Orpheu Generation), organised by the Institute for Literature and Tradition Studies at NOVA FCSH, with funding from FCT (Principal Investigator: Fernando Cabral Martins. Team: Sara Afonso Ferreira; Ana Maria de Freitas; Luísa Medeiros; Manuela Parreira da Silva).

FCT reference: PTDC/CLE-LLI/111984/2009

Scholarship holders:

Sílvia Laureano Costa, FCT grant: PTDC/CLE-LLI/111984/2009.

Diogo Fernandes, IELT scholarship: June 2012 - March 2013 / March 2013 - September 2013.

Gonçalo Losada Rodrigues, IELT scholarship: Working on green receipts August 2014 - April 2015.

Simão Palmeirim Costa, IELT scholarship (01-07-2016 to 31-12-2016): Individual Research Grant - Ref. FCT UID/ELT/00657/2013

Sara Afonso Ferreira (2012-2013): Individual Research Grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

SFRH/BPD/121253/2016

 

Scientific activity:

Almada Negreiros international conference. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2013.

 

Exhibitions:

Almada por contar, coord. Sara Afonso Ferreira, Simão Palmeirim, Sílvia Laureano Costa. National Library of Portugal, 2013. Virtual Exhibition available at modernismo.pt.

A Través de Los Ojos de Almada, coord. Sívia Laureano Costa. University of the Andes, Bogotá, Colombia, 2014.

 

Publications:

Almada por Contar, ed. Sara Afonso Ferreira, Simão Palmeirim and Sílvia Laureano Costa, National Library of Portugal/Babel, Lisbon, 2013.

Almada Negreiros: um percurso possível, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, Lisbon, 2017.

 

2014-2015

Publications:

Simão Palmeirim and Pedro J. Freitas, ‘Almada Negreiros and the geometric canon’ in Journal of Mathematics and the Arts vol. 9, issue 1-2, 2015(https://doi.org/10.1080/17513472.2015.1012699)

Simão Palmeirim and Pedro J. Freitas, Almada Negreiros' Book of Problems, Lisbon, Portuguese Mathematical Society, 2015 (ISBN: 9789899950009)

1915 Orpheu 2015, facsimile edition of Almada Negreiros' maquette Orpheu 1915-1965, Lisbon, Babel, 2015

 

2017-2018

Scholarship holder:

Simão Palmeirim: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation grant - Ref. 205348.

Digital content production: https://gulbenkian.pt/almada-comecar/

 

Exhibition and publication:

Almada Negreiros: a way of being modern, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, 2017. Curated by Mariana Pinto dos Santos (with executive curator Ana Vasconcelos).

Edition of the Documenta|Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian catalogue with new studies by a wide range of researchers.

 

Publications:

The collection of anthologies of texts by Almada Negreiros Obra Breve is launched at Assirio & Alvim and volumes of Obra literária (literary works) are reissued, revised and expanded.

 

Doctoral thesis:

O Lugar do Teatro na Obra de José de Almada Negreiros, December 2017, by Sílvia Laureano Costa, supervised by Fernando Cabral Martins, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

 

2019-2021

IELT - FCSH scholarship holders:

Simão Palmeirim: FCSH/IELT/UID/ELT/00657/2019/1

Sílvia Laureano Costa: FCSH/IELT/UID/ELT/00657/2019/1

 

Publications:

Simão Palmeirim and Pedro J. Freitas, ‘Questões metodológicas de um retábulo imaginado’ in Almada Negreiros e os painéis. An imagined altarpiece for the Monastery of Batalha, Lisbon: MNAA, 2020.

Simão Palmeirim and Pedro J. Freitas, ‘A geometria que Almada leu - Fontes bibliográficas para a compreensão do vocabulário geométrico tardio de Almada Negreiros’ (The geometry that Almada read - Bibliographic sources for understanding the late geometric vocabulary of Almada Negreiros), in Revista de História da Sociedade e da Cultura, vol 20, 2020 (DOI: 10.14195/1645-2259).

 

Exhibitions:

Almada Negreiros and the Panels. An imagined altarpiece for the Monastery of Batalha, co-ordinated by Simão Palmeirim and Pedro Freitas, National Museum of Ancient Art, 2020-2021. Virtual exhibition available at modernismo.pt.

Almada Negreiros and the Monastery of Batalha. Fifteen primitive paintings in an imagined altarpiece, coordinator Simão Palmeirim, Batalha Monastery, 2020-2021. Virtual exhibition available at modernismo.pt.

 

2020-2021

A one-year research grant (renewable) has been awarded by the Institute of Art History to continue the cataloguing of the Almada Negreiros-Sarah Affonso Collection and Library and to accompany the transfer of the documentary collection to NOVA FCSH.

Grant holder: Giorgia Casara (FCSH / IHA / UIDB/00417/2020 / 1 BI)

 

2022-2024

A protocol between the heirs of Almada Negreiros and Sarah Affonso and FCSH NOVA is established for the creation of the Almada Negreiros Sarah Affonso Study and Documentation Centre (CEDANSA) and the transfer of the artists' estate to the premises of FCSH NOVA, in February 2022.

A one-year research grant was awarded by the Art History Institute to continue the cataloguing of the estate and the Almada Negreiros-Sarah Affonso family Library and to accompany the transfer of the documentary estate to NOVA FCSH.
Master's research grant under the CEDANSA seed-project, 2023-2024.

Exhibitions:

Almada Negreiros - 130 years. Exhibition by the Almada Negreiros-Sarah Affonso Study and Documentation Centre, at the Rectory of the New University of Lisbon (28 September to 27 October), showing documents from the CEDANSA archive. This exhibition has a virtual version at modernismo.pt.

Almada and Pessoa: a conversation between libraries. The exhibition puts José de Almada Negreiros and Fernando Pessoa in dialogue through their books and shows rare editions, manuscripts and personalised dedications. Curated by Giorgia Casara and Mariana Pinto dos Santos (CEDANSA - Documental Archive) and Teresa Monteiro (Casa Fernando Pessoa, 2 March to 8 September 2024).

Scientific activity:

Conference Almada Negreiros - 130 years, organised by the Rectory of Universidade Nova de Lisboa and CEDANSA - FCSH (28 September 2023).

 

2024 - ongoing

A research contract was established between IELT and Simão Palmeirim to continue his studies on modernism in Portugal, particularly Almada Negreiros and his texts on art theory, and insertion of CEDANSA documents in the modernismo.pt database.

Research by Sílvia Laureano Costa on the theatre productions of José de Almada Negreiros, with the aim of creating a chronology that will be available on the website. 

 

LITERARY AND ARTISTIC JOURNALS OF EARLY PORTUGUESE MODERNISM

FCT funding for Ricardo Marques' post-doctoral project at the IELT - Institute for the Study of Literature and Tradition (NOVA FCSH), under the supervision of Prof Fernando Cabral Martins, on the literary and artistic magazines of early Portuguese modernism.

FCT reference: SFRH/BPD/101758/2014

This project also includes the following activities:

Exhibitions:

Portugal Futurista and other periodicals from 1917, coord. Ricardo Marques. - Lisbon: National Library of Portugal, 2017.

No 90 anos de Fernando Guimarães, coord. Ricardo Marques, - 1st ed. - Lisbon: National Library of Portugal, 2018.

Tradition and avant-garde: literary magazines of modernism (1910-1926), coord. Ricardo Marques, Paulo J. S. Barata.  Lisbon: National Library of Portugal, 2020.

Publications:

Tradition and avant-garde: literary magazines of modernism (1910-1926), coord. Ricardo Marques, Paulo J. S. Barata. - Lisbon: National Library of Portugal, 2020.

Synthesis and simultaneity: an anthology of Futurist poetry, introd., org. and versions Ricardo Marques. - [S.l.] : Zanzibar, 2019.

No 90 anos de Fernando Guimarães, coord. Ricardo Marques. 1st ed. - Lisbon : National Library of Portugal, 2018.

Portugal Futurista and other periodicals from 1917, coord. Ricardo Marques. Lisbon : National Library of Portugal, 2017.

 

FERNANDO PESSOA ARCHIVE - LITERARY THEORY

FCT funding for Nuno Filipe Gonçalves Nunes Ribeiro's postdoctoral project on the digital edition of poetic theorising texts written by Fernando Pessoa. Grant awarded under the ESF programme and carried out at IELT - Instituto de Estudos de Literatura e Tradição (NOVA FCSH) under the supervision of Prof. Fernando Cabral Martins.

FCT reference: SFRH/BPD/121514/2016

Scientific activity:

Conference António Botto & Fernando Pessoa: Poetics in Dialogue. Organised by Nuno Ribeiro & Margarida Almeida Bastos, National Library of Portugal/Museum of Lisbon - Palácio Pimenta, 15-16 March 2019.

 

MÁRIO DE SÁ-CARNEIRO ARCHIVE

From 2022, the Modernism online: Virtual Archive of the Orpheu Generation database now includes documents from the Mário de Sá-Carneiro Archive, held at the National Library of Portugal. 

 

JOSÉ COELHO PACHECO ARCHIVE

In 2022, theModernism online: Virtual Archive of the Orpheu Generation database was expanded with the José Coelho Pacheco archive, which the heirs and the Cascais Digital Historical Archive hold.

 

JOSÉ PACHECO ARCHIVE

From 2023, the Modernism online: Virtual Archive of the Orpheu Generation database now includes documents from the José Pacheco Archive, held at the National Culture Centre.

 

ARMANDO CÔRTES RODRIGUES AND RONALD DE CARVALHO ARCHIVES

In 2023,Modernism online: Virtual Archive of the Orpheu Generation database was expanded to include documents from the archives of Armando Côrtes Rodrigues, held by the Ponta Delgada Public Library and Regional Archive, and Ronald de Carvalho, held by the ‘Alexandre Herculano’ Cultural Documentation Centre at the State University of Campinas.
The inventory of the documents belonging to the archives of the two authors is part of Carlotta Defenu's post-doctoral project, with the collaboration of Dr Anabela Almeida and Dr Mirhiane Mendes de Abreu.