Biblioteca Virtual Dos Descobrimentos Portugueses

Virtual Library of the Portuguese Discoveries

was available through a Portuguese internet site [http://www.cncdp.pt/ophir/], not anymore available. You have still a copy only at the Internet archive, Archive.org  in his last version from December 2002.

It involves the publication of 18 text CD-ROM's featuring bibliographic sources of unquestionable importance for the study of Portuguese History in general and the age of the Discoveries in particular. "The works selected cover all of the important areas of mediaeval and modern Portuguese historiography, from politics to social history, and they are fundamental reference documents for any researcher. These works are indispensable not only for highly specialised academic research, but also for any amateur research carried out for the sake of personal interest. One of the most frequent obstacles encountered in any historical research project is difficulty in gaining access to documents. This difficulty may manifest itself in the limited number of available editions or restrictions on access or consultation. On the other hand, a correct reading of a large part of existing documentation requires knowledge of palaeography, which may only be obtained as part of specific academic training in History."

"The Ophir - BIBLIOTECA VIRTUAL DOS DESCOBRIMENTOS PORTUGUESES project will [...] also make it possible to carry out automatic searches that would be impossible to do with a book - for instance, searches for names of people and places, dates and other key words. For the first time ever in Portugal, this pioneering project brings us the most important works in the historiography of the Portuguese overseas expansion in CD-ROM form, which in itself allows to reach a vast public."

The EUI Library has only received CD-ROM's 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10.

• Bibliotheca Lusitana  (CDROM n.2 available on the Network) "Bibliotheca Lusitana was written and complied by the Abbot of Sever, Diogo Barbosa Machado, and printed in Lisbon in four in-folio volumes between 1741 and 1759. This was the first great printed catalogue of authors and works in Portuguese. It is therefore a fundamental source for ancient bibliography in Portuguese, whether in manuscript or printed form, and together with Dicionário Bibliográfico Português (1858-1923), it is particularly useful to scholars of Portuguese culture and literature. Despite its importance, it is a relatively little known work, of which there are few editions left in Portuguese libraries. Hence the importance of the decision to publish it once more, this time with the many search possibilities offered by a digital version. The central body of Bibliotheca Lusitana consists of biographies of Portuguese authors, in alphabetical order by forename and by the list of the works they wrote. In addition to several indexes, the fourth volume contains an extensive appendix that includes authors not mentioned in the preceding volumes. This organisation has been respected in the CD-ROM, but we have added the possibility of doing global and specific searches that we hope will offer users new and helpful resources. This CD-ROM is not intended to replace Bibliotheca Lusitana in its original format, but rather to update it in terms of access and usefulness."
• Corografia portugueza  (CDROM n.4 available at the Library entrance desk)
• Integral edition of João de Barros 'Décadas da Asia'  (CDROM n.5 available on the Network) "This integral edition of João de Barros Décadas da Ásia de coordinated by Prof. Thomas Earle and Prof. Stephen Parkinson. This CD-ROM presents the book itself together with a complete index of topographical places and personal names. This electronic edition of the work allows searching for words or phrases inside the complete book."
• Revista Mare Liberum Numeros 1 A 13  (CDROM n.6 available on the Network)
• Gil Vicente : todas as obras  (CDROM n.7 available at the Library entrance desk)
• Diccionario bibliographico portuguez : volumes 1 a 23  (CDROM n.9 available at the Library entrance desk)

To complete a Portuguese bibliography on discoveries, it could be also useful to consult:

• the Portuguese bibliography 15th century to 1999 ., Munich : K.G. Saur Electronic Pub., 1999. This is a general bibliography of works about or published in Portugal and Brazil, in a wide variety of subject areas with citations in the following languages: Portuguese, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian. The Bibliography covers general reference works, encyclopedias, bibliographies, historical, geographical, and biographical reference works, dissertations, academic monographs, non-fiction, fiction, poetry, drama, periodicals and newspapers. It contains over 290,000 entries, from 130 countries.
• and to read the microform copy of the Works Issued By The Hakluyt Society (around 120 documents) selecting them from an Author Search in the EUI Library catalogue.