The official newspaper of the Portuguese State, especially during the Constitutional Monarchy (1820-1910), constitutes a basic source for the knowledge of the History of Contemporary Portugal. The official newspaper than published the bulletins of the Royal Court; laws, decrees, regulations and other Royal and Governmental acts; statistical documents; transcripts of the minutes of parliamentary sessions; share prices; customs movement and maritime service bulletins; national and international news; advertisements for goods and services; in short, an important set of official and unofficial information covering multiple sectors of the Portuguese economy, population and society.

Throughout this period, the official journal had its title changed for several times – Gazeta de Lisboa, Diário da Regência, Crónica Constitucional de Lisboa, Gazeta Oficial do Governo, Diário de Lisboa and Diário de Governo (the title it had for the most time, up to 1976, when it assumed the current title, Diário da República), in addition to the titles published at the service of the Liberal Regency, while two Governments coexisted in Portugal (1830-1834), the Chronicles of Terceira and Porto. And yet, the official newspaper would never cease to be published, presenting a remarkable regularity, without parallel in the context of the Portuguese press.

The website DIGIGOV – Diário do Governo Digital (1820-1910) features close to 30.000 issues of the Portuguese official newspaper (including supplements, appendices and extraordinary editions) published from September 16, 1820, the date of the first edition of the Diário do Governo, inaugurating a new stage in the life of the official newspaper of the Portuguese State, following the Liberal Revolution of August 24, and October 5, 1910, when the final issue of the official newspaper with the arms of the Monarchy was printed, due to establishment of the Republic in Portugal.

Each edition is presented in low resolution pdf (faster access), high resolution pdf (better quality), and jpeg format (non-editable). Any of these versions can be freely downloaded for personal use. The content of the pdf versions is searchable and can be copied in text format directly from the digital pages to a word processor. The studies section presents several articles on the origins of the Portuguese official newspaper, its historical context and evolution in time, the analysis of its main elements (structure, contents, writing, circulation, audience, etc.), and on some of the main foreign official newspapers and other historiographical works carried out based on this source.