International Seminar "Official newspapers in Portugal and worldwide. From printed history to digital memory"
Official newspapers are periodicals through which a state publicizes the official acts of its executive, legislative and judicial public administration. In the Portuguese case, it was a long road to reach the current Diário da República, with its origins dating back to 1715, the year of the creation of the Gazeta de Lisboa. But it was with the Liberal Revolution of 1820 that the official newspaper was transformed into a fundamental source for the knowledge of the History of Contemporary Portugal. From then on, it began publishing the bulletins of the Royal Court; royal diplomas and governmental acts; statistical documents; minutes of parliamentary sessions; share prices; customs movement; sea service bulletins; domestic and especially foreign news; advertisements for goods, services and events; in short, an impressive diversity of official and unofficial information covering multiple sectors of the Portuguese society.
Given the limitations to access this source, due to its size, state of conservation and rarity, CEPESE – Research Centre for the Study of Population, Economy and Society (University of Porto), through the research project DIGIGOV – Diário do Governo Digital (1820-1910) [PTDC/EPH-HIS/0777/2014], funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, has developed an online portal featuring all issues of the Portuguese official journal published during the Constitutional Monarchy, in high resolution and with searchable contents. This Seminar will officially launch the DIGIGOV platform, which brings together about 30.000 editions of the Portuguese official newspaper, including supplements, extraordinary issues and appendices (http://digigov.cepese.pt).
It is also intended to divulge to the general public the research made in the scope of this project on the official newspaper of the Portuguese State, namely its origins, evolution over more than three centuries and its potential as a source for other research work, from a national and international perspective, by comparison with similar newspapers, namely from Spain, France, Italy, United Kingdom, USA and Brazil. For this purpose, several national and foreign experts have been invited to present and debate the conclusions of the studies developed under this project.