Dicionário biográfico de museólogos: contributos para a história dos museus e da museologia portuguesa

Abstract

The proposal to create the dictionary – “Who’s Who in Portuguese Museology” is based on a biographical genre approach and seeks the understanding of the history of museums and museology. Dedicated to the biographies of personalities of Portuguese museology (from the 18th century until the 1960s), the Dictionary aims to provide a comprehensive view, a precise knowledge and an up-to-date valorisation of these personalities, aiming to problematize the museum in the political, social and cultural context of each era. On the one hand, the project benefits from the development of studies on the history of museums and museology in Portugal; on the other, it aims to overcome the dispersion of contents that has characterized the national research landscape, marked by a restricted circulation of information. In this brief paper, we present the theoretical framework of the project, its goals, criteria and methodologies. The results obtained prove the relevance of this particular approach. By understanding museums through the biographical genre we will also give visibility to practices, concepts, concerns of cultural access, pedagogical and civilizing attitudes that allowed each epoch to preserve and broaden the artistic and scientific heritage, simultaneously providing the understanding of what a museum is, in its founding principles, scopes and functions.

Keywords

• museology
• biography
• museologist
• museums history
• dictionary