In search of documents about the Portuguese in Bengal. Visit to Portuguese National Archives, Lisbon, by Florus & Sigfried, 9 May 2016

June 8, 2016, 10:26 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

On 9 May Florus and Sigfried visited National Archives of Portugal (Torre de Tombo), Lisbon. We did a preliminary research in collections about Portuguese colonial government in India: “Governo do Estado da Índia”. Our conclusion after this first introduction is that documents are available to contribute to our knowledge about European colonial rule in India / Bengal. Of special interest are:

1.     Administração Ultramarina (Overseas government)
–       Junta da Real Fazenda do Estado da Índia (period 1580 – 1828; inventory)
–       Livros das Monções (1605 – 1699; catalogue)
2.     Documentos em Bengali (Documents in Bengal language)
3.     Jesuítas na Asia (Jesuits in Asia)
4.     Cartographia (maps)
5.     Corpo chronologico século 16 – 17 (Chronological documents 16th – 17th century)
6.     Archivo Historico Ultramarino (Overseas historical archive)

My suggestion is to start doing some introductory research of your own on:
http://digitarq.arquivos.pt/ = simple research
or
http://digitarq.arquivos.pt/asearch = advanced research

with specific keywords

Some documents are digitized, so you can research them from your own computer / laptop. For example Livros das Monções (books of the monsoons = books of the seasons) are digitized and you can research and read when doing:
Step 1. http://antt.dglab.gov.pt/pesquisar-na-torre-do-tombo/ (base de dados digitarq)
Step 2. http://digitarq.arquivos.pt/asearch (Livros das Monções)

Step 3. http://digitarq.arquivos.pt/results?p0=UnitTitle&o0=1&v0=livros+das+Mon%C3%A7%C3%B5es (Livros das Monções)

Step 4. http://digitarq.arquivos.pt/details?id=4186162 (results)

If you have specific questions related to your research you can write to mail@dglab.gov.pt .Also contact Sigfried by Janzing47@gmail.com