Orlando Ribeiro, the Creator of a New Geography in Portugal

The lively but brief flowering that geography experienced in Portugal in the 16^th century thanks to the work of a few brilliant geographer-explorers was followed by a long hiatus during which the science was very little practised here. Neither the Jesuits, nor their colleges, nor the reformers of the 18^th and 19^th centuries attached any real importance to the subject, which was considered to be ancillary to history. The only people who worked in the field were a few chorographer-compilers, but there was no place for geography at university.

A few precursors of change appeared at the end of the 19^th century: the forestry engineer Barros Gomes, the army officer Gerardo Pery, the doctor Silva Telles; but it was only in 1922, when Amorim Girão obtained his PhD in Geography at Coimbra and pursued his original work there that the science really gained a university dimension, but even then, one that was still restricted to a regional and national scope.

Orlando Ribeiro was responsible for the creation of a new scientific hub in Lisbon, which immediately gained an international dimension and won fame abroad. While he was still a student he had felt the need to broaden the training he had received by attending the classes of the best teachers of a variety of sciences, helping the elderly Leite de Vasconcellos to prepare his studies and doing fieldwork under the direction of the Swiss geologist Fleury. When offered a position as a Portuguese Reader in Paris in 1937, he did not hesitate and took advantage of the opportunity to broaden his training in geography, history and geology, as well as to participate in the International Geography Congress in Amsterdam in 1938.

Upon his return to Portugal in 1940 he was appointed Professor first in Coimbra and then in Lisbon. In 1943 he created the Centre for Geographic Studies (CEG) and in 1945 published the brilliant synthesis Portugal, o Mediterrâneo e o Atlântico [Portugal, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic] (now in its 7^th edition, it is still one of the basic texts of Portuguese culture today). In 1949 he organised the first post-war International Geography Congress, which was the occasion for the publication of many works that found an international readership (4 volumes of Minutes and 6 Guidebooks on the congress outings, written in French).

Over the next few years he travelled widely around the world, especially in the tropical countries that had been marked by the Iberian Expansion. In doing so he gained a vast experience that provided him with a better understanding of the originality of what it is to be "A People on Earth". When a curricular reform finally made it possible for there to be a certain influx of students into the Geography course, he saw a number of hopeful young people join his initial small group of disciples, who had come from an extremely varied range of university backgrounds and whom he had gathered together on the occasion of the 1949 Congress. In order to further stimulate, broaden and strengthen their various vocations, he sent his students on traineeships to several different active research centres in France, Germany, Sweden, England and the United States.

In the meantime he continued to pursue his own research work and also went more deeply into the topics that were of greatest interest to the orientation of the theses pursued by his students – whom he nonetheless permitted total freedom, albeit simultaneously demanding a high level of methodological rigueur from them. Practising the maxim of "a researcher who teaches", he guided his students by example and not by imposition. He organised and directed numerous excursions, both in Portugal and abroad, always seeking for fruitful confrontations between ideas and experiences. He took advantage of every chance to extend the presence of geographers in the life of the country at large and his students soon found themselves teaching at various Higher Schools and new universities.

However, his relations with the state and other authorities were always tense. The habitually direct way in which he expressed his opinions meant that although he was respected as a scientist, he was almost always considered to be troublesome and was systematically kept off any decision-making bodies. For this reason he did not play the part he might have done in the renewal of teaching and research and the reorganisation of Portugal. Even the official honours that normally crown a scientific career that is both unrivalled and internationally recognised only appeared very late on in life. It is necessary to look for the results of his life’s work in both his abundant publications and the achievements of his innumerable disciples – not only geographers, but also the practitioners of many other lines of activity, all of whom learnt from both listening to what he said and watching what he did.

A two-part bibliographic list of Orlando Ribeiro’s scientific work has already been published:

Ana Amaral and Ilídio do Amaral, Bibliografia Científica de Orlando Ribeiro, Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Lisbon, 1984, 85 p. [annotated bibliography covering the period from 1934 to 1981 and including 296 references].

Suzanne Daveau, "Bibliografia Científica de Orlando Ribeiro (2ª parte, 1981-1995)", Finisterra, CEG, Lisbon, 61, 1996, pp. 87-97 [covers 1981 to 1995 and reaches reference nº 363].

5 works were either republished or published for the first time in 1997-98, 2 more are currently at press and several others are awaiting a publisher.

The following are the most important of Orlando Ribeiro’s published works:

1937 - "A Arrábida. Esboço geográfico", Revista da Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, pp. 51-131.

1945 - Portugal, o Mediterrâneo e o Atlântico, Coimbra Editora, Coimbra, VIII + 246 pages; 7^th edition, 1998, Livraria Sá da Costa Editora, Lisbon, 189 pages; illustrated edition with photographs by Jorge Barros, 1993, Edições João Sá da Costa, 223 pages.

1949 - L'Île de Madère. Etude Géographique, UGI, Lisbon, 175 pages.; Portuguese translation, 1988: A Ilha da Madeira até Meados do Século XX, ICALP, Lisbon, 139 pages.

1949 - Le Portugal Central, UGI, Lisbon, 180 pages.

1954 - A Ilha do Fogo e as suas Erupções, Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, Lisbon, 319 pages; 2^nd edition, 1960; new edition, Comissão Nacional para a Comemoração dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, Lisbon, 1998.

1955 - Portugal, Montaner y Simón, Barcelona, 290 pages (vol. V of Geografia de España y Portugal)

1960 - Atitude e Explicação em Geografia Humana, Galaica, Oporto, 71 pages; French translation: "Conception et interprétation en Géographie humaine", Cahiers de Géographie du Québec, 11, 1961-62, pp. 5-37.

1961 - Geografia e Civilização. Temas portugueses. Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Lisbon, 238 pages; 2^nd edition, 1979, Livros Horizontes, Lisbon, 161 pages.

1962 - Aspectos e Problemas da Expansão Portuguesa, Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, Lisbon, 213 pages; illustrated edition of part of the text, 1994, Edições João Sá da Costa, entitled: Originalidade da Expansão Portuguesa, 159 pages.

1964 - Problemas da Universidade, Livraria Sá da Costa Editora, 114 pages.

1968 - Mediterrâneo. Ambiente e Tradição, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 273 pages; 2^nd edition, 1987; Italian translation, Il Mediterrâneo. Ambiente e Tradizione, Murcia, Milan, 3 editions, 1972, 1976 and 1983.

1970 - A Evolução Agrária no Portugal Mediterrâneo, Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Lisbon, 226 pages.

1970 - Variações sobre Temas de Ciência, Livraria Sá  da Costa Editora, Lisbon, 269 pages.

1973 - La Zone Intertropicale Humide, Armand Colin, Paris, 276 pages (in collaboration with Suzanne Daveau).

1977 - Introduções Geográficas à História de Portugal, Imprensa Nacional - Casa da Moeda, Lisbon, 230 pages.

1981 - A Colonização de Angola e o seu Fracasso, Imprensa Nacional - Casa da Moeda, Lisbon, 459 pages.

1985-86 - Les Bassins de Lousã et d'Arganil. Recherches Géomorphologiques et Sédimentologiques sur le Massif Ancien et sa Couverture à l 'Est de Coimhra, I. Le Bassin Sédimentaire, II. L'Évolution du Relief, Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Lisbon, 231 pages; 450 pages (in collaboration with Pierre Birot and Suzanne Daveau).

1986 - Iniciação em Geografia Humana, Edições João Sá da Costa, Lisbon, 194 pages.

1987 - Introdução ao Estudo da Geografia Regional, Edições João Sá   da Costa, Lisbon, 148 pages; 2^nd edition, 1995.

1988 - A Formação de Portugal, ICALP, Lisbon, 134 pages.

1987-91 - Geografia de Portugal (in collaboration with Hermann Lautensach and Suzanne

Daveau), I. A Posição Geográfica e o Território, II. O Ritmo Climático e a Paisagem; III. O Povo Português; IV. A Vida Económica e Social, Edições João Sá  da Costa, Lisbon, 1,340 pages.

1989-91 - Opúsculos Geográficos, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, I. Síntese e Método, 409 pages; II. Pensamento Geográfico, 448 pages; III. Aspectos da Natureza, 356 pages; IV. O Mundo Rural, 432 pages; V. Temas Urbanos, 560 pages; VI. Estudos Regionais, 497 pages (Opúsculos Geográficos includes 179 articles, of which 47 were previously unpublished.)

1994 - Finisterra, Encontros de Fotografia, Coimbra, (photographs, with texts by Teresa Siza, Jorge Gaspar and Suzanne Daveau).