Following the action taken by the Azorean Government, through the Regional Directorate for Culture, the Teófilo Braga Archive returned to the Ponta Delgada Public Library and Regional Archive on January 7.

This important collection of documents had been transferred to the Museum of the Presidency of the Republic, under a protocol signed in May 2004, to undergo a documental treatment, which included the cleaning, wrapping and description of the 22,436 documents that compose the Teófilo Braga Archive as well as their respective digitalisation, making up a total of 84,096 images.

Teófilo Braga was born in Ponta Delgada on February 24, 1843. In addition to being a university professor, researcher and writer, he was one of the main ideologists of the republican movement in Portugal. In this context, he was a reference figure of the Republican Party, having presided over the interim government, at the invitation of Afonso Costa, following the establishment of the Republic in Portugal (from October 5, 1910 to March 3, 1911).

The Archive – having returned in the context of the Celebrations of the Centennial of the Republic in the Azores organised by the Regional Government – is part of Teófilo Braga’s estate, purchased from his heirs by the “Junta Geral” (General Board) of the Autonomous District of Ponta Delgada in 1928 and since then it has been under the care of the Ponta Delgada Public Library and Regional Archive.

In addition to the archive, the estate also includes Teófilo Braga’s private library, composed by 10,000 books, whose treatment was carried out by librarians of the Ponta Delgada Public Library and Regional Archive.

This important collection of documental, as it is stated in the Minutes of the Administrative Commission of the “Junta Geral” on June 19, 1928, comprises the following document types: “(...) books and all the papers considered of literary value (manuscripts, notes and letters) belonging to the eminent professor Teófilo Braga, including the copyright of his works (...).”

In order to pay tribute to the memory of this distinguished scholar from São Miguel, the Ponta Delgada Public Library and Regional Archives – under the Celebrations of the Centennial of the Republic promoted by the Presidency of the Regional Government of the Azores through the Regional Directorate for Culture – will open in its premises a Room dedicate to the life and work of Teófilo Braga.