António Sérgio de Sousa (1883-1969) was a man ahead of his time, with his own ideas and interests, the result of great open-mindedness and keen capacity for analysis and criticism. Able to analyse, understand and dialogue with authority on a wide range of subjects, Sérgio gave (and continues to give) real meaning to the word Humanist. How to describe him? Is Sérgio a philosopher, thinker, essayist, pedagogue, political activist, cooperative...? Actually Sérgio cannot be catalogued, he is bigger than any label, but he can be known and acknowledged, analysed and better understood, and for that, CASES contributions, through the António Sérgio Documentation and Information Centre, are undoubtedly valuable.

A short context: Sérgio had no direct heirs and therefore, after his death, it was his nephews who inherited the house and its filling. The nephews decided that the library and personal archive that belonged to their uncle would be handed over to UNICOOPE – União Cooperativa Abastecedora, since he had been involved in its creation, in 1974. In 1979, given the delicate financial situation of UNICOOPE, the heirs decided to hand over the library and archive to INSCOOP – António Sérgio Institute for the Cooperative Sector. Subsequently, CASES inherited from INSCOOP the responsibility for preserving and organising António Sérgio’s estate, a situation that remains today. It was in the fulfilment of that commitment that, in 2015, from Casa António Sérgio (CAS), CASES began the project Treatment and Diffusion of the Personal Archive of António Sérgio.

The project Treatment and Diffusion of the Personal Archive of António Sérgio, planned since mid-2014, took shape in 2015 when the financing granted by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to CASES, following the Competition for Recovery, Treatment and Organisation of Documentary Collections 2015. Among the different stages, which we will not list, note that it included the digitisation of about 2,150 documents, of a total of about 10,100 pages. This project, completed in July 2016, allowed consulting online and downloading its files, all documentation that forms this archive. The possibility of accessing this documentation remotely opened the door for more people to start and/or deepen their studies on António Sérgio. Besides making it simpler to access the document sources with no need to travel to their physical location, the fact that it is described in the database allows perceiving its content. 

Since it was made available online, the archive has received around 2,200 visitors, not only from Portugal but from countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, France, Russia, etc. Although we find these values very positive, we believe that we can go further and it was with this in mind that we decided to create an instrument to: a) simplify the search for documents in the António Sérgio archive; b) list the works produced, translated, prefaced and commented by António Sérgio that exist in CAS; c) identify other sources where documentation related to António Sérgio can be found; d) other information that would contribute to a more in-depth study of António Sérgio. Thus emerged the document “António Sérgio Fund” (and other documents and sources), as a list. To make its access immediate, all listed documents that form the António Sérgio archive, as well as his works, contain a link that leads directly to the record. Direct links were also placed to other institutions where documents referring to António Sérgio and the articles he produced for the magazine Seara Nova can be found.

This document, which will be available for consultation on the different digital platforms of CASES, is in an open format and can be updated whenever relevant.






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