Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros
Item
Country
PT
Name of institution (English)
The National Archive of Torre do Tombo
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Contact information: postal address
Alameda da Universidade, 1649-010 Lisbon
Contact information: phone number
00351 210 037 100
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
mail@dglab.gov.pt
Reference number
PT/TT/MNE
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (English)
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Title (official language of the state)
Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros
Language of title
por
Creator / accumulator
Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros
Date(s)
1411/1914
Language(s)
fra
eng
deu
dut
lat
rus
ara
Extent
1,800 storage units (840 books and 963 boxes)
Type of material
Textual Material
Physical condition
Satisfactory
Scope and content
The Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros fonds includes records related to the Secretariat of State's operation, the "Arquivo dos Serviços Centrais" (Central Services Archive), and diplomatic correspondence received from and sent to foreign legations in Lisbon (Belgium, Brazil, Spain, USA, France, England, Prussia, the Holy See), foreign consulates in Portugal (Austria, Sweden, Tuscany, Rome, Brazil, Spain, The Netherlands, Batavia, Hanseatic Cities, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, Russia, Prussia, Hanover, and Turkey), Portuguese legations overseas (Berlin, Brussels, Constantinople, Stockholm, the Hague, London, Paris, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, St Petersburg, Turin, Vienna, Washington) and the Portuguese consulates in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bangkok, Cadis, Coruña, Stockholm, Hamburg, London, Paris, and Riga.
The Arquivo dos Serviços Centrais sub fonds includes a numerous group of documents regarding the Lisbon office of the former Secretaria de Estado dos Negócios Estrangeiros. Most of these documents are dispatched and received correspondence and include letters from Portuguese diplomatic agents in London, the Netherlands, Rome, and other European cities where Sephardic communities were. Therefore, some of this correspondence contains rich information regarding Portuguese Jews and the migration of New Christians from Portugal and Spain to these destinations. Here are some examples:
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/14-02/L779 and PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/14-02/L785: D. Luís da Cunha (envoy extraordinary in London) letters to the Portuguese Court from 1705 to 1711, containing mentions to Dr Fernão Mendes, a Portuguese New Christian physician settled in London. The codex PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/14-02/L785 includes a short relation written by Mendes related to a disease affecting King João V. Fernão Mendes was also the creator of a medicine based on quinine, currently known as the "águas do Dr Mendes" (Dr Mendes' waters). After his death, the medicine continued to be produced and commercialised by his sons. Information related to the shipping of Dr Mendes' "águas" to Portugal is spread throughout the correspondence of Portuguese diplomats in London during the first half of the 18th century.
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/C/8-6/C687: Correspondence of the Portuguese legation in London (1725-1748): includes references to Joseph Cortiços, Gabriel Lopes Pinheiro, and other Portuguese Jews in London. Cortiços (1656-1742) had contracted the supply of the allied army during the Spanish Succession War and, in the sequence of this contract, became a creditor of the Portuguese Crown. More information concerning the Cortiços affair could be found in PT/TT/MNE-LL/F/7/C172.65 and PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/14-02/L786.
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/15-01/C952: Correspondence of D. Luís da Cunha, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, envoy extraordinary in Vienna, and Francisco Caetano, envoy extraordinary in London (1745-1749). Several references to Portuguese Jews in Vienna and London, such as Diogo Lopes Pereira (alias Diego de Aguilar, the Baron of Aguilar), Francis Salvador, Joseph Cortiços, Daniel de Flores, Jacob Pereira (alias Gabriel de Lima), Fernão Mendes and sons.
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/13-08-02/L16: Letters and instructions of the Portuguese legation in London (1737-1741), which includes an order given to Marco António de Azevedo Coutinho and Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo in 1738 to collect Jewish books and information related to Judaism, Jewish practices and the Portuguese Jews in London.
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/C/8-6/C688: Correspondence of the Portuguese legation in London (1749-1754), including some documents related and even written by Dr Jacob de Castro Sarmento, a Jewish physician of the Portuguese legation. This box also contains letters related to the Jew Bill (1753), including one from Joseph Salvador.
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/C/8-16/C513: Correspondence of the Portuguese legation in Vienna (1735-1756), which includes scattered references to the Baron of Aguilar
PT/TT/MNE-LL/1/L120: Letters from Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo to Martinho de Melo e Castro (1752-1762), including references to Francis Salvador and his son Joseph Salvador, particularly related to their involvement in the Brazilian diamonds trade.
Despite the Inquisition's persecution in Portugal, Portuguese diplomacy, on some occasions, relied on the services of Portuguese Jews overseas. This fonds contains documentation related to or even produced by some of these Jewish (and New Christian) agents of the Portuguese Crown in foreign countries. Some examples are the following:
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/C/9-10/C255: Correspondence of the Portuguese consulate in Bordeaux from 1803 to 1832. Since 1804, Gabriel Salomão Henriques Raba (1741-1820), a Portuguese Jew from Bragança who fled to France in 1763, was the Portuguese consul in this city.
PT/TT/MNE-LL/8/L493: Trade letters from John Charles Lucena (1811-1818). Lucena was a Portuguese Jew from Lisbon who, after a time living in Newport with his father, James de Lucena (alias Diogo Chaves Carvalho de Lucena), returned to London and to the Christian faith. He was appointed consul of the Portuguese nation in Great Britain in 1782.
The Arquivo dos Serviços Centrais sub fonds includes a numerous group of documents regarding the Lisbon office of the former Secretaria de Estado dos Negócios Estrangeiros. Most of these documents are dispatched and received correspondence and include letters from Portuguese diplomatic agents in London, the Netherlands, Rome, and other European cities where Sephardic communities were. Therefore, some of this correspondence contains rich information regarding Portuguese Jews and the migration of New Christians from Portugal and Spain to these destinations. Here are some examples:
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/14-02/L779 and PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/14-02/L785: D. Luís da Cunha (envoy extraordinary in London) letters to the Portuguese Court from 1705 to 1711, containing mentions to Dr Fernão Mendes, a Portuguese New Christian physician settled in London. The codex PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/14-02/L785 includes a short relation written by Mendes related to a disease affecting King João V. Fernão Mendes was also the creator of a medicine based on quinine, currently known as the "águas do Dr Mendes" (Dr Mendes' waters). After his death, the medicine continued to be produced and commercialised by his sons. Information related to the shipping of Dr Mendes' "águas" to Portugal is spread throughout the correspondence of Portuguese diplomats in London during the first half of the 18th century.
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/C/8-6/C687: Correspondence of the Portuguese legation in London (1725-1748): includes references to Joseph Cortiços, Gabriel Lopes Pinheiro, and other Portuguese Jews in London. Cortiços (1656-1742) had contracted the supply of the allied army during the Spanish Succession War and, in the sequence of this contract, became a creditor of the Portuguese Crown. More information concerning the Cortiços affair could be found in PT/TT/MNE-LL/F/7/C172.65 and PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/14-02/L786.
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/15-01/C952: Correspondence of D. Luís da Cunha, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, envoy extraordinary in Vienna, and Francisco Caetano, envoy extraordinary in London (1745-1749). Several references to Portuguese Jews in Vienna and London, such as Diogo Lopes Pereira (alias Diego de Aguilar, the Baron of Aguilar), Francis Salvador, Joseph Cortiços, Daniel de Flores, Jacob Pereira (alias Gabriel de Lima), Fernão Mendes and sons.
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/D/13-08-02/L16: Letters and instructions of the Portuguese legation in London (1737-1741), which includes an order given to Marco António de Azevedo Coutinho and Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo in 1738 to collect Jewish books and information related to Judaism, Jewish practices and the Portuguese Jews in London.
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/C/8-6/C688: Correspondence of the Portuguese legation in London (1749-1754), including some documents related and even written by Dr Jacob de Castro Sarmento, a Jewish physician of the Portuguese legation. This box also contains letters related to the Jew Bill (1753), including one from Joseph Salvador.
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/C/8-16/C513: Correspondence of the Portuguese legation in Vienna (1735-1756), which includes scattered references to the Baron of Aguilar
PT/TT/MNE-LL/1/L120: Letters from Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo to Martinho de Melo e Castro (1752-1762), including references to Francis Salvador and his son Joseph Salvador, particularly related to their involvement in the Brazilian diamonds trade.
Despite the Inquisition's persecution in Portugal, Portuguese diplomacy, on some occasions, relied on the services of Portuguese Jews overseas. This fonds contains documentation related to or even produced by some of these Jewish (and New Christian) agents of the Portuguese Crown in foreign countries. Some examples are the following:
PT/TT/MNE-ASC/C/9-10/C255: Correspondence of the Portuguese consulate in Bordeaux from 1803 to 1832. Since 1804, Gabriel Salomão Henriques Raba (1741-1820), a Portuguese Jew from Bragança who fled to France in 1763, was the Portuguese consul in this city.
PT/TT/MNE-LL/8/L493: Trade letters from John Charles Lucena (1811-1818). Lucena was a Portuguese Jew from Lisbon who, after a time living in Newport with his father, James de Lucena (alias Diogo Chaves Carvalho de Lucena), returned to London and to the Christian faith. He was appointed consul of the Portuguese nation in Great Britain in 1782.
Archival history
Over the second half of the 19th century, several books and documents from the Secretaria de Estado dos Negócios Estrangeiros entered the Torre do Tombo, then located in the Monastery of São Bento da Saúde. Some of these documents entered the archive between 1868 and 1889, included in the Conselho de Guerra (War Council) consignments due to the rocky separation of the secretariats of Foreign Affairs and War during the first decades of the century.
In the 20th century, following a Portuguese government's idea of gathering in one archive all the documentation not used in the daily paperwork, most of the records between 1790 and 1850 were incorporated in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo in 1950.
Besides these incorporations, the fonds also increased with the acquisition of two batches of diplomatic documentation from D. José Martinho de Arrochela Pinto Lancastre Ferrão and the Count of Paço de Arcos on May 5, 1978.
The documentation from the Secretariat of State/Ministry of Foreign Affairs after 1850 is in the Arquivo Histórico e Diplomático (Historical and Diplomatic Archive), also in Lisbon.
In the 20th century, following a Portuguese government's idea of gathering in one archive all the documentation not used in the daily paperwork, most of the records between 1790 and 1850 were incorporated in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo in 1950.
Besides these incorporations, the fonds also increased with the acquisition of two batches of diplomatic documentation from D. José Martinho de Arrochela Pinto Lancastre Ferrão and the Count of Paço de Arcos on May 5, 1978.
The documentation from the Secretariat of State/Ministry of Foreign Affairs after 1850 is in the Arquivo Histórico e Diplomático (Historical and Diplomatic Archive), also in Lisbon.
Administrative / Biographical history
After the end of the Iberian Union and the Restoration of Portugal independence from Spain in 1640, King João IV undertook reforms in the Portuguese political structures and governance practices. In this context, the Secretaria de Estado (Secretariat of State) was created on November 29, 1643, together with two other secretariats: the Secretaria das Mercês e Expediente (Favours and Paperwork) and the Secretaria da Assinatura (Signatures). The Secretaria de Estado was responsible for the correspondence with foreign heads of state to negotiate treaties, contracts, alliances, etc., and with the diplomatic agents in Portugal and abroad. On July 21, 1662, King Afonso VI established the position of "escrivão da puridade", whose attribution was to manage all affairs related to external relations.
In 1736, King João V implemented a new reformation of the secretariats, which were then organised into three: the Secretaria dos Negócios Interiores do Reino (Internal Affairs), the Secretaria da Marinha e dos Domínios Ultramarinos (Navy and Overseas Territories) and the Secretaria dos Negócios Estrangeiros e da Guerra (Foreign Affairs and War). The latter was responsible for the negotiations with other countries, coordinated the diplomatic services, and managed the diplomatic agents. As Secretariat of War, it also took care of issues related to the army and military services and managed the Contadoria Geral (General Accounting). Although an attempt to separate the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs from the Secretariat of War in 1801, the separation only took place in 1820. In the following years, the Secretaria dos Negócios Estrangeiros changed significantly. In 1840, the division into five departments was settled: three departments with responsibilities over the Portuguese legations and consulates; one dedicated to the archive and paperwork, and the other to the accounting.
After the implementation of the Portuguese Republic in 1910, the secretariat gave place to a ministry: the Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros.
In 1736, King João V implemented a new reformation of the secretariats, which were then organised into three: the Secretaria dos Negócios Interiores do Reino (Internal Affairs), the Secretaria da Marinha e dos Domínios Ultramarinos (Navy and Overseas Territories) and the Secretaria dos Negócios Estrangeiros e da Guerra (Foreign Affairs and War). The latter was responsible for the negotiations with other countries, coordinated the diplomatic services, and managed the diplomatic agents. As Secretariat of War, it also took care of issues related to the army and military services and managed the Contadoria Geral (General Accounting). Although an attempt to separate the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs from the Secretariat of War in 1801, the separation only took place in 1820. In the following years, the Secretaria dos Negócios Estrangeiros changed significantly. In 1840, the division into five departments was settled: three departments with responsibilities over the Portuguese legations and consulates; one dedicated to the archive and paperwork, and the other to the accounting.
After the implementation of the Portuguese Republic in 1910, the secretariat gave place to a ministry: the Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros.
Access points: locations
Access points: persons, families
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
The fonds is organised into 27 sub fonds (regarding the various diplomatic legations), each of them divided into sections and series. The organisation follows organic-functional criteria.
Access, restrictions
Acces without restrictions but those related to the physical condition of the documents.
Finding aids
Unpublished finding aids available in the Torre do Tombo:
"Relação dos documentos do Arquivo Histórico do Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros enviados ao Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo". 1950 (Arquivo do Arquivo, cx.12).
Farinha, Maria do Carmo Dias. [1989]. "Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros: inventário" (L 381A).
"Correspondência de chefes de Estado estrangeiros para os reis de Portugal" (Correspondence of foreign heads of State to the kings of Portugal) (C 6, C 266/1).
"Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros: cx. 1 a 89 (antigos maços 1 a 46)" (F 87 a 96).
"Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros: Legação de Portugal na Áustria: 1757 a 1827" (Portuguese legation in Austria, 1757-1827) (L 381/1).
"Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros: Legação de Portugal no Brasil: 1826 a 1850" (Portuguese legation in Brazil, 1826-1850" (L 381/2).
"Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros: Legação de Portugal na Dinamarca: 1778 a 1833" (Portuguese legation in Denmark, 1778-1833) (L 381/3).
"Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros: Legação de Portugal nos Estados Unidos: 1777 a 1850" (Portuguese legation in the USA, 1777-1850) (L 381/4).
"Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros: Legação de Portugal em França: 1668 a 1804" (Portuguese legation in France, 1668-1804) (L 381/5).
"Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros: Legação de Portugal em França: 1784 a 1787" (Portuguese legation in France, 1784-1787) (L 381/6).
"Feitoria Portuguesa de Antuérpia: catálogo dos documentos e livros avulsos" (Portuguese Factory of Antwerp: catalogue of documents and assorted books. Incomplete, since Flemish documents are missing). 1951. (C. 257)
Links to finding aids
Author of the description
Carla Vieira, 2021
Bibliography
Published primary sources
Linked resources
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