A.H. de Oliveira Marques Prize in Portuguese History

In 2007 ASPHS held the first competition for the A.H. de Oliveira Marques Prize in Portuguese History. The prize was created by means of a generous endowment from Dr. Harold B. Johnson, of the University of Virginia, in memory of the distinguished Portuguese historian A. H. de Oliveira Marques (1933-2007). The prize is awarded every other year for the best peer-reviewed article or book chapter on Portuguese history published during the previous two years. The 2027 Oliveira Marques Prize recognizes an outstanding article or book chapter on Portuguese History and will be awarded at our annual conference in June 2027 in Oxford, UK. The deadline for submission is December 31, 2026. Early submissions are encouraged. Authors must be active members of the Association.

The 2027 Prize committee is Fernanda Olival, University of Evora (mfo@uevora.pt), Darlene Abreu-Ferreira, University of Winnipeg (d.abreu@uwinnipeg.ca)  and Ernst Pijning, Minot State University (ernst.pijning@minotstateu.edu). Please email each of them a copy of your article or chapter that you wish to be considered for this prize.

2025 winner: Quintino Lopes, Francisco de Lacerda, and Ana Simões

Quintino Lopes, Francisco de Lacerda, and Ana Simões. “Armando de Lacerda and the Coimbra Phonetics Laboratory, 1930–1979: Cross-National Mobility and Exchange in a Global Context” Centaurus: Journal of the European Society for the History of Science 66.3 (2024): 319-350.

2023 winner: Nuno Castel-Branco

“Material Piety: Science and Religious Culture in Seventeenth-Century Portugal,” Renaissance Quarterly 74 (2021): 1162–1209.

Focusing on Jesuit mathematicians that taught in 17th-century Lisbon, the article shows how religious objects and devotion interacted directly with science. As stated by the author, “The careful study of these encounters between science and devotional practice contributes to long-lasting debates about science and religion and, more importantly, to broader inquiries into the very purpose of practicing science in the early modern period”.
Castel-Branco has combined a skillful analysis of source materials with a solid knowledge of secondary literature to produce an article of great originality. Well-structured and with a clear argument, the text artfully articulates history of science, material culture, and religious practices.

2021 winner: Laurinda Abreu

“Health care and the spread of medical knowledge in the Portuguese empire, particularly the Estado da India (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries),” Medical History 64:4 (2020): 449-446.