José Augusto de Sottomayor-Pizarro

Permanent Member

Class
Letters

Section
4th Section | History

Election

19.03.2013 (Corresponding Member)
03.05.2022 (Permanent Member)

Contact

pizarro.jo [at] gmail.com

Hyperlinks
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6016-6024

Profile

José Augusto de Sottomayor-Pizarro (Porto, 1958)

Master’s degree (1987), PhD (1998), and Habilitation (2007) in Medieval History from the University of Porto, where he is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, teaching since 1984.

He is responsible for undergraduate courses in Political History in the Medieval Period, Iberian Medieval History, and Genealogy and Heraldry, as well as postgraduate courses on Sources for the Study of the Middle Ages and a seminar on Portuguese Medieval Nobility. He also served as Director of the Sánchez Albornoz Chair of Medieval History of Spain (1999-2003).

Since 2015, he has been the Director of the Portugaliae Monumenta Historica collection at the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and, since 2021, Director of the Historical Archive of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences.

A disciple of José Mattoso and Luís Adão da Fonseca, his research focuses on two complementary areas: the Portuguese nobility until the 14th century, which he has studied alongside the edition of the still-unpublished General Inquiries; the political and diplomatic relations between Portugal and other Hispanic kingdoms, particularly in relation to the Iberian aristocracy.

More recently, his research has aimed at assessing the material and political power of the nobility and its impact on relations with the monarchy between the 12th and early 15th centuries.

Among his 160 published works, the most notable include:

  • Os Patronos do Mosteiro de Grijó. Evolução e Estrutura da Família Nobre (Séculos XI a XIV) (1987), Ponte de Lima, 1995.
  • Linhagens Medievais Portuguesas. Genealogias e Estratégias (1279-1325), 3 volumes, Porto, 1999 (awarded the Prix XXème Siècle – Edgar Brünner, Confédération Internationale de Généalogie et Héraldique, 2000).
  • D. Dinis (1261-1325), Lisbon, 2005 (2nd edition, 2008).
  • Inquirições Gerais de D. Dinis – 1284, Lisbon, Academy of Sciences, 2007.
  • Inquirições Gerais de D. Dinis – 1288/1290, 2 vols., Lisbon, Academy of Sciences, 2012-2015.
  • Aristocracia e Mosteiros na Rota do Românico. A Senhorialização dos Vales do Sousa, do Tâmega e do Douro (séculos XI a XIII), Lousada, Rota do Românico, 2014.
  • Inquirições Gerais de D. Dinis – 1301, 1303-1304 e 1307-1315, Lisbon, Academy of Sciences, 2024.

Memberships & Affiliations: Founding Member of the Portuguese Society for Medieval Studies and the Centre for Population, Economy, and Society Studies (University of Porto); Full Member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and the Portuguese Institute of Heraldry; Full Member of the Confédération Internationale de Généalogie; Founding and Full Member of the Ibero-American Academy of Genealogy and Heraldry. Corresponding Member of: Royal Academy of History (Madrid); Royal Matritense Academy of Heraldry and Genealogy;Historical and Geographical Institute of São Paulo; Toledo Society for Heraldic and Genealogical Studies.