Date: November 26 and 27, 2026
Venue: Pontificia Università Antonianum, Rome (Aula A)

Born on 10 February 1926, António Domingues de Sousa Costa devoted his work to medieval Portuguese history and, especially, to ecclesiastical history. For more than four decades, he searched Portuguese and foreign archives, with particular emphasis on the Vatican Apostolic Archives, identifying and transcribing tens of thousands of documents relating to Portugal. This effort resulted in numerous publications, among the most notable of which is Monumenta Portugaliae Vaticana. This conference aims to pay tribute to this historian, promoting reflection and discussion on the themes he cultivated.

As the commemorative cycle marking the centenary of his birth draws to a close, and following the meetings held in Lisbon and Grijó, this international conference aims to honour António Domingues de Sousa Costa by fostering reflection and dialogue on the themes that shaped his research. Entitled Sources and Key Figures of the Medieval Church (12th–15th Centuries), the conference recalls two fundamental strands of his scholarly work: his profound and rigorous archival research, which made systematically available the sources he studied, particularly those preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Archive; and his reconstruction of the lives and careers of the many figures who shaped the history of the medieval Church, with particular attention to the complex and multifaceted relations between the Portuguese kingdom and the Apostolic See.

Free admission.

Programme :

26 NOVEMBER

• 9.15 am – Welcome for participants
• 9.30 am – Official greetings:
  Fr Giuseppe Buffon OFM, Rector of the Pontifical Antonianum University
  Fr Massimo Fusarelli OFM, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor
  Lúcia Portugal Núncio, Chargée d’affaires at the Embassy of Portugal to the Holy See
  André Moutinho Rodrigues, Organising Committee

Session 1

• 10.30 am – La presenza del P. Antonio de Sousa Costa all’Antonianum
  Alvaro Cacciotti (P. U. Antonianum)
• 11.00 am – Un omaggio a António Domingues de Sousa Costa: il progetto di edizione del Bollario di papa Giovanni XXI (1276–1277)
  Francesco Renzi (U. Porto) and Filomena Andrade (U. Aberta)
• 11.30 am – Discussion and break

Session 2

• 12.00 – The archival sources for Monumenta Portugaliae Vaticana
  Patrick Zutshi (Cambridge University)
• 12.30 pm – La base de données TESTACARD. Enjeux scientifiques et méthodologiques d’une entreprise de localisation des testaments et documents adventices des cardinaux (1378-1692)
  Christophe Masson (U. Liège)
• 1.00 pm – Lunch break

Session 3

• 2.30 pm – Il Clero Romano nel Medioevo
  Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri (U. Urbino)
• 3.00 pm – Revisiting Master Vincentius on the footsteps of Sousa Costa: further thoughts on the life of the canonist
  Maria João Branco (U. Nova Lisboa)
• 3.30 pm – Discussion and break

Session 4

• 4.00 pm – Il conflitto tra il re Alfonso II di Portogallo e le sue sorelle (secolo XIII)
  Enrico Veneziani (U. Roma La Sapienza) and Francesco Renzi (U. Porto)
• 4.30 pm – Il papato, l’elaborazione del primato e la riforma della chiesa
  Umberto Longo (U. Roma La Sapienza)
• 5.00 pm – Discussion

27 NOVEMBER

Session 5

• 10.00 am – Riciclaggio o veri e propri reperti archeologici? Lastre di rilegatura e prassi amministrativa nel XIV secolo avignonese
  Armand Jamme (CNRS Lyon)
• 10.30 am – “Apostolatus predicatio”: Preachers, Papal Sources, and Franciscan History in the work of António Domingues de Sousa Costa
  Eleonora Lombardo (U. Padova)
• 11.00 am – Debate e pausa

Session 6

• 11.30 am – Between Cloisters, the Court and the Curia: The Many Paths of Gomes Eanes, the “Abbot of Florence”
  Paulo Lopes (U. Nova Lisboa), João Fontes (U. Nova Lisboa), Filomena Andrade (U. Aberta)
• 12.00 – Tra fiscalità e negoziazione politica: suppliche beneficiali e rapporti tra papato avignonese e Corona d’Aragona (sec. XIV)
  Esther Tello (CSIC)
• 12.30 pm – Discussion
• 1.00 pm – Lunch break

Session 7

• 2.30 pm – The Clergy and Social Mobility in Medieval Portugal: A Perspective from Petitions
  Hermínia Vilar (U. Évora) and Maria Cristina Cunha (U. Porto)
• 3.00 pm – La peregrinatio academica portugaise vers la péninsule italienne à la fin du Moyen Âge selon le P. António Domingues de Sousa Costa
  Mário Farelo (U. Minho)
• 3.30 pm – Debate e pausa

Session 8

• 4.00 pm – Le familiae dei cardinali portoghesi del Quattrocento attraverso i registri delle suppliche
  André Moutinho Rodrigues (École française de Rome)
• 4.30 pm – “…cum eodem pepegit et convenit…” Simoniac Portuguese and the Papal Penitentiary in the late Middle Ages
  Kirsi Salonen (U. Bergen)
• 5.00 pm – Discussion and closing remarks