Gonçalo Melo da Silva will present on March 16th, at 3:00 pm, at the Professor Joaquim Romero Magalhães Municipal Archives of Loulé, the Conference “The Loulé Communications Network in the late Middle Ages”.
In Portugal, although municipal power constitutes a classic theme in medieval historiography, studies on municipalities and their communication networks were almost exclusively limited to participation in Cortes and dialogue with the Crown, with less knowledge being given to the processes of gathering and exchanging information outside Parliament and the Court and with other municipalities and powers, such as ecclesiastical ones, and agents, such as merchants.
Indeed, further work is still needed, for example, on the extent of the municipalities' communications network, the agents employed in this activity and their social profile, and the logistical aspects and financing of their travels. These historiographical gaps can be explained, in large part, by the scarcity of sources, which is not the case in Loulé. Thus, this conference aims to present Loulé's communications network with the outside world in the late Middle Ages, including the agents involved, their social profile, and the missions and journeys they undertook.
Gonçalo Melo da Silva has been a researcher at the Institute of Medieval Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa since 2009, where he is co-researcher responsible for the project “Thinking big about small border towns: Alto Alentejo and Alta Extremadura Leonese (13th – 16th centuries)”, funded by the FCT.
He graduated in History (2010) and obtained his Master's in History – Specialization in Medieval History, his PhD in History – Specialization in Medieval History, and his European PhD (2021) from FCSH-UNL. His doctoral thesis focused on the towns and port cities of the Algarve between 1249 and 1521. His areas of interest include Medieval History, Maritime History, Urban History, and Religious History, as well as Digital Humanities and Science Communication. He is currently involved in several national and international projects. Among his most recent works is "Os Livros de Receita e Despesa de Loulé (1375-1518)," published by the Loulé City Council.
