1. Pedro Nunes Complete Works (Obras de Pedro Nunes) The publication of Pedro Nunes' Complete Works (Obras de Pedro Nunes) has been my most absorbing task in the past years. The following volumes were already published: Vol. I: Tratado da Sphera & Astronomici introductorii de spaera epitome (2002), 320 pp. Vol. II. De crepusculis (2003), 431 pp. Vol. III. De erratis Orontii Finaei (2005), 409 pp. Vol. IV. De arte atque ratione nauigandi (2008), 805 pp. Vol. V. In theoricas planetarum Georgii Purbachii annotationes (2011), 465 pp. Vol. VI. Libro de algebra en arithmetica y Geometria (2010), 576 pp. For more information about this project, click here. 2. Francisco de Melo's mathematical works I am working with Bernardo Mota on the edition of Francisco de Melo's mathematical works. We have been working with the copy at the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa (Cod. 2262), but the recent find in Germany, at the Stralsund Municipal Archive, of the original manuscript gave an added impulse to our work. The original manuscript is a remarkable item, truly the present for a King. It was located by dr. Jürgen Geiss of the Staatsbibliothek Berlin. 3. Manuel Dias' Tianwenlüe 天问略 I am working with a sinologist colleague, Rui Magone (Berlin), on the edition of Manuel Dias' Tianwenlüe 天问略(1615). It has been great fun, but also lots of work. The Tianwenlüe 天问略 is famous because of this last page, where Galileo's telescopic observations are described for the first time in Chinese. You can check the blog where we discuss our progress in detail. For more information about this project, click here. 4. Genna-kokaisho I have been working with José Miguel Pinto dos Santos on the Genna-kokaisho (1618) [Voyage of the Genna-age] the Japanese translation and adaptation of a Portuguese nautical guide.It was written by one Ikeda Koun after traveling with pilot Manuel Gonçalves from Nagasaki to Luzon, in the Philippines. Genna-kokaisho is online here. For more information about this project, click here. 5. Translation of Ancient Scientific Texts Together with some colleagues (Armando Martins, Bernardo Mota, Carlos Sá and Samuel Gessner) I have been engaged in the translation of ancient scientific texts. We already translated Euclid's Optics and Catoptricts (in the Latin version of Zamberto), Theodosius's Spherics, and we are presently translating Peurbach and Regiomontanus's Epitome of the Almagest. We have also translated bits and pieces of Euclid, Autolycus and Diophantus, from Greek. We plan to publish some of these translations; others no. I have learned immensely from this effort and from the knowledge of my colleagues -- and it has been great fun. For more information about this project, click here. 6. Scientific Manuscripts of the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal Although formally ended as a FCT Project, («Património científico e cultura manuscrita: A colecção de manuscritos científicos da Biblioteca Nacional, Lisboa», POCTI/HCT/58543/2004) the Cataloguing of the scientific manuscripts at the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal continues. Some 1000 manuscripts were analysed and catalogued so far -- and some nice findings I will be reporting here... I am always interested in examining old scientific manuscripts. If you own any and want to have my opinion on it, or if you would like my assistance to help you with any problems (subject, author, date, etc), do get in touch with me. 7. Database of bibliography on the History of Science in Portugal The idea is to set up a massive bibliographical database of materials (books, papers, etc) related to the History of Science in Portugal. Our plan (that is, Conceição Tavares's and mine) is to start very conservatively: first of all we published a book: Bibliografia de História da Ciência em Portugal, 200-2004. (see the Books page; it is online now.) This allowed us to explore the field a get an idea of what was being published and by whom. The main difficulty, we immediately realized, is that, except for a hard core of professionals (around 30 persons in Portugal) the rest of the works are amateurish and they are published in the most diversified places. Nevertheless we decided to be thorough and include everything regardless of the quality (or lack of it). So, dispersion was our main obstacle. We are now working on the Bibliografia de História da Ciência em Portugal, for the years 2005-2009. After this we will start a database with all bibliographical references. 8. Books and Science I have long been interested in Libraries and Books on scientific matters. I maintain a collaboration with the National Library in Lisbon since 2001. Together with the staff at the Rare Book Division (Reservados), headed by Lígia de Azevedo Martins, we prepared the Catalogue of fifteenth and sixteenth century books on science (see the Books page) and we set up four exhibitions at the National Library on matters related to science (see the Exhibitions page). We have also been working on the Collection of old scientific manuscripts (see above). I am also interested in the use of recent techniques and books. During (2005-2007) I was involved as adviser (consultor) in a major project of digitization of old books at the Porto University («Projecto de Informatização, Digitalização e Divulgação do Fundo Bibliográfico Antigo da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto». Site in: http://www.fc.up.pt/fa.This was one of the pioneer projects of its kind in Portugal (see news about the project). I already collaborated with renown international book dealers (e. g. Martayan Lan, in New York) and many rare book dealers in Portugal. 9. Other projects More formally, here's a list of other projects I am involved in:
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