The Fernão Lopes Portal has a simple structure enabling easy and intuitive navigation based on three principal menus: a top menu, a main menu on a bar across the upper half of the page, and a footer menu also on a bar, but across the bottom of the page. Each menu leads to a different type of information.

To further assist the user, there is a navigation path, or 'breadcrumb', developing between the main menu and the page title. This navigation path shows clearly the sequence of pages visited and allows to return to any of them by simply clicking on any of its elements.

The menus and respective sections are organized in the following manner:

On the upper right corner - general information on the Portal, its objectives, development, people involved, and a contact form.

The main menu on the center band shows; 1) ‘Search the Chronicles’, which is the raison d'être of the Portal, containing a database offering a range of functions, filters and search strategies, and the text of the chronicles (in progress); 2) information on Fernão Lopes and on his work; 3) and finally teaching and learning tools for researchers and young scholars, split across English and Portuguese educational resources..

At the bottom of the screen, there is practical information about the Portal: how to use it, the website map, regulations adopted concerning privacy and terms and conditions.

NAVIGATING THE PORTAL

General information applicable to most of the content available on the portal:

  • Images: Many content pages feature one or more images, including photographs, illuminations, paintings, etc., from various sources. When hovering the cursor over an image, the corresponding caption will appear. Users with visual impairment, provided they have the appropriate equipment installed on their computers, will be able to hear a description of each image.
  • Maps: Most place names in Portugal are indicated on an interactive map.
  • Occurrences: these are registered at the bottom of each entry page and are located by the name of the chronicle, chapter and in many instances the line. Although the user may be consulting a different edition of the chronicle, this information, especially the line number, will allow a rough estimation of the occurrence location in the chapter, especially in the case of several references to a same person or place name, or if a given term occurs with slightly different meanings, or in different contexts within the same chapter.

The Portuguese editions used as the base for this Portal are the following:

  1. Crónica de D. Pedro, critical ed. by Giuliano Macchi (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, 2007).
  2. Crónica de D. Fernando, critical ed. by Giuliano Macchi (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, 1975), revised 2nd edition 2004.
  3. Crónica del Rei Dom Joham I de Boa Memoria e dos Reis de Portugal o Decimo, Parte Primeira, facsimile of ed. by Braamcamp Freire (Lisboa, 1915), with preface by L.F. Lindley Cintra (Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, 1973), reprinted 1977.
  4. Crónica del Rei Dom Joham I de Boa Memoria e dos Reis de Portugal o Decimo, Parte Segunda, ed. by William J. Entwistle, with a preface by L.F. Lindley Cintra (Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, 1968), reprinted 1977.

Whenever appropriate, the text of an entry may contain the indication of a given occurrence. In that case, it appears within square brackets at the end of the piece of information it relates to. In such instances, the title of the chronicle is presented in its abbreviated form and in Italics, followed by the chapter number, and in many cases followed by a colon (:) and the respective line numbers separated by commas. The abbreviated chronicle titles are as follows:

  1. Pedro - for Crónica de D. Pedro, or Chronicle of King Pedro of Portugal;
  2. Fernando - for Crónica de D. Fernando or Chronicle of King Fernando of Portugal;
  3. João1 - for Crónica del Rei Dom Joham I, Parte Primeira, or Chronicle of King João I of Portugal, Part 1;
  4. João2 - for Crónica del Rei Dom Joham I, Parte Segunda, or Chronicle of King João I of Portugal, Part 2.

Search the Chronicles:

Quick Search: The ‘Search the Chronicles' window, on the home page allows a simple search by typing the desired term and clicking on the magnifying glass icon. If searching a specific word, this can be entered either in English or Portuguese. This function generates a list of results collected from the different types of content within the Portal: terms in the glossary, names of individuals or places, and the titles of chronicle chapters. Click on the desired item in the list of results to view its content.

For instance, simply searching the word ‘Pedro’ will list all instances where this name occurs in the Portal. The results page, however, offers the option of initiating a new and more specific search by clicking ‘Clear All’ and starting again, this time using the available filters: ‘Chronicles/Section’, ‘Parts of Speech’, and ‘Lexical Types’.

Main Menu: The first option on the central bar across the home page of the Portal is ‘Search the Chronicles’. This opens a range of filters that can enable more precise searches

Users can search a term (word, name, location, even chapter titles of the chronicles), either in Portuguese or English, and select the appropriate filter or filters: ‘Chronicles/Section’, ‘Parts of Speech’, and ‘Lexical Types’.

For instance, for more precise results when searching 'Pedro', a monarch or any other person of the same name, select also the option 'Person' in the 'Chronicle/Section' window. This will bring up a list of all people bearing this name. The list will include also people with a different name, but in whose database entry the word 'Pedro' is mentioned. In most cases these will be references to the Portuguese or Castilian monarchs bearing that name.

A search for 'Pedro' followed by the option 'Glossary' in the 'Chronicle/Section' window, will generate a list of lexical terms, in most cases coins that are related to the above-mentioned monarchs, and where their names are mentioned.

A search for ‘Pedro’ followed by the option ‘Chronicle’ in the 'Chronicle/Section' window will call for the interactive title ‘The Chronicle of King Pedro’. Clicking on this title will lead the user to the page where all the chapters of this chronicle are listed. And clicking on a specific title in this list will lead to the chapter page. In time, these pages will contain the full chapter text too, but that is work still in progress.

Also, the simple selection of an option from the ‘Lexical Types’ window will generate a sub-glossary with all the terms in the database belonging to that category. For instance, selecting ‘Maritime’ will result in a list of maritime and naval terms: different types of watercraft, titles and offices, seafaring terminology, and so on.

Right Sidebar Menu: This menu allows users to explore information offered also in ‘Search the Chronicles’, such as ‘Chapter Coverage’, ‘People’, ‘Places’, ’Glossary’, ‘Events’, ‘Themes’, and ‘Bibliography’. Each of these items provides a list of content, most of them offering database entries for further exploration. This menu is available across all listings and search pages.

Chapter Coverage: This subsection lists all chronicles and respective chapters. Each chapter page contains the respective title in English, and the original Portuguese version of the title and, eventually, of the text. An English translation may also be offered in the future. At this stage, we must refer the user to the printed or online edition of The Chronicles of Fernão Lopes (Tamesis, 2023).

Chapter pages contain links to related content such as ‘People’, ‘Places’ and ‘Events’. Currently, only the Chronicle of King Pedro of Portugal has been systematically indexed with such links to other Portal content, though many chapters of the remaining chronicles have already been indexed.

On the right-hand side of Chapter Coverage pages there is a sub-menu providing access to information catalogued as: People, Places, Glossary, Events, Themes, and Bibliography. Just below this menu, there is a list of the chronicle abbreviations used in the Portal in order to avoid lengthy title repetitions.

People: These pages list the names of people mentioned in the chronicles.

One can make a specific search by typing a person's name, by using the alphabet provided to filter the search by the first letter of the person's first name or, if desired, by scrolling through.

So far, only the names referred to in the Chronicle of King Pedro of Portugal have been systematically listed, but many names from other chronicles have already been added.

The project’s ultimate objective is to create an entry for all personalities from all four volumes. At the bottom of the page for each person there is an interactive list of occurrences that can take the user to the respective Chapter. In those Chapter Pages, the user may find a list of other people and places, if they were mentioned in that same chapter. With few exceptions, names are registered using the modern orthography of the language spoken in that person’s place of origin. For example, Blanche of Bourbon, wife of Pedro King of Castile, has her name written in French as that was her origin, though alternative spellings such as ‘Blanca’, or ‘Branca’ are also offered as variants in her entry.

Whenever possible, the project attempts to identify persons through their dates of birth and death, parentage, marriage(s) and offspring, followed by any other relevant information.

A bibliographical note is introduced whenever the information offered cannot be readily found in a range of general, widely available historical works.

Places: These pages list the names of places mentioned in the chronicles.

One can make a specific search by typing a place name, by using the alphabet provided to filter the search by the first letter of that placename or, if desired, by scrolling through.

So far, only the places referred to in The Chronicle of King Pedro of Portugal have been listed, though it is the project’s objective to list most places named in all four volumes. At the bottom of the page for each place name there is an interactive list of occurrences that can take the user to the chapter page where that place is mentioned. There, the user may find a list of other people and places referred to in the same chapter.

Glossary: This page contains a Portuguese-English glossary of specialized terminology or of terms difficult to translate, or to understand, in the original text. One can search a term by simply typing it, by using the provided alphabet to filter the search by the first letter of that term, or by scrolling through the list provided. Each term entry indicates the part of speech and the lexical type it belongs to, such as: Maritime, Military, Titles & Offices, etc. Terms classified as ‘Titles & Offices’ are often associated with the names of individuals who held that title or office.

Events: This page offers a list of individual events, or of a closely related series of events, which can be found in the chronicles. An example of the former is the Battle of Aljubarrota, whereas the item titled ‘Deaths attributed to Pedro King of Castile’ lists the names of the people who met their deaths by order of the Castilian monarch, and the location.

This is a work in progress; thus, the selection of events offered is based either on their degree of significance or of singularity, as is the case for the second example given above. Portal users are invited to contact the Portal team and suggest other events they find of interest. In fact, the collection of such information may prove useful for their research and the Portal team will be pleased to assist.

'Event' searches can be done simply by typing a word in the Event’s title, by combining this search with a Category filter, by just selecting a Category, or by going through the list of Event titles offered at the bottom of the page. Just opening the 'Events' page brings up a list of event titles. Using the alphabetical filter is also a possibility, but it will only bring results if the letter selected happens to be the first letter of an event title.

Themes: In Fernão Lopes’s chronicles there are several running themes. The few offered at the moment correspond to interesting aspects of the chronicles, or information, that would be difficult to index under any of the subtitles offered above. Some of them reflect research interests of Portal team members, which means that this area of the Portal is also a continuous work in progress. Users are invited to contact the Portal team, should they be interested in the development of other themes that could benefit their own research. We believe that this could become a useful repository of data for collaborative research projects.

On this page, searches can be made by typing a word in the title of a theme, by filtering the search further selecting a category and, if a new window opens, by selecting one of its options. Results can also be obtained by simply selecting a category. If in doing so another window opens, the user must also open one of the options offered there.

Bibliography: On this page, one can search the bibliography by the title or author of a given work, the category associated with the bibliography, or by using the alphabetical filter. Most of the works listed were consulted by the content developers of the Portal. Whenever they were consulted online, we offer a link or the digital address.