Press Releases

Lisbon, 21 October 2010 – It was announced today at the Casa Fernando Pessoa that the private library of Fernando Pessoa is now available online. This is the first Portuguese library to be completely digitised. This means that readers in any part of the world can now access this important legacy of one of the leading figures of Portuguese culture.

Until now, it was only possible to consult this extremely rich collection by visiting the Casa Fernando Pessoa – not just the library of 1140 volumes but also the collection of manuscripts – essays and poems – that the author left between the pages of the books.

As a result of this initiative, all the pages of every volume have been digitised and made available for consultation page by page or for download of a complete work at http://casafernandopessoa.cm-lisboa.pt.

As well as the opportunity to consult each work by author, year or alphabetical order, they are also classified into thematic categories.

To facilitate understanding of the library as a whole, pages that include manuscript notes by Pessoa have been highlighted and commentaries on his reasons for acquiring certain works have been added.

This access to Fernando Pessoa’s private library has been made possible thanks to the combined efforts of the Casa Fernando Pessoa, an international team of researchers and the Vodafone Portugal Foundation which supported the initiative with approximately 77 000 euros.