Abel Salazar e a recepção do antigo Egipto

Primeiros passos de um projecto de investigação

Abstract

Abel Salazar (1889-1946) is considered one of Portugal's greatest humanists. In a constant search for knowledge, for an understanding of Man and human society in its multiple dimensions and with a constant concern for the production and dissemination of knowledge as a mean of transforming and developing Humanity, this Author, with a vast scientific output in his field of training (Medicine), wrote and often published other texts in fields as varied as Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology, History and the Science and Theory of History, Religion, Politics, Culture and Art.

Within the framework of the research project on the reception of ancient Egypt, entitled “Egiptomania em Portugal - Caminhos da recepção do antigo Egipto em contexto português” which we are starting, we intend to revisit his vast oeuvre, a context of multiple interconnections of different areas of knowledge and ideas, with the aim of identifying the presence and influence, direct or indirect, of the civilization of ancient Egypt in his thought. In this text, besides giving an overview of the most striking elements of his life, we will make an exploratory incursion into his collection of manuscripts, providing some illustrative examples of the way in which Abel Salazar related to the civilization and culture of Pharaonic times.