From the text sources to the map: the Parish Memories, a para cadastre of Portugal (1758-1761)

Abstract

This study explores the cartographic reconstruction of 18th-century Portuguese parishes and municipalities, using Vila Viçosa as a case study. Based on the 1758 Parish Memories and other historical sources, it employs Natural Language Processing and QGIS to extract and map geographical and administrative data. The research highlights challenges such as overlapping or vanished parishes, particularly in rural areas where jurisdictions overlapped. To address these issues, negative polygons were used to represent territories outside Vila Viçosa’s jurisdiction. The study underscores the importance of cross-referencing multiple sources for accurate territorial mapping.