Bringing it all Back Home: Portuguese Engineers and their Travels of Learning (1850-1900)

Abstract

During the 19th century travels of learning became more and more focused, within a framework of a growing professionalisation and specialisation of sciences and technology. The dilettante and the polymath of the 18th century gave place to the professional man; the uncompromising travel diaries and notebooks gave place to the technical and scientific report or the textbook; the concept of learning itself swift from a general approach to a well circumscribed field of expertise. It is within this context of the growing specialisation of both the travel and the travellers that the travels of Portuguese engineers during the 19th century will be examined in this paper.