Historians citing historians: statements of truths and the construction of historical discourse (Diogo Borel and the translations of the French Constitution)

Abstract

Historiography is constructed, among other things, by the referencing of predecessor works in the field of investigation. Often,these quotations occur with the intention of reinforcing arguments, as established historiographic validation. This article analyses one of these historiographically established truths – the translation and printing into Portuguese of twelve thousand co- pies of the French constitution of 1791 and the Père Gérard by the French bookseller living in Lisbon, Diogo Borel – consolidated in Luso-Brazilian historiography since the nineteenth century, and the ways in which historians have used and with most diverse theoretical matrices and historiographic appropriations.