Lisbon, University of

one of the oldest and largest universities of Portugal, founded in 1290 by an edict of King Diniz I. It had faculties of humanities, civil law, canon law, and medicine. Between 1308 and 1537 it was moved back and forth several times between Lisbon and Coimbra (becoming the University of Coimbra in 1537). The University of Lisbon was reestablished in 1911, consisting of faculties of humanities, natural sciences, and medicine and a school of pharmacology. In 1913 a faculty of law was organized.

As of 1972, the university had faculties of letters (with centers of archaeology, geography, history, and psychology and a number of scientific research institutes, including institutes of the arts and archaeology, American civilization, Portuguese philology, philosophy, and the history of pedagogy), medicine (centers of cardiology as well as histology and embryology; institutes of anatomy, pathology, bacteriology, ophthalmology, oncology, pharmacy, and physiology; and laboratories of electron microscopy, atomic medicine, and physiological chemistry), law (a center of jurisprudence and an institute of law), and natural sciences (centers of physiology, geology, mathematics, and radiochemistry; an astronomical observatory; a geographical institute; and a laboratory of mineralogy and geology). The general library has more than 200,000 volumes; the faculties have specialized libraries.

In the 1971–72 academic year there were 14,500 students and 560 teachers, including about 100 professors. The university publishes 20 scientific journals and bulletins.