The 'Memorias Paroquiais' (Parish Descriptions) arise from a series of attempts to gather information about Portugal, by means of a questionnaire, beginning early in the 18th century. They were continued by the work of Fr. Luís Cardoso, who, between 1747 and 1751, published two volumes of his Geographical Dictionary, which remained incomplete. The project was once more taken up in 1758, with government support, when the original questionnaire was enlarged and divided into three parts, containing questions on the parish, the mountains and the rivers. The inquiry was directed at parish priests and the quality of the responses is extremely varied, depending on the effort and capacity of each cleric.

Includes bibliographical references.