Little is known about the history of cabinets of natural philosophy, later known as cabinets of physics, in Portugal. Scientific instruments assembled by the Portuguese royal family for purposes of teaching, study and entertainment were thought to have been lost. A recent ‘discovery’ of a significant number of ‘lost’ royal instruments from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries has prompted research into the organization, use and dispersal of royal cabinets of physics in Portugal and Brazil. In this paper, I will present this research, focusing on the discussion of the methods and challenges. I will also discuss some preliminary results
