The Jesuits and Italian Universities, 1548-1773

Jesuits in the Early Modern Period (1540–1773)

“…The colleges hosted the scholastics who were attending classes at the university. In 1544 there were seven colleges of this type: Paris, Leuven, Cologne, Padua, Alcalá, Valencia, and Coimbra (Grendler 2017;Mattei and Casalini 2016;Maryks 2012;Brizzi and Greci 2001;Giard 1995).…”

Scholars and Literati at the University of Coimbra (1290–1800)

“…In a bid to improve the situation, the king turned to the Jesuits, who had earned widespread respect in Coimbra in the years since their arrival. The founder of the Society of Jesus, Ignatius of Loyola, accepted the king's invitation and recruited some of the society's most distinguished scholars, as noted by Grendler (2017). The Jesuits made a significant contribution to the University of Coimbra in the centuries that followed, until their expulsion in 1759.…”

Jesuit Schools and Universities in Europe, 1548–1773

“…Again, their request was granted; the law and medicine professors taught in a renovated palace located a fifteen-minute walk distant from the Jesuit school. 197 Additional curricular and pedagogical details reveal more about how the Jesuits fitted into an Italian law and medicine university while remaining faithful to the Ratio studiorum. Although the Jesuits comprised about one-third of the professors, they offered about forty percent of the lectures, because the four Jesuits who taught metaphysics, natural philosophy, logic, and rhetoric lectured twice daily, in the morning and the afternoon.…”