Francisco Malta Romeiras, Luís Campos Ribeiro, Elisa Frei
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
The Jesuits’ commitment to paperwork and bureaucracy was a distinctive quality of the Society of Jesus since its foundation in 1540. By examining the catalogues produced in Portugal between 1555 and 1754, we argue that this evaluation of the bodily and spiritual qualities of individual Jesuits, especially of their temperament and ingenuity, left a profound mark in the Jesuits’ way of proceeding and that the compilation of these lists was a means to discern the skills most urgently needed for particular contexts and to make the best possible appointments across the globe. Finally, we show that Jesuit mathematicians in Lisbon taught their students how to calculate the natural complexion with astrological techniques.
期刊介绍:
Early Science and Medicine (ESM) is a peer-reviewed international journal dedicated to the history of science, medicine and technology from the earliest times through to the end of the eighteenth century. The need to treat in a single journal all aspects of scientific activity and thought to the eighteenth century is due to two factors: to the continued importance of ancient sources throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period, and to the comparably low degree of specialization and the high degree of disciplinary interdependence characterizing the period before the professionalization of science.