The Portuguese Jesuit schools and the Scientific Revolution: Inácio Monteiro and the reception of the new theories of light in Portugal

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the activity of Jesuit teachers at the schools of the Portuguese Assistance concerning the study of applied mathematics, which included subjects such as astronomy and geometric optics. It shall address the widely asserted thesis that there should have been a delay in the reception of the new theories from Scientific Revolution in the Portuguese context. It will be argued that the study of manuscript texts composed by teachers from the Portuguese Assistance schools allows a different approach to the issue, which, on the one hand, identifies an important - and articulated with Scientific Revolution matters – debate on the statute of mathematical subjects, which led to an autonomous understanding of what should be studied and how; and, on the other hand, a critical reception of the new scientific theories, whose discussion was articulated with the synthesis of that debate on the statute of mathematics. Concerning the later, we have limited our sources to the ones about a very specific scientific controversy, namely, the discussion on the nature of light.

Keywords: Scientific Revolution, Jesuits, schools, mathematics, optics, light.