Mathematics in the Jesuit Colleges in Spain in the 17th and 18th centuries

• Autores: Agustín Udías Vallina
• Localización: The Circulation of Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science. Barcelona, 18-20 November 2010 / coord. por Antoni M. Roca Rosell, 2012, ISBN 978-84-9965-108-8, págs. 328-332
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Jesuits established a network of colleges in Spain which reached 126 in the 18th century. According to the Ratio Studiorum mathematics should be included in the philosophy programs of all Jesuit schools. In contrast to other European countries, Spanish Jesuits showed a certain resistance to fulfil this requirement. Explicit mention of mathematics professors are only recorded for the colleges of Madrid, Barcelona, Cadiz and Calatayud. The longest list is that of the Colegio Imperial of Madrid from 1627 to 1767, but of the 23 professors only 13 were Spaniards. In the other colleges, with the exception of Cadiz, teaching mathematics began in the middle of the 18th century. Teaching was centred in geometry during the first years, and later in algebra with the introduction of differential and integral calculus in the last years before the expulsion of Jesuits from Spain in 1767. The professors of the Colegio Imperial, where two chairs of mathematics were established in 1625, left a number of published books and unpublished manuscripts. Among the Spaniards excelled José Zaragoza and Tomás Cerdá, who proposed the publication of a series of mathematical textbooks. Some foreign professors were della Faille, Richard, Petrei, Wendlingen and Rieger. Mathematics were given a special importance in the Seminarios de Nobles of Madrid, Barcelona and Calatayud, founded in the middle of the 18th century. The contents of the teachings can be followed from the Conclusiones Mathematicas, the published programs of mathematical dissertations by students of the Seminario de Nobles and the Colegio Imperial of Madrid between 1704 and 1762. In them we can find when modern mathematics was introduced as well as the acceptance of the Copernican system and Newtonian physics.