Schooling the Discoveries. Jesuit Education Between Science and Geographic Literacy in the Age of Iberian Expansion (15th-18th c.) - I
The change of pedagogical paradigms occurred during the Sixteenth century has often been related to the rupture of religious unity and the processes of political centralization of European states. In the same period, however, historiography has neglected the influence on the school world exerted by the maritime expansion and the geographical discoveries made by the Iberian kingdoms. So far, the prevailing hypothesis stated that geography entered significantly into school classrooms only in Nineteenth century England, as an effect of modern colonialism. In this study, the two authors show the role of the Society of Jesus in redefining the assumptions of geographical and scientific teaching as a defining element of early modern Catholic education.