(English) The teaching of astronomy at the University of Évora in the late fifteenth century: Vasco Baptista’s annotationes in sphaeram (1585)

This paper examines the teaching of astronomy at the University of Évora in the late fifteenth century. As a Jesuit institution primarily dedicated to theological training, the University of Évora has often been overlooked by historians of science. By focusing on Vasco Baptista’s 1585 course on the Sphere, this study analyzes both the shift in Jesuit astronomy education following the publication of Christoph Clavius’s Commentarius in sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco (1st ed. 1570) and the growing importance of geography, which may be interpreted as an indirect result of Iberian maritime expansion. More broadly, the paper considers the epistemological tension between mathematics and philosophy within Jesuit education and the effects of increasing religious discrimination against «New Christians» within the Portuguese Jesuit context. Despite Baptista’s promise as a theologian, his «New Christian» background most likely barred him from climbing the academic ladder – a path that, for Portuguese Jesuits, culminated in the doctorate in theology and a career as a theologian.

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• History and Archeology - Humanities