Francisco Malta Romeiras, Jesuits and the Book of Nature: Science and Education in Modern Portugal (Leiden: Brill, 2019).

XVII + 281 pp. ISBN: 978-90-04-38236-7.

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This book offers an account of the Jesuits’ contributions to science and education after the restoration of the Society of Jesus in Portugal in 1858. As well as promoting an education grounded on an “alliance between religion and science,” the Portuguese Jesuits founded a scientific journal that played a signicant role in the consolidation of taxonomy, plant breeding, biochemistry, and molecular genetics. In this book, I argue that the priority the Jesuits placed on the teaching and practice of science was not only a way of continuing a centennial tradition but should also be seen as response to the adverse anticlerical milieu in which the restoration of the Society of Jesus took place.

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Book reviews:

Agustin Udías, Journal of Jesuit Studies 7 (2020): 319–322.

Maria Pia Donato, Isis 112 (2021):  419–420.

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Francisco Malta Romeiras, A Biblioteca Erudita de Campolide: A história de uma biblioteca jesuíta dispersa pela República (Cascais: Lucerna, 2022).

224 p. ISBN: 978-989-8993-46-5.

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This book is about the library of the Jesuit College of Campolide, in Lisbon. With an estimated collection of fifteen to eighteen thousand volumes, the library of Campolide was arguably the largest of its kind in nineteenth-century Portugal. Founded in the 1850s, it was closed and dismantled after the Republican revolution in 1910. After a decade of litigation over its property, the court decided to hand the books to the state. Following this decision, a renowned librarian and academic visited the library for the first time since the expulsion of the Jesuits. Entrusted to study and catalog it, António Joaquim Anselmo was moderately enthusiastic with the task at hand. Alas, after a few months, he was recalled to his ordinary role at the National Library. He was not able to produce a catalog, but given the magnitude of the library and the significant collection of rare books, Anselmo decided to publish his first impressions in a Portuguese magazine. The remnants of the Jesuit library were eventually transferred to the National Library, but since there was no catalog at the time, only a small portion can be identified today. By tracing all the printed books and manuscripts with ownership marks of the College of Campolide at the National Library, this book contributes to Anselmos's daunting task and sets out to study its collections in the broader context of Jesuit science and education.

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Francisco Malta Romeiras, Jesuítas em Portugal depois de Pombal. História ilustrada (Cascais: Lucerna, 2018).

XIX + 141 p. ISBN: 978-989-8809-57-5.

  

This book is an illustrated history of the Portuguese Jesuits after the 1759 expulsion by the Marquis of Pombal. It includes about 260 unknown photographs of the most significant Jesuit boarding schools and colleges in nineteenth and twentieth-century Portugal.

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Book reviews:

Maria de Deus Manso, Journal of Jesuit Studies 6 (2019): 179–81.

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Francisco Malta Romeiras, Ciência, Prestígio e Devoção: Os Jesuítas e a Ciência em Portugal (séculos XIX e XX), (Cascais: Lucerna, 2015).

288 p. ISBN: 978-989-8516-92-3

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This book is based on my doctoral dissertation on Jesuit science and education in nineteenth and twentieth-century Portugal. In 2015 it was awarded an honorable mention in Portuguese contemporary history: Menção Honrosa do Prémio Victor de Sá de História Contemporânea. The public announcement can be read here.  

 

A short interview can also be read here.

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Book reviews:

Agustín Udías, Journal of Jesuit Studies 2 (2015): 708–709;

Francisco Pires Lopes, Brotéria 180 (2015): 199–200.

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Francisco Malta Romeiras, Henrique Leitão (eds.), Obra Selecta do Padre Luís Archer, S.J., 4 vols. (Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 2015–2017). ISBN: 978-972-31-1566-6

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Volume I: História e Filosofia das Ciências (Lisbon: FCG, 2015). LI + 474 p.

Volume II: Ciência e Religião (Lisbon, FCG, 2016). XXIV + 342 p.

Volume III: Bioética (1980–1997) (Lisbon: FCG, 2016). XXXVII + 403 p.

Volume IV: Bioética (1998–2007) (Lisbon: FCG, 2017). XXXV + 500 p.

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The books can be ordered online here. 

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An interview conducted by Filipe d'Avillez can be found here.

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