Pedro Nunes na "Aula da Esfera": O ensino da navegação teórica em Lisboa no colégio jesuíta de Santo Antão
- Book Title:
- Ciência, Tecnologia e Medicina na construção de Portugal. Vol. 1: Novos horizontes (sécs. XVI–XVII)
- Book Editor:
- Format:
- Book Chapter
- Year:
- 2021
- Publisher:
- Tinta da China
- Place published:
- Lisbon
- Volume:
- 1
- Language:
- Abstract:
The birth and development of scientific navigation are profoundly linked to the work of the Portuguese cosmographer and mathematician Pedro Nunes. Beginning in the 1530s, Nunes used mathematics to address concepts, common procedures, and instruments in the art of navigation, thus accelerating its evolution from a tipically artisanal practice to a scientific discipline. This innovative way of approaching the art of navigation provoked interest at various levels of society, from the scholarly to the imminently practical. However, given the technical nature of Pedro Nunes's work, the transmission of this knowledge to non-learned audiences was not linear. It was necessary to progressively transform, adapt, and/or simplify knowledge, often employing the skills of individuals who possessed both the expertise to grasp technical concepts and the ability to transmit them. Many such agents — cosmographers, cartographers, instrument builders, mathematical practicioners, etc. — were linked to the practice and/or teaching of cosmography and the art of navigation.
At first, Pedro Nunes himself contributed to this process through his teaching at the "Class of the Cosmographer". This was a compulsory course where pilots, cartographers, and other navigation professionals were instructed in common subjects in the art of navigation and sometimes advanced topics. Similarly, other pedagogical initiatives with comparable objectives emerged in Portugal, Spain and England during the 16th and 17th centuries. Extant sources report the existence of classes at the university, private lessons for pilots, classes required by the central power, etc., all of which attest to a clear interest in both the practical and theorical sides of navigation, and often in the work of Pedro Nunes.
In Portugal, Nunes's work on navigation was recognized by the Jesuit education system. In the 16th century, the Jesuits created an international teaching network supported by their own supranational pedagogical orientations, but flexible enough to support variation sensitive to local interests. In Portugal, navigation was one of the most highly valued topics, and was offered in the famous class of sciences — the "Class on the Sphere" — at the Jesuit college of Santo Antão in Lisbon.
This chapter focuses on the presence of Pedro Nunes's work in vernacular sources associated with the "Class on the Sphere", at the end of the 16th century and during the 17th century. Three case-studies are addressed: an original text about navigation based on the classes taught by one of the first teachers; a scientific debate around advanced topics of navigation; the use of secondary sources to access Nunes's work, with teaching purposes. Through these cases, it becomes possible to better understand the strategies used to communicate and transmit scientific knowledge about navigation at the "Class on the Sphere". The chapter also provices key insights about varations in the quality of the teaching of navigation at the institution, as a function of the teachers' goals and abilities and students' own interests.
- Who (Jesuits):
- What (Subjects):
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Publisher URL:
- Page Range:
- 151-174
- ISBN:
- 9789896715960
- Comment:
- Abstract on pp. 459–460.