Historical Studies at Lviv Jesuit Academy (1661–1773)

Abstract

The article traces a lengthy process of gradual introduction of historical studies to the schooling model of the Society of Jesus as exemplified by Lviv Jesuit Collegium. This model, formalized by the educational statute «Ratio Studiorum» of 1599, which remained unchanged until the Society was liquidated, did not formally provide for teaching history as a separate discipline, although pupils obtained certain information about the past during the entire course of studies. In the first half of the 17th century it was only classical authors who served as a source of such knowledge — their texts were used as samples for studying Latin and rhetoric, and as a well for acquiring «eruditio». However, since «Ratio Studiorum» did not explicitly forbid using the texts of new historiography, teachers could take the initiative to provide the youth with a wider scope of knowledge. A bibliographical encyclopedia by Antonio Possevino has played a particularly big role in spreading such «teaching liberalism» (І ed.: Rome, 1593), when it was recommended to supplement the lectures with the works of «new» authors. It is also worth mentioning the first textbook in history for the Jesuit schools by Orazio Torsellino (І ed.: Rome, 1598). In Lviv, a changing attitude towards history was exemplified by the first works of Collegium professors Maciej Wielewicz and Jan Zuchowicz in 1660s which described current events of those days. It was then that under the public pressure the courses in rhetoric started to teach political discourse focusing on the knowledge important for this genre: genealogy, heraldry, historical geography, and the history of law and «the national past». These innovations continued in late 17th — middle of 18th centuries in a number of works of Lviv professors who used the Western textbooks in history (the article analyzes this in detail). Thus, introduction of history as a separate branch of studies in Lviv since 1739 became a logical follow-up of the changes which had been accumulating for a long time.