Res Jesuítica & Humanismo promotes R&D on Humanism through the lens of Jesuit History or the historical sources of the Society of Jesus. Apart from the Cursus Aristotelicus Conimbricensis, the project will also develop the Thespis database – a colection of neo-Latin Jesuit theatre in Portugal – and disseminate an unpublished collection of documents (16th-18th centuries), belonging to the old College of Jesus in Coimbra – the Thesaurus SJ.
Jesuit Studies are a growing field of study all over the globe, focused on the role of Jesuits in science and art, in rhetoric and literature, in theology and philosophy, in law and politics, in religion, in missions, and in interreligious and intercultural exchanges.
Coimbra (much like Lisbon and Évora) possesses important collections of literary sources of such nature, since the College of Jesus of Coimbra was one of the institutions that impacted European intellectual life most profoundly at the start of the modern.
Apart from that, Jesuits obtained a strong institutional role in Coimbra for the first time in an already existing University. This experience established a model of College-University that would be replicated elsewhere. Thus, the school in Coimbra possesses a significant collection of neo-Latin literary sources, relevant for the study of diverse subjects, such as Literature, Rhetoric, Pedagogy, Theology, Philosophy, Science, the Arts, Theatre, Music, Law, Politics, Religion, and Intercultural Exchanges.
A part of this heritage remains unknown and at risk of being lost. The main objective of the Res Jesuitica & Humanism project is to safeguard it by bringing it to the attention of the scientific community.