33
“principles of cosmology” (creatio ex nihilo, time and eternity, the nature of space,
teleology).
This arrangement, taken up by the Ratio of 1832, is not spelled out in any particular document. However, it can be found in the first philosophical manual produced at the Roman College after the return of the Jesuits, the Institutiones
philosophiae (1840) by Jozef Ludwik (Joseph Aloysius) Dmowski, professor of
logic and metaphysics from about 1830 to 1837. The structure remained in place for
decades, setting out the general relationship between “philosophical” and “scientific” components in the formation of Secchi’s generation.
It is important to note that the parts of scholastic physics that remained in the
cosmology part of metaphysics did not consist of questions about specific matters
covered by scientific research, but in areas such as the alternative between creation
versus the eternity of the world, or what characteristics of space were “real” or
“imaginary.” Moreover, natural philosophy now contained little of the common
assumptions that had identified Jesuit culture before 1773. Few of the Jesuits of
1773 were still alive in 1814, and not all of them rejoined the Society; by 1824, their
numbers had shrunk still further and none of them would have had an active role in
education.
A simple comparison of the numbers of the pre-1773 and post-1814 Jesuits,
exhibited in the order’s catalogi, confirms all this. In the case of Rome, the biographies of the members of the general Curia and of those who taught in the Collegio
Romano from 1824 prove that none of them had been a member of the old Society.
Thus, the teachers in the Roman College after 1824, both in philosophy and in
the sciences, had been trained long after the suppression of the Society and outside
of traditional Jesuit colleges. This had brought them into close contact with multiple
currents and environments of thought, often clearly alien and in some cases antagonistic toward the traditions of the old Jesuit order. These differences were passed on
to the students, so that until the prevalence of Neo-Thomism in the late nineteenth
century, students at the Roman College were taught, or found supported, a rather
diverse set of ideas of natural philosophy and epistemology, even within the common assumptions of Catholic dogma.
2.7 Closing the Divide
The contents of the scientific courses where Secchi studied are known not only in
the broad outline described above but in detail, because they can be found in publications of the teachers from near the same years as his studies. Andrea Caraffa
(1789–1845), who taught mathematical physics (1824–30, 1836–40) and pure
mathematics (1833–1844), covered the entire scope of his own teaching in Elementa
matheseos (1835), the Elementa physicae mathematicae (1840), and the Principia
calculi differentialis itemque calculi differentiarum finitarum (1845). Giovanni
Battista Pianciani (1784–1862), who taught physical chemistry from 1824 to 1848,
wrote his Istituzioni fisico-chimiche (1833–1835; republished in 1840 as Elementi
2 The Scientific Tradition of the Society of Jesus and the Formation of Angelo Secchi
“principles of cosmology” (creatio ex nihilo, time and eternity, the nature of space,
teleology).
This arrangement, taken up by the Ratio of 1832, is not spelled out in any particular document. However, it can be found in the first philosophical manual produced at the Roman College after the return of the Jesuits, the Institutiones
philosophiae (1840) by Jozef Ludwik (Joseph Aloysius) Dmowski, professor of
logic and metaphysics from about 1830 to 1837. The structure remained in place for
decades, setting out the general relationship between “philosophical” and “scientific” components in the formation of Secchi’s generation.
It is important to note that the parts of scholastic physics that remained in the
cosmology part of metaphysics did not consist of questions about specific matters
covered by scientific research, but in areas such as the alternative between creation
versus the eternity of the world, or what characteristics of space were “real” or
“imaginary.” Moreover, natural philosophy now contained little of the common
assumptions that had identified Jesuit culture before 1773. Few of the Jesuits of
1773 were still alive in 1814, and not all of them rejoined the Society; by 1824, their
numbers had shrunk still further and none of them would have had an active role in
education.
A simple comparison of the numbers of the pre-1773 and post-1814 Jesuits,
exhibited in the order’s catalogi, confirms all this. In the case of Rome, the biographies of the members of the general Curia and of those who taught in the Collegio
Romano from 1824 prove that none of them had been a member of the old Society.
Thus, the teachers in the Roman College after 1824, both in philosophy and in
the sciences, had been trained long after the suppression of the Society and outside
of traditional Jesuit colleges. This had brought them into close contact with multiple
currents and environments of thought, often clearly alien and in some cases antagonistic toward the traditions of the old Jesuit order. These differences were passed on
to the students, so that until the prevalence of Neo-Thomism in the late nineteenth
century, students at the Roman College were taught, or found supported, a rather
diverse set of ideas of natural philosophy and epistemology, even within the common assumptions of Catholic dogma.
2.7 Closing the Divide
The contents of the scientific courses where Secchi studied are known not only in
the broad outline described above but in detail, because they can be found in publications of the teachers from near the same years as his studies. Andrea Caraffa
(1789–1845), who taught mathematical physics (1824–30, 1836–40) and pure
mathematics (1833–1844), covered the entire scope of his own teaching in Elementa
matheseos (1835), the Elementa physicae mathematicae (1840), and the Principia
calculi differentialis itemque calculi differentiarum finitarum (1845). Giovanni
Battista Pianciani (1784–1862), who taught physical chemistry from 1824 to 1848,
wrote his Istituzioni fisico-chimiche (1833–1835; republished in 1840 as Elementi
2 The Scientific Tradition of the Society of Jesus and the Formation of Angelo Secchi