Classes and problems of natural philosophy of P. Francisco Mendoça SJ

Abstract

The author presents De floribus Philosophiae written by the famous Jesuit Francisco Mendoça (†1626), professor of Philosophy and rector of the College of Arts in Coimbra in the first years of the XVIIth century. The work was published in a thick volume edited by the said College after the author’s death with the title Viridarium Sacrae et profanae eruditionis a real monument of encyclopaedic knowledge. 47 problemas are presented in De floribus Philosophiae, pertaining to Geography, Anatomy, Physics, Psychology, Astronomy and Anthropology. The text can thus be read as a contribution to the history of science.