The Coimbra Jesuit Course in 18th–19th Century Russia

Without any doubt, this matter requires further data collection and study, deserving deeper and more thorough research. Nevertheless, even at this stage of our inquiry, we can reach some conclusions. First of all, looking for copies of the Coimbra Jesuit Course on the territory of the former Russian empire, one should dig in the catalogs of the state or university scientific libraries in the cities where Jesuit colleges or missions were formerly established. Secondly, many copies which ended up in the Imperial Public Library (the former name of the National Library of Russia) were previously in the possession of Jesuit colleges in Poland, which were providing teachers and programs for the opening of colleges on Russian territory. Thirdly, the copies of the Coimbra Jesuit Course were owned not only by institutions but also by individuals educated in Jesuit colleges. Finally, it was not only in the Jesuit educational establishments that Russian intellectuals could get acquainted with the Coimbra Jesuit Course, as shows the case of Innocent of Irkutsk. Taking into account that Kievo-Mohilanskaya Akademy and  Slavic Greek Latin Academy closely mirrored the example of the Jesuit colleges and used the Coimbra Jesuit Course in their teaching, it turned out that some of their students were bringing the Cursus to their personal libraries even after graduation.