The Louvain printers and the establishment of the Cartesian curriculum

Abstract

With regard to the public circulation of knowledge, universities are often regarded as privileged institutions where information and ideas are formally transmitted through regulated didactic experiences. University life, however, provided a more complex environment in which various parallel and perhaps contradictory processes of transmission were at work. In this paper, we analyse a set of 55 engravings with scientific images, which started to appear around 1670 in student notebooks at the University of Louvain. These engravings, produced and sold by the Louvain printers Michael Hayé and Lambert Blendeff, were related to the philosophy curriculum of the Faculty of Arts but did not correspond entirely to the actual topics or doctrine taught. In fact, the obvious Cartesian orientation of the images was not in line with the more prudent position of the Faculty. This paper offers a preliminary analysis of the set of engravings and their role in the Cartesian reforms at Louvain.