Author: Mário Santiago de Carvalho
Part of: Conimbricenses Posteriores (coord. by Mário Santiago de Carvalho)
Peer-Reviewed: Yes
Published: June, 11th, 2021
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4926883

The latest version of this entry may be cited as follows: Carvalho, Mário Santiago de, “Cordeiro, António”, Conimbricenses.org Encyclopedia, Mário Santiago de Carvalho, Simone Guidi (eds.), doi = “10.5281/zenodo.4926883”, URL = “https://www.conimbricenses.org/encyclopedia/cordeiro-antonio”, latest revision: June, 11th, 2021.

Life

António Cordeiro de Espinosa (Antonius Cordeyro) was born in Angra do Heroísmo (island of Terceira, Azores) before August 12, 1640 (see Rosa 2001: 101). This is an important year in Portuguese history because in the first day of December a revolution that definitively expells the Spanish crown from the country and inaugurates the fourth Dynasty, the Braganças Dynasty, breaks out. The following three points may be evoked as regards the relation of Portuguese intellectuals, the Society of Jesus, and Universities with that revolution. First, the name of the Eremite of Saint Augustine, Filipe Moreira, who in 1640 owns the Chair of Prima in the Faculty of Theology at the University of Coimbra, and delivers a solemn speech on behalf of the entire don’s cloister, saluting King John IV, as a pledged of the Portuguese University to the new and ambitioned political situation. Secondly, Francisco Soares de Alarcão (a.k.a. Francisco Soares Lusitano), who is to be known for the composition of an impressive philosophical course (1651) that will leave its mark on Cordeiro, profers a similar eulogy at the Jesuit University of Évora. Finally, in what is perhaps the best known of Cordeiro’s books, the História Insulana, Cordeiro unequivocally dwells on this revolution (Rosa 2001; Mancia 2001). In two of his titles, Cordeiro (1717 and 1719) left some indications related to his biography. Being the sixth and last son of Manuel Cordeiro Moutoso and Maria Espinoza, António Cordeiro spends his youth in his native island and studies in the Jesuit College of Angra do Heroísmo. The first College had been founded in the island of Terceira in 1569 by King Sebastian. Already in 1570, its first members were Luís de Vasconcelos, rector and master of cases; the preachers Pedro Gómez and Baltasar Barreira; and the teachers of the first (Rhetoric) and second (Latin) classes, Pedro Freire e Sebastião Álvares, respectively (Cordeiro 1717: 283). In the aforementioned work, Cordeiro writes some paragraphs about the Royal College of his island alluding to those courses but he must have been a resident of the second College (Colégio da Ascenção) founded in 1608 (Gomes 2005: 200). António Cordeiro depicts an episode related to one of his brother’s health, João Cordeiro de Espinosa, and even mentions some of their colleagues in the College in 1659 (see Cordeiro 1719: VI §607). Together with his other brother, Pedro Cordeiro de Espinosa, the teenager António Cordeiro sails in 1656 to the mainland, for their father wished his youngest son would pursue a career in Law. He sailed on a ship of the Spanish fleet headed by Álvaro de Bustamante, probably a relative of the Cordeiro’s family. The journey towards Portugal was troubled and António Cordeiro’s life was in danger (see Rosa 2001; Cordeiro 1717: 356). After severe tribulations, with a short period of imprisonment – apparently, his ability to recite by heart entire verses from Virgil set him free –, Cordeiro manages to enter into the Portuguese Kingdom by south (Algarve), from Cadiz (Spain), and reaches Coimbra after passing through Castro Marim, Tavira, Faro, Lagos, Setúbal (where he was arrested again, this time not for political but for sanitary reasons) and Lisbon. It is to be remembered that between 1653 and 1665, during the division of the Jesuit Province in two, the Portuguese Province and the Alentejo Province (Transtagana), Coimbra Colleges belonged to the former (together with Porto, Braga, Bragança, Santarém as well as the three already existing Colleges in the Azores Islands, Terceira, São Miguel and Faial). Thanks to his brother’s advice, António Cordeiro enrolls in the College of Arts and the Faculty of Canon Law at the University of Coimbra. In the latter, he could have followed the lessons of Sebastião da Guarda Fragoso, Pedro Ribeiro do Lago or Diogo Álvares Mourão. It is thanks to the intervention of his teacher of philosophy at the College of Arts, João de Carvalho, on June 12, 1657, that Cordeiro enters the Society of Jesus (it seems he was also invited by D. Frei Cristóvão da Silveira to join the Eremites of Saint Augustin). Coincidently, on that eve of Saint Anthony of Lisbon’s day, one hundred and fifteen years had passed after the first entry of the Society of Jesus into Coimbra (Martins 2014: 282). In 1658, the novice Cordeiro takes a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of the Notre Dame of  Lapa in Sernancelhe (district of Viseu, dioceses of Lamego, 91 Km and 150 km distant from Coimbra, respectively). After concluding the degree in humanities (October 1660), Cordeiro begins the philosophical course as a student of Pantaleão Rangel, in the first and second courses; and of Manuel Guedes, in the third and fourth courses (see Gomes 2012: 256). He receives an Arts degree in 1664 and is sent to his archipelago (island of São Miguel) to teach humanities at the College of São Miguel, under the Rectorates of Gonçalo de Àrez and Manuel Soares (see Rosa 2001: 103). He stays in the island of São Miguel for four years. In 1668 António Cordeiro returns to Coimbra to study theology for four years (1668-1672), and is ordained priest (1671) by the end of the third year of the course. Moraes (1966: 16) identifies eight of his teachers at the Coimbra Jesuit College, viz. João Cabral, Domingos de Paiva, João de Almeida, Francisco de Almada, Pedro de Amaral, João de Carvalho, Manuel Guedes and Luís de Almeida. During one of his missions to the Archbishopric of Braga in 1672, Cordeiro reports being a victim of poisoning (Rosa 2001: 103-4; Cordeiro 1717: 138). He is ordered to go to the Lisbon College of Saint Antão to teach mostly humanities and rhetoric, which he does for three years (1673-1676). Once returned to Coimbra, Cordeiro endures what is usually considered as the “critical period of his life” (Gomes 2005: 200), likely from 1676 until 1696. The Coimbra College of Arts teacher’s catalogue registers António Cordeiro as a member of the cloister of the masters between 1676 and 1680 (Guedes 2014: 257), during Gaspar Álvares’s and João Gomes’s Rectorates. He teaches an entire philosophical course there. Moraes (1966: 76-78) conjectures that Cordeiro finishes reading the course on Logica on July 27, 1677; that, between October 1677, and July 1678, he reads the first part of the course on Physica (Corporeal Physics), as well as the one on the De Generatione, De Caelo, Meteororum, Parva Naturalia and De Anima in 1678/1679; finally, still according to Moraes, Cordeiro finishes the fourth year of the philosophical course in March 1680, reading the Metaphysica.  It is from this four-year period that Cordeiro’s famous Cursus Philosophicus Conimbricensis derives. Published much later, though with minor substantial modifications (see Moraes 1966: 101), the writing and publishing process will suffer from personal and intellectual difficulties, as will be said ahead. On April 21, 1678, writing to the provincial, Cordeiro responds to five criticisms made by two revisors of his lessons on the Physica (see below § 2.1.). Later, on March 8, 1713, at the first page of these published lessons, he accepts to retract from three opinions (see Gomes 2002: 219 and Rodrigues 1950: 342). Below we will return to this issue. On August 15, 1679, still being a lecturer of philosophy, thirty-nine years old, Fr. António Cordeiro professed his S.J. final vows in Coimbra. He visits Viseu in the Eastern of 1681, and Pinhel in 1682. During this second and third visits he conceives the idea of erecting a Jesuit College in the Sanctuary of Lapa (see Rodrigues 1944: 51), whose Church was a property of the Coimbra College of Jesus since 1575. Witnessing the bad state of the religious site (Cordeiro 1719: III §157), Cordeiro will no more abandon his goal of erecting a College there. He is sent to preach in Torres Novas (Lent, 1683), and returns to Lapa (1684) again after successfully obtaining the necessary authorization for the construction of a Jesuit College by general Charles de Noyelle in 1683. The construction begins in 1685 (Cordeiro 1719: III §208, 214, 228), and follows Cordeiro’s architectural plans. Between 1702 and 1703 Cordeiro dislocates his “personal and selected library”, “worth one hundred cruzados”, in the new College of Lapa (Cordeiro 1719: III §244 and IV §267), where lessons of Latin and Moral were already taking place (Cordeiro 1719: III §188). During Cordeiro’s life, the College reached a number of between sixty or seventy students (see Cordeiro 1719: V §426). Thanks to Cordeiro’s words, it is likely he had high expectations regarding the College of Lapa and its standards (Cordeiro 1719: III §245): “… que com ella se pode quem for estudiozo, fazer não so perfeyto Latino, Humanista, Historico, & Filosofo, mas também Moralista insigne, Theologo & Pregador, & ainda bom Jurista in utroque…” (Cordeiro 1719: IV §267). It may be said that in the 20th century, on the occasion of the Ignatian year (1991), the Lapa site will be assigned a stone in hommage to Cordeiro (Monteiro 2001). After the four-year teaching period in the Coimbra College of Arts, António Cordeiro lectures theology in the Coimbra College of Jesus for thirteen or fourteen years (1966: 19). Moraes divides this long teaching period as follows: five years lecturing moral theology (1681-87), with a brief phase fulfilling the duty of preacher (1685); four years lecturing speculative theology (1687-1691); afterwards, Cordeiro is professor of Noa (1691), of Tercia (1693) and of Vespers (1694) until his replacement (1696). For several times Cordeiro mentions his condition of lecturer at the University (see Cordeiro 1717: Prólogo) but this cannot be literally interpreted. In fact, and as already said, he delivered his lessons in philosophy at the Coimbra College of Arts, and those in theology at the Coimbra College of Jesus. Explaining the division between the Jesuit and the University governance, in his other book, Loreto Lusitano, Cordeiro mentions the public courses taught exclusively by Jesuit priests: eleven chairs of Grammar, Latin, Humanities, Poetry and Rhetoric; two, of Greek and Hebrew; four, of Philosophy; two, of Moral Theology; three, of Speculative Theology; and one, of Scripture (Cordeiro 1719: V §437, 438). In fact, Rodrigues’s referential book on the professors of the University of Coimbra never mentions the name of Cordeiro among the professors (Rodrigues 2003). Instead, during the large period in which he lectured speculative theology within Jesuit walls (1680-1696), important masters owned the major Theology Chair (Prima), such as the Trinitarians Domingos Barata and António Correia, the Cistercian Teodoro do Amaral, one member of the Military Order of Christ, Martinho Pereira, the Benedictine Bento de São Tomás, and the Carmelites Manuel do Espírito Santo and José de Carvalho, among others. As I have pointed out, nowhere can one find a Jesuit master lecturing at the Coimbra University during this period, and almost one-hundred years have passed since the University witnessed the teaching career of the great Francisco Suárez, S. J. The influence of this eminent Jesuit upon the teaching of his peers of Coimbra and Évora, and namely upon Cordeiro, is still an open issue. Moraes reproduces a letter from the general, July 20, 1695, that is, one year before Cordeiro’s replacement addressed to the provincial. According to the letter’s terms, Cordeiro is accused of an unorthodox method of teaching (incompositum dicendi modum ac methodi); his colleagues, notably João Serrão, dislike his method and the consequences it provoked in the discipline among students. Interpreting this situation, Moraes (1966: 21-23) resumes its major issues to Cordeiro’s new doctrines, and his “independent, willful and strong character”. However, Estefânio (2019: 19) calls our attention to the fact that in the Loreto Lusitano Cordeiro says having left Coimbra in 1696 “by his own will and with his prestige untouched”. He is thus in Braga, lecturing the chair of Prima of moral theology (1696-1699); in Oporto (1699-1707), where he meets old students of his already working in the High Court (Cordeiro 1719: III §229); and later in Lisbon (1707-1712). In these three sites, he continues to teach, mostly moral theology. In Lisbon, he teaches not only in the house of Saint Roque but also in Saint Patrick’s Seminary to Irish students. It seems that the reason invoked to definitively send Cordeiro to Lisbon was linked, at least in theory, with the possibility his superiors granted him to prepare his scholarly manuscripts to the press. By all accounts, Cordeiro continues to be seen as a thinker with his own peculiarities. Nevertheless, following the footsteps of general Tirso González, the elect general Michel Tamburini supported the publication of Cordeiro’s works. The necessary conditions to write down his work were given to Cordeiro in 1712 (Rodrigues 1944a: 151). Cordeiro could thus stay for three years (1713-1716) in the Paraíso House (or Francis Xavier College in Lisbon’s Alfama quarter) where he has likely found the necessary conditions to deliver six tomes to the press, in 1713, not without a delay in the printing process. Moraes justifies the delay due to the “Cartesian flavour” of some of the doctrines written down by Cordeiro (Moraes 1966: 40). In 1717 António Cordeiro returns to the College of Saint Antão (Lisbon) with the role of Spiritual Father and Sinodal Examinator. He dies there, on February 22, 1722, at the age of 82 years. A portrait of António Cordeiro, dated this same year, has come to us, with the following terms: “With a small body but with a great heart and mind, no adversity, despite he had few, caused him to crash.” (Gomes 1967: 1728).

Works and Doctrine

The seventy-years old António Cordeiro compiled some of the works of his previous life as a master in Latin and Portuguese. Likely, the whole process of composition was quickly carried out, almost consisting of only putting the papers together in order or in the right condition to be sent to the press. The following titles are related to philosophy, speculative and moral theology, civil and canonic law, as well as local history: Cursus Philosophicus Conimbricensis (1714); Theologia Scholastica (1716); Historia Insulana (1717); Resoluções Theojurísticas (1718); and Loreto Lusitano (1719). As it is obvious in the case of the last three titles, Cordeiro is a pioneer as regards the use of the Portuguese language in learned books. At this point, it may be recalled that several Portuguese scholars, in an effort to defend a progressive education, would insist in using their native language although they were not Jesuits and their appeals for it date later than Cordeiro’s. The Apontamentos para a educação de um menino nobre by Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença date back to 1734, the famous O Verdadeiro Método de Estudar by Luís António Verney dates to 1746, and the Cartas sobre a educação da mocidade by Ribeiro Sanches date to 1760 (Carvalho 2011: 233-4). Of course, there were precedents among his companions and Cordeiro mentions the Catechism by Marcos Jorge published in 1566 several times. But this book was mostly written for the education of children (Jorge 2016). Cordeiro mentions his desire to extend the Portuguese language to such important domains as scholastic theology and philosophy (Cordeiro 1718: Prólogo) and he likely used the native language in some of his lessons. The doctrinal works in the list above date back to the time of Cordeiro’s twenty-years teaching in Coimbra (1676-1696), but also in Braga (until 1700), in Oporto (until 1708) and Lisbon. Except for the Historia Insulana, less attention has been paid to all other titles, and the philosophical work is better known than the theological one. Since António Cordeiro could not lecture the theological courses in full, for in the Coimbra Jesuit College the masters were obliged to change the subject matter of their lessons every year, the Theologia Scolastica is an incomplete work. The content of the Cursus Philosophicus Conimbricensis is a version of the author’s teaching between 1676 and 1680 in Coimbra (Cordeiro 1717: Prólogo), which was, already then, subject to great criticism. We know, for instance, that when lecturing Logic and especially the doctrine of the signs, José de Múrcia, the Jesuit master who succeeded Cordeiro, used to call him a “neoteric” (see Moraes 1966: 33 and 285), a pejorative word referring to anyone whose ideas clashed with what was believed to be the Jesuit “common doctrine”. This accusation never abandoned Cordeiro and e.g. his novelties in Physics were criticised at least until 1713. Contrariwise, thanks to Cordeiro’s own words, we know that he always wished to stay in tune, whenever possible, with the first Coimbra Jesuit Course. At the very beginning of the printed course, it is read: “Cursus Philosophicus quem dico Conimbricensem, non ex solo loco quo primum est traditus, sed ex illo etiam obsequio in antiquos Patres Conimbricensis, quos quoad possum sequor.” Regardless of this explicit wish, one obvious and first transformation, related with the structure and style of the Course which, according to Moraes (1966: 121-30), possesses three characteristics (“simplification”, “metaphysical deepening and dialectical strength”, as well as “doctrinal amplitude”) is patent. Despite using the common and old method of benefiting from the previous manuscript lessons by his colleagues (Moraes 1966: 120), the Cursus philosophicus by Cordeiro abandons the commentary-method and follows the treaty-structure already present in the Portuguese Francisco Soares, the Spanish Francisco Suárez (Moraes 1966: 83, 284), and e.g. much earlier,  in the context of the first Coimbra Jesuit Course, by the Portuguese Baltasar Álvares (Carvalho 2019). António Cordeiro’s course is divided into three parts – Logic, Physics and Metaphysics – which definitely overcome Góis’s and Couto’s plan and simplify their exposition of the doctrine. In logic the following eight topics are studied: 1) the quidity, the quality and the subject of logic; 2) the universals in general; 3) the less common universals; 4) the predicaments; 5) the doctrine of the signs; 6) (on) the propositions or prior analytics; 7) posterior analytics; 8) the doctrine of the topics and refutations. Natural philosophy (pars secunda in Phisicam tum corpoream, tum spiritualem) first deals with the principles or the causes; secondly, with the soul or physical life; and lastly with physics or natural philosophy. The philosophical course ends with the teaching of metaphysics in four chapters: 1) on being in its largest sense;  2) on substance and subsistence, accidents and their inherence; 3) on quantity, quality, the continuous and the infinity; 4) the last seven categories, viz. relation, action and passion, place (ubi) and posture (situ), time and condition. The substitution of the commentary style in the presentation of the so-called “common doctrine”, and mostly the effort put on not to ignore new doctrines, even if biased more by Jesuit than their original authors, favoured the attribution of the epithet of “the last renovator” to him, sometimes used to frame Cordeiro’s contribution to Second Scholastic philosophy in Portugal (Gomes 2005: 199). Consider, for instance, the doctrine on the void, a traditional item in Aristotelian textbooks, but that Cordeiro delivers in an updated form, teaching the impossibility of producing any sound in a void space, presenting the law of falling bodies or being aware of the force needed to produce a move with a constant velocity (Cordeiro 1714: §1804, 1802 and 1816, respectively; see Gomes 2012: 69). Marginal as it may be (Bernardo 2009: 525-6), consider also Cordeiro’s doctrine on light, combining atomism and the notion of material substance, also recognized by some interpreters (Fiolhais & Franco (2017: 170) to be not without affinities with Newton’s corpuscular theory of light, dated 1704. Surely, António Cordeiro always maintained a coherent and deontological attitude in relation to his profession as well as to the school he belonged to. Consider, for instance, his explicit reference to the need of having the Coimbra College teaching aligned with the standard of foreign colleges: “… é preciso ao menos ter notícia para responder aos que de fora, como Salamanca, vêm cá argumentar (…) e é notório que nenhum curso leva melhores alunos a exame que este…” (see Costa 1978: 115). All this, together with the alleged “dialogues” with Descartes or Gassendi, explains why some of his colleagues called Cordeiro a “neoteric”. Arguably, matters regarding atomism, causality, the object of the senses and the theory of forms are the most outstanding among all his so-called novelties. In the next paragraph I shall return to this issue. Let a very brief word be spent now in order to present the other titles by António Cordeiro. The famous História Insulana, published in five volumes, mostly deals with the history of the Azores, although some sections refer to the islands of Madeira and Cape Verde. With its genealogical character, this work depends, among other sources, upon a manuscript by Gaspar Frutuoso, Saudades da Terra, this author had left in the library of the Jesuit College of Ponta Delgada, in the island of São Miguel, Azores (Rodrigues 1944: 153; Mancia 2001). The Historia Insulana is nowadays still an historical source, though to be carefully handled. Cordeiro mentions that the Resoluções Theojurísticas consisted of two volumes but only one volume is known to us; this title mostly assembles the authors’s lessons in the Archbishoprichs Curia of Braga, the Bishoprich Curia of Porto and in the Royal Curia of Lisbon, and deals mainly with issues regarding civil and canon law, such as  emphyseuses, interest, wills, morgados and contracts (Rodrigues 1950: 388). Cordeiro’s last work, Loreto Lusitano, is a testimony of his devotion to the Virgin Mary; a plea for the Society of Jesus’s commitment to Our Lady, since the times of Ignatius of Loyola up to the 18th century; and a justification of the College’s importance (Cordeiro 1719: V §478). Also, not only does it relate the story of the Portuguese Sanctuary and its proximity with Our Lady of Loreto in Italy, but it also has a curious section (Part V, chapters I-IX) that displays Cordeiro’s proficiency in law. Curiosly, thirty-two years after being published, the Loreto Lusitano knew an abridged version (compendium) written by Manuel de Azevedo S.J, published in Rome, 1751, with the title Ilias in Nuce sive Historia Apparitionis et Miraculorum Beatissimae Virginis de Lapa Compendium (see Azevedo 2020). We are also aware of a manuscript related to moral theology and, titled Expositio Theologica Quincalogi, about which such historians as Franco (1719: 612) say it saw a printed version, while others – like Moraes (1966: 51-52) or Rodrigues (1944: 182) –, and with much more probability, consider that it did not reach the press, because some of its theses were far from being orthodox. As well as all the other Latin titles mentioned thus far, the Expositio Theologica Quincalogi should be a work that goes back to Cordeiro’s teaching period in Coimbra as a lecturer on moral theology (1681-87), and the proposition (ii) below is sometimes advanced as an example of his unorthodoxy (Moraes 1966: 133). A final word, concerning mathematics, about wich no works by Cordeiro are known. This subject matter should be tackled since we know that he was the author of the architectural project of the College of Lapa in a period that more or less coincides with Tirso Gonzalez’s instructions (April 12, 1692)  that will boost mathematical studies in the Portuguese province (Rodrigues 1944a: 200); significantly titled, Ordinatio ad suscitandum fovendumque in Provincia Lusitanae Studium Mathematicae, the instructions were translated into Portuguese language by Leitão (2004: 704-23). Following this intervention and its related situations, Golvers (2019) concludes that the “Coimbra college and its instruction was part of a network, with links to Rome and the German Assistancy, connecting the mathematical teaching at Ingolstadt College to that of the Colégio – despite the difference of level –, with a clear prospect on the China mission.” Among the several rules of the Ordinatio, there is one indicating that the students of mathematics could circulate between Coimbra and Évora whenever needed and that, in both Colleges, every teacher of mathematics should have two students at least exclusively dedicated to the study of that subject matter (Leitão 2004: 719).

Cordeiro’s “innovative” philosophical contribution: a short tentative presentation

The evaluation of the contribution of any author to philosophy cannot be measured within the strict limits of the ancient vs. modern controversy. Moreover, it is not correct to equate modernity with unorthodoxy, two semantically and epistemologically distinct categories. We will come again to the particular situation of an intellectual within the Society of Jesus but, this being noticed, it is by now clear that some of Cordeiro’s philosophical and theological theses reached Rome twice (see Moraes 1966: 36-37 and 42), and eventually Brazilian territory (Marques 2018: 131). The following are known to us:

  1. “Divinum Verbum etiam dici posse factum, loquendo late et moraliter” (see Cordeiro 1714: §332 and 360);
  2. “Nulla causa etiam divinitus, potest operare in primo instanti in quo est, sed necessario praecedit, saltem un instanti, suam operationem” (see Cordeiro 1714: §248 and 253);
  3. “Forma substantialis materialis non est substantia adaequate distincta a materia prima; sed supra materiam primam superaddit solummodo totam complexionem primarum qualitatum et accidentium” (see Cordeiro 1714: §776 and 801);
  4. “Pura possibilitas creaturae nihil aliud est quam omnipotentia Dei, sive virtus divina productiva ipsius creaturae” (see Cordeiro 1714: §817);
  5. “… ‘generatus’ in divinis non est essentia divina se sola, sed est essentia simul cum Filiatione, siquidem est Filius qui gignitur” and
  6. “… in divinis ‘spiratus’ non est essentia se sola, sed est essentia simul cum spiratione”.

This is a complex issue still far from beeing clear, especially if one tries to identify Cordeiro’s critics and to what extent did he teach those theses or was attached to them. In short, the evaluation of the alleged lack of orthodoxy of his theses still lacks an objective study. All those theses come from the years when Cordeiro was lecturing philosophy and later theology and some of them were submitted, at the request of his Coimbra companions, to the provincial, and afterwards to the colleagues of the Jesuit University of Évora (who did not oppose them) and to Rome as the last instance. Propositions (5) and (6) above were censored by Rome and proposition (4), which Cordeiro never accepted to retract, maybe in a way still related with some issues that will become a must in Coimbra, concerning the discussions on Grace and Liberty, and that will divide Jesuits and Dominicans until the eve of the expulsion of the formers. At least, this is what one may conjecture thanks to the hidden remains recently announced by Urbano & Miranda (2020) dating from 1759. A letter written to Rome on July 8, 1678, by Domingos Nunes testifies that Cordeiro “speaks about liberty in terms that are by far contrary to the Society and other religious Orders” (see Moraes 1966: 106). Regardless of a future and urgent inquiry, the first response by Cordeiro to some of the theses also came to us (see Sousa 1967 and Costa 1978: 212-15). Moreover, the latest response by Cordeiro on the actually published works is also well known. Again, he insists on being updated and in line with the Jesuit “common doctrine”. Let us tackle the first response, since in the last one, on March 8, 1713, mainly related to Physics – meaning, pars II, tractatus 1, disputes 2 and 4, questions 2 and 1, article 1, § instabilis, and doubt 6 of article 2, as well as doubt 3, resolution 5 of article 3 – Cordeiro more or less accepts to reject his previous doctrines even though some interpreters question his sincerity (Gomes 2002: 218). Earlier, on April 21, 1678, claiming that he does not see how his composition style may be subject to discussion – as already mentioned his methods were likely biased by his colleagues – António Cordeiro makes the following statements (in Portuguese) directly related to some of the propositions above (see Costa 1978: 212):  a) regarding the impossibility for a cause to produce any act in the very moment of its creation (i), and specially as regards its extension towards the use of reason by Christ, Cordeiro denies having taught it and responds that what he envisaged instead was the real priority of the efficient cause only; b) he does not deny the possibles (iv), in the sense of an identification between “possibility” and “cause” and this claim of his does not destroy the objects of science which are the simple intelligibilia; c) he goes on insisting that his doctrine on the created cause and its transcendental relation regarding its possible effects was misunderstood (ii); but d) he insists that his theory on the material substantial form is correct (iii), just like the case of fire, a theory unknown by ancient authors but disseminated among “many Catholic atomists”. Even postponing the analysis of the last proposition until a future inquiry into the Theologia Scolastica, one may already believe to have found the core of Cordeiro’s innovative contributions. They are more or less related to the doctrine of causality, the problem of knowledge and the theory of forms. Without the intention of solving this issue here, an addendum is still possible. Propositions (ii), (iii) and (iv) above are related to causality, either apropos the place of the efficient cause or the objects of science (the simple intelligibilia), interpreted within the frame of the doctrine on the pure extrinsic possibility, or regarding the created cause and its transcendental relation. As already said, besides confusing “the formal intrinsic causality with the instrumental efficient cause”, “when he is refuting an argument that tries to prove that the material form is something new, produced by the efficient cause not as an ‘ens quod’ but as an ‘ens quo’”  (Enes 1955: 555, see Cordeiro 1714: §806), a closer but wider analysis of the doctrine of causality would oblige us, I conjecture, to read the issue in the context of a critical dialogue of Cordeiro with Francisco Suárez (about the transcendental relations) or André Semery (in relation with the doctrine on the pure extrinsic possibility). Indeed, the dialogue with other or multiple authorities is a relevant feature in António Cordeiro’s working method. And he does it giving the reader the impression of being Aristotle’s faithful interpreter. Let us provide the reader with two examples related to the problem of knowledge and the theory of forms (see Raposo 1987, for the latter issue). Writing about the process of sensation and the object of the senses, Gomes (1943) insisted that Cordeiro saw the opportunity to study the doctrine of the five senses not only to boast new doctrines but also to take a decisive step towards the total elimination of real qualities in physics. Claiming that it is “the body that impresses the organs of the senses by itself and in an immediate way” (Cordeiro 1714: §2304), Cordeiro makes a step towards the mere material nature of the proper sensibles’s affirmation, as well as the one of the impressed species. But, this being said, it is clear that Cordeiro is keeping up with Jesuit spirituality’s wavelength, not at all distant from the teachings of the first generation of Jesuits (Carvalho 2019a). The second example, related to the theory of forms and that, as seen, was a subject matter very much under suspicion by part of Cordeiro’s colleagues, put him simultaneously far and near Aristotle. Again, a thourough study needs to be carried out. For instance, Raposo (1987: 73) interpreted two parallel topics in the Metaphysics and the Physics, as if Cordeiro was becoming more radical as regards substantial forms. Significantly enough, according to Cordeiro’s words, proposition (v), which is explicitly related to the doctrine of the forms, is also linked with “many Catholic atomists”. On his thought on the substantial form see Cordeiro (1714: §778-876, summarized in §76-801). Indeed, in his defense of only two inner principles of bodies, matter and form (instead of the three principles), Cordeiro is closing following Aristotle’s Metaphysics (I chap.1 and XII chap. 1), Physics (I chap. 5-9) and On Generation (I chap 4) (see Cordeiro 1714: §23-43). Many more updated “dialogues” – all of them, unfortunately, still expecting further examination – have been identified. A large consensus among scholars usually refers to the names of two other renowned Jesuits, Honoré Fabri, and Ignace Der Kennis and it is likely that thanks to them Cordeiro could get in contact with some themes of Descartes’s or Gassendi’s philosophical thoughts (see here mostly Moraes 1966). A better assessment of this issue is still in need and, in the next paragraph, I shall have the opportunity to amplify it. In the present state of the art, marks of the two French authors have allowed speaking about Cordeiro’s replacement of “the scholastic tradition of the accidental forms of the substances (…) by mechanical properties” even in biological matters (Enes 1955 and Gomes 1943; see also Coxito 2006: 17, quoting Cordeiro 1714: §1817, 1825 and 1823). To sum up, without any further studies, however, everything would seem to indicate that António Cordeiro seems to ignore the Aristotelian and Thomist doctrine of the act/potency (Moraes 1966: 193) which is a significant “metaphysical adulteration” (Enes 1955: 554) downgrading the material form to the level of an accident (Moraes 1966: 196) and implying an unconscious dualistic tendency (Moraes 1966: 198).

Cordeiro’s place in Jesuit History of Philosophy (1676/1680 and 1714)

Despite what has been said about António Cordeiro’s “Jesuit orthodoxy” above, and despite the questions still unanswered related to it, the following is undisputable: from the outset, his Cursus Philosophicus Conimbricensis is an explicit hommage to the Coimbra Jesuit Course published by Manuel de Góis, under the auspices of Pedro da Fonseca, between 1592-1606 (see Carvalho 2018 and 2019c). Perhaps it could be reminded now that the year Cordeiro was born (1640) coincides with the two unique allusions, made by René Descartes, to the Coimbra Jesuit Course that Cordeiro is still paying homage to in 1676/1680 and again in 1714. This might seem odd at a first glance. Moreover, as it happens with Cordeiro’s theological course, his philosophical oeuvre shares the strange condition of being published almost forty years after the original version and forty years before the last of the Portuguese Jesuits philosophical syllabus, the Elenchus Quaestionum (1754). Again, let it be recalled that the Society of Jesus will be soon expelled from Portugal (1759). If in its sections on metaphysics – divided into ontology, natural theology and pneumatology –, as well as on ethics – divided into “general” and “special ethics” –, a traditional outlook is still patent, the Elenchus Quaestionum is a nice surprise as regards physics. Theoretically framed by an Aristotelian horizon (see Andrade 1966), the Elenchus Quaestionum determines any course beginning with the history of philosophy, and proceeding with the study of logic – divided following the three operations of the mind but adding a more modern one, dedicated to the method (Triplici mentes operationi adiungere solent Recentes quartam, nempe methodum) – ought to dwell in physics welcoming old and new authors, authores tum priscis, tum recentibus… Occupied with the inner principles of the natural bodies, “general physics” explicitly face Cartesian and Newtonian doctrines (examini Cartesianum, Neutonianum)  as well as Gassendi’s; moreover, as regards the category of place (ubi), some kind of affinity should be recognized in the following three schools of thought (“Schola Peripatetica, Cartesiana ac Neutoniana sentiat”). And when the Elenchus Quaestionum advances to “particular physics”, to geometry, mechanics, hydrostatics, cosmology, botanics and human life, other names, theories and instruments such as Kepler, Torricelli, Borelli and the experience related to the Magdeburg hemispheres are explicitly mentioned. It is thus possible to assume that, as it happened with the 16th century Coimbra Jesuit Course, the duty of commenting the Aristotelian text continued to be an occasion to welcome new theories and authors until the eve of the Jesuits’s expulsion from Portugal. So, there is nothing new in the fact that forty years before the Elenchus, António Cordeiro (as well as Francisco Soares Lusitano before him) would quote Descartes or Gassendi, four times the former (through Compton), twice the latter (through Der Kennis) (see Moraes 1966: 202-05). But this is interesting, for the Society of Jesus had condemned sixty-five thesis, mostly attaining Descartes’s and Gassendi’s theses in 1651 (Moraes 1966:69); the Catholic church put Descartes’s works on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1663 (Ariew 1999: 173); and five of his ideas would be formally banned by the Society of Jesus in 1706, under the Generalate of Michelangelo Tamburini (Ariew 1995: 224). Since Cordeiro owes this general the task of assembling his works to be published, no Jesuit could become a bird in the Cartesian nest. In 1712, King John V was asked to allow an alteration in the Statutes allowing the amplification of the study of physics (Rodrigues 1944a: 174) but, according to this historian (Rodrigues 1950: 338), the King was against the introduction of modern philosophy. In another edit in 1746, the Crown prohibited the alteration and the College of Arts was forced to follow the “Aristotelian system” and to put away Descartes, Gassendi, Newton and Epicurean corpuscular theories. Thus, on May 7, 1746, the Rector of the Coimbra College of Arts explicitly forbids the teaching of theses coming from Descartes, Gassendi, Newton or the Epicurean atomism (Andrade 1966: 261). These were legislative interventions but in reality, in the course on physics by António Vieira in Lisbon (1739-42) and Sebastião de Abreu’s Conclusiones ex universa philosophia in Évora (1754) new theories were acknowledged. Surely, the same did happen in the works by Francisco Soares and António Cordeiro, though in a minor extent. Let it be recalled that the integration of the former’s corpuscularian theory within the Aristotelian metaphysical framework of matter and form has been recognized as a successful enterprise (Carolino 2105). Moreover, if we stick to the scholarly ambient of Coimbra, Inácio Monteiro’s Compendium of Mathematics (1754-56) and José da Fonseca’s course (1754-58) are usually considered to stand above all the rest in this respect. It is usually considered that the peak of this dialogue process was attained with the Philosophia libera seu eclectica rationalis et mechanica sensuum (published abroad, in 1775, by Inácio Monteiro after the Jesuits expulsion). Moraes (1966) has therefore correctly discussed Cordeiro’s alleged Cartesianism, not in the sense of direct input of Descartes on Cordeiro – let me repeat: the major direct sources of Cordeiro are no others but Jesuits such as Ignace Der Kennis (1598-1656), Francisco Soares (1605-1659) and Honoré Fabri (1607-1688) – but in the sense that Cordeiro shares an old but common philosophical heritage that inevitably could not but contribute to the continuous renovation of philosophy. Slowly, of course, compared to Descartes’s fastest pace, but sure enough. For instance, a particular pattern proper to the Jesuit commentaries on De anima, viz. the “direct ability of the intellect to grasp its cognitive objects (…) concerning the intelligibles, and the active statute of the agent intellect” has been acknowledged as a feature paving the way for Cartesian innatism and Malebranche’s occasionalism (Tropia 2020: 4). In fact, and much earlier, Coxito (1989 and 2006) had dwelled on the presence of a “virtual innatism” in Cordeiro (see also Moraes 1966: 209-13). If it is possible to claim that Cordeiro (1714: §230-31, pars II) accepts the so-called ontological argument of the existence of God (see Abranches 1961) – that has nothing to do with Aristotelianism –, other features of his thought, as the ones tackled above, unorthodox as they might sound, may well have their roots in the scholastic tradition. There is no need to insist: since Gilson’s (1913) oldest examination up to Guidi’s (2018) more recent researches, the scholarship is becoming much more aware of the complexity of the transference of ideas between the earliest and the more consolidated modernity. It is in this line of complex but “longue durée” research that one may reset the relationship between the “signs” of infiltration of mechanism already found in Góis’ Physica (I c. 9, q. 6, a. 2), published four years before Descartes was born, and their later presence in Cordeiro (Enes 1955: 560). The principle that matter could have an existence of its own was much older (Carvalho 1996) and could be also detected in another title by Góis (De Generatione I c. 4, q. 15, a. 3). Decisively enough, even if Cordeiro was to follow the route opened by Góis, it is unquestionable that Cordeiro moves away from Góis (and from Thomas Aquinas for that matter) in denying the intelligible species (Cordeiro 1714: §2514), the distinction between intellect and will (Cordeiro 1714: §2172-6) and the agent intellect (Cordeiro 1714: §2513), among other topics (Moraes 1966: 140). Cartesianism is thus not the right angle to read Cordeiro’s contribution to philosophy. Nor to any contemporary Jesuit author for that matter.  Anyone pursuing this line of research cannot but find many of Cordeiro’s insights on physiobiological doctrines as “obscure or even contradictories” (Coxito 2006: 19). The inner situation of the Society of Jesus, and, of course, its Portuguese geographical expression, could not but feel in need for dialogues. Coxito (2006: 30-34) has correctly called our attention to the critical dimension of these dialogues when he listed the following eight Cartesian items that were more or less contested by Portuguese Jesuits: a) the process of doubt (Sebastião de Abreu); b) the criterion of certainty (António Vieira); c) the cogito (Vieira); d) the proofs of God’s existence (Abreu); e) God as the first cause of movement (Vieira); f) the vortices hypothesis (Vieira); g) the reduction of biology to the mechanism (Abreu); h) the reduction of matter to extension (Abreu). Also, the topic of innatism in science, the presence of a “modern theory” according to which “from the beginning, God impressed exemplars of things in the separated intelligences (…) by a certain natural law” had already been noticed (see Carvalho 2020: 427). To make a long story short, Cordeiro is a clear sign that between the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century the philosophical milieu in the Coimbra Jesuit College was still trying to stay in tune with the allegedly “common doctrine”, continuing to follow the duty of teaching Aristotle but also striving, as it should, not to turn its back on the present. One thing is sure: trying to counterbalance the shortage of foreign books in the Coimbra College, Cordeiro purchased Fabri’s nine volumes, Mauro’s five volumes, Semery’s three volumes and Peinado’s volume. Also, he aspired for more Thomists, Scotists and “Strangers”, as he says, while insisting on other Jesuit titles – again, he adds – by Isquierdo, Quirós and Gaspar de Ribadeneira among others (see Moraes 1966: 97). By all accounts, Cordeiro does not seem to be the boldest amongst buyers – and how could he ever be, considering the Society’s interdictions we have alluded to? – but, if his conservative penchant is obvious, his urge to update his personal and institutional Jesuit library is unequivocal as well. Would it be too far fetched to compare Cordeiro’s with Beethoven’s gesture asking Breithop and Härtel for books written by better and wisest men, in 1809? Perhaps, but here it is Cordeiro’s top ten: Honoré Fabri’s Philosophia dating from 1646 (let me recall that Cordeiro taught between 1676 and 1680), Ignace Der Kennis’s 1655 De Deo, Silvester Mauro’s 1658 Quaestionum Philosophicarum, Ignacio Francisco Peinado’s Commentaries on Aristotle from 1671 on, and André Semery’s 1674 Triennium Philosophicum. Even if he does not mention the following titles, I believe Cordeiro also aspires for Gaspar de Ribadaneira’s commentaries on the Summa theologiae (1653/55), Sebastián Izquierdo’s Pharus Scientiarum (1659), and Antonio Bernaldo de Quirós’s Opus philosophicum (1666). Cordeiro does not limit his readings on Jesuit and Thomist literature. Among several more authors he also quotes Johannes Poncius’s Cursus philosophicus ad mentem Scoti (1643); Johannes Lalemandet’s Cursus philosophicus (1656);  Emanuel Maignan’s, Cursus philosophicus (1673); F. Thomas de Lamazares’s, Quaestiones sive Disputationes theologicae, scholasticae, dogmaticae et morales ad mentem Scoti e variis theologiae tractatibus selectae (1679); and even Guarino Guarini’s, Placita philosophica (1665), also a famous architect, whose most spectacular work was Santa Maria da Divina Providência in Lisbon, destroyed by an earthquake in 1755. With no need to return to the previous paragraph, where I alluded to the Cordeiro’s eventual “critical” dialogue with Suárez and Semery,  it is interesting to notice that Cordeiro’s working method was attuned with the current discussions within the Society’s walls. Clearly, this is what happens in a quote by Cordeiro of Joannes Senftleben’s work, Philosophia Aristotelica universa, published in the year 1685. Despite Cordeiro’s understandable intellectual vanity, the fact is that he is keen on saying that his teaching precedes the Polish-Czech Jesuit thinker’s (see Cordeiro 1714: §1093) and in this respect, our interest would lie in the fact that, like Cordeiro, Senftleben was coping with Suárez’s Wirkungsgechichte too, regardless of the distance between the Charles-Ferdinand University and the Coimbra Jesuit College. To sum up, Descartes is not a direct source for Cordeiro, even though the latter’s name was already known in Portugal in 1641, thanks to the military engineers involved in the 1640 revolution, such as Jean Gillot and the Jesuit Jean Ciermans/Cosmander (Gomes 2005: 205), and despite the presence of his mathematical works brought to Coimbra by the indipetae as early as 1645 (Golvers 2020). Besides, it is precisely the Cartesian mathematical penchant (mathematicam certitudinem) that is acknowledged by Francisco Soares Lusitano in what is considered to be the first explicit mention to Descartes (Renato de Chartres), in Portuguese Jesuit oeuvres, concerning blood circulation (Soares 1651: 158). At this point, it may be recalled that a Portuguese version of Descartes’s Discours de la Méthode, as well as a small section of Malebranche’s De la Rececherche de la Vérité, date much later (1746), in a miscellany by João Mendes  Sachetti Barbosa (Carvalho 2011: 230). Anyway, the correct angle to evaluate Cordeiro’s philosophical ideas is to put his work exactly as he wished, viz. under the patronage of the first Coimbra Jesuit Course but with the explicit purpose of a constant renovation following the times, the Jesuits were living not only in Coimbra but abroad. As already said, the renovation imperative was a program immediately opened after the publication of the course by Manuel de Góis. It has been repeated that Sebastião do Couto was the first to receive that task as soon as 1602 (Carvalho 2019b), and to consider António Cordeiro’s name as the “last renovator” (Gomes 2002: 199, 208) in the whole history of this reformation program, is only possible considering the date of the actual publication of his works and the fate of the Society of Jesus in Europe. With no need to undo Gramsci’s notion of the “organic intellectual” too much, it would not be unfair to say that Cordeiro sees himself as a teacher empowered by the “function in directing the ideas and aspirations of the class to which [he] organically belong[s]” in all these issues. Besides being an ecclesiastic who, by the way, and it is worth to underline, is no more organically bound to landed aristocracy, the level of Cordeiro’s intervention may be defined “on the one hand by [his] role in the production and the organization of work and on the other by [his] ‘directive’ political role”, focused on the Society of Jesus and its scholar duty in Coimbra, meaning taking into serious consideration the hard opposition between “concrete reality” and an abstract “esprit de corps”, but always “under very concrete traditional historical processes.” (Gramsci 1999: 131, 132 and 144). Finally, a critical edition of Cordeiro’s two courses, as well as an in-depth and thorough essay on his work is urgent; meanwhile, the following researches will certainly pay off: a close comparison between Cordeiro’s and Soares’s Cursus philosophicus; the degree of Cordeiro’s dependence upon Fabri’s thought; extending the level of examination led by what is still the unique serious monograph dedicated to Cordeiro’s philosophy (Moraes 1966) to topics other than Cartesianism, and finally reexamining the alleged dependence of Cordeiro upon Francisco Suárez’s thought (Moraes 1966: 284). The last task is particularly relevant since it is true that Suárez’s metaphysics could in certain anamorphoses give rise to many modernist semblances of metaphysics and Cordeiro is still waiting for its evaluation. It goes without saying that Cordeiro’s contributions as a theologian, jurist, as well as a mathematician or architect, plus his personal characteristics as a diplomat and entrepreneur are still waiting for thorough research.

Bibliography

Cordeiro’s published and unpublished works:

  • Cursus Philosophicus Conimbricensis, Ulyssipone: Oficina Regali Deslandiana,1714.
  • In praecipua partium Divi Thomae Theologia Scholastica. Ulyssipone: Josephum Lopes Ferreira, 1716.
  • Historia Insulana. 5 vols. Lisboa Occidental: Antonio Pedrozo Galram, 1717. Reprints: História Insulana das Ilhas a Portugal Sujeytas no Oceano Occidental (reimpr da ed. de 1717). Terceira (Açores): Secretaria Regional de Educação e Cultura, 1981; História Insulana das Ilhas a Portugal Sugeitas no Oceano Occidental (2ª ed., fac-similada). Angra do Heroísmo: Presidência do Governo Regional dos Açores/Direção Regional da Cultura, 2007.
  • Resoluçoens Theojurísticas. Lisboa Occidental: Antonio Pedrozo Galram, 1718.
  • Loreto Lusitano, Virgem Senhora da Lapa: Residencia milagrosa do Real Collegio de Coimbra da Companhia de Jesus em a Provincia da Beyra, Bispado de Lamego. Lisboa: Felipe de Sousa Villela, 1719. Reprinted: Loreto Lusitano, Virgem Senhora da Lapa. Introdução de Abel Estefânio. Edição comemorativa do III centenário (1719-2019), Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Lapa, 2019.
  • Expositio Theologica Quincalogi (mss.)
  • Tractatus de Scientia Dei (attributed).

Other References

  • Abranches (1961), Cassiano. “Argumento ontológico e ideias inatas em António Cordeiro” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 17: 1-12.
  • Andrade (1946), António Alberto de. Vernei e a Filosofia Portuguesa, Braga: Livraria Cruz.
  • Andrade (1966), António Alberto. “Para a História do Ensino da Filosofia em Portugal. O ‘Elenchus Quaestionum’ de 1754” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 22: 258-286.
  • Ariew (1999), Roger. Descartes and the Last Scholastics. Ithaca-London: Cornell University Press.
  • Ariew (1995), Roger. “Bourdin and the Seventh Objections”, in Descartes and His Contemporaries. Meditations, Objections and Replies. Edited by R. Ariew and Marjorie Grene. Chicago-London: The University of Chicago Press, 209-225.
  • Azevedo (2020), Manuel de. Ilias in Nuce do Santuário da Virgem da Lapa & Capela Senhora da Assunção – Paredes da Beira; edição, tradução e notas de Manuel Francisco Ramos, Abel Estefânio de Sousa Almeida e Miguel dos Santos Patrício Peixoto, Porto: Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto.
  • Bernardo (2009), Luís Miguel. Histórias da Luz e das Cores. Lenda-Superstição-Magia-História-Ciência-Técnica. Volume 1. Porto: Editora da Universidade do Porto.
  • Carolino (2003), Luís Miguel. Ciência, Astrologia e Sociedade. A Teoria da Influência Celeste em Portugal (1593-1755), Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
  • Carolino (2015), Luis Miguel. “Mixtures, Material Substances and Corpuscles in the Early Modern Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition: The case of Francisco Soares Lusitano (1605-1659)”, Journal of Early Modern Studies, 4/1: 9-27.
  • Carvalho (1955), Ruy Galvão de. “Contribuição dos Açores para a História da Filosofia Portuguesa” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 11/2: 632-647.
  • Carvalho (1996), Mário Santiago de. “A essência da matéria prima em Averróis Latino (com uma referência a Henrique de Gand)”, Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 52: 197 – 221.
  • Carvalho (2011), Mário Santiago de. “Il destino della metafisica nella modernizzazione dell’università portoghese all’epoca di Luís António Verney (1713-1792)”, in G. Piaia e M. Forlivesi (a cura di), Innovazione filosofica e Università fra Cinquecento e primo Novecento. Philosophical Innovation and the University from the 16th Century to the Early 20th, Padova: CLEUP, 227-243.
  • Carvalho (2018), Mário Santiago de. O Curso Aristotélico Jesuíta Conimbricense, Coimbra-Lisboa: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra- Imprensa Nacional.
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  • Carvalho (2019a), Mário Santiago de. “How Could Aristotle Have Read the ‘Spiritual Exercises’? Francisco de Toledo, Francisco Suárez and Manuel de Góis on Aristotle’s ‘De Anima’ II 7-12”, Revista Filosófica de Coimbra 28: 411-432.
  • Carvalho (2019b), Mário Santiago de. “Couto, Sebastião do”, org Encyclopedia, Mário Santiago de Carvalho, Simone Guidi (eds.), doi = “10.5281/zenodo.3270658”, URL = “https://www.conimbricenses.org/encyclopedia/couto-sebastiao-do/”, latest revision: July, 6th, 2019
  • Carvalho (2019c), Mário Santiago de. “Cursus Conimbricensis”, org Encyclopedia, Mário Santiago de Carvalho, Simone Guidi (eds.), doi = “10.5281/zenodo.3234133”, URL = “https://www.conimbricenses.org/encyclopedia/cursus-conimbricensis/”, latest revision: May, 28th, 2019
  • Carvalho (2020), Mário Santiago de. Dicionário do Curso Filosófico Conimbricense, Coimbra: Palimage.
  • Cordeiro (1714), António. Cursus Philosophicus Conimbricensis, Lisbon: Oficina Regali Deslandiana.
  • Cordeiro (1717), António. História Insulana das Ilhas a Portugal sugeytas no Oceano Occidental. Lisbon: Antonio Pedrozo Galram.
  • Cordeiro (1718). António. Resoluções Theojuristicas. Lisbon: Antonio Pedrozo Galram.
  • Cordeiro (1719). António. Loreto Lusitano, Virgem Senhora da Lapa: Residencia milagrosa do Real Collegio de Coimbra da Companhia de Jesus em a Provincia da Beyra, Bispado de Lamego. Lisboa: Felipe de Sousa Villela.
  • Costa (1978), M. Gonçalves da. Inéditos de Filosofia em Portugal. Braga: Barbosa & Xavier Lda.
  • Coxito (1989), Amândio Augusto. “Cordeiro (António)”, in Enciclopédia Luso-Brasileira de Filosofia 1, Lisboa: Editorial Verbo, 1168-1171.
  • Coxito (2006), Amândio Augusto. “Cartesianismo e anticartesianismo na filosofia portuguesa (séculos XVII e XVIII)”, in Coxito, A.A. Estudos sobre a Filosofia em Portugal na Época do Iluminismo, Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 15-42.
  • Elenchus Quaestionum (1754) quae a nostris Philosophiae Magistris tractari debent in hac Provincia Lusitana Societas Iesu. Ulyssipone: Michaelis Rodrigues.
  • Enes (1955), José. “Influências mecanicistas no pensamento filosófico do padre António Cordeiro” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 11/2: 554-560.
  • Estefânio (2019), Abel. “Introdução”, in Loreto Lusitano, Virgem Senhora da Lapa. Edição comemorativa do III centenário (1719-2019), Santuário de Nossa Senhora da Lapa: 13-35.
  • Fiolhais & Franco (2017), Carlos & José Eduardo. “Os jesuítas em Portugal e a ciência: continuidades e rupturas (séculos XVI-XVIII)”, in Antiguos jesuitas en Iberoamérica vol. 5/nº 1, enero-junio: 163-178.
  • Franco (1719), António. Imagem da Virtude em o Noviciado da Companhia de Jesus no Real Collegio de Jesus de Coimbra. Tomo II. Coimbra: Real Collegio das Artes da Companhia de Jesus.
  • Gilson (1913), E Études sur le rôle de la pensée médiévale dans la formation du systeme cartésien, Paris: Alcan.
  • Golvers (2020), Noël. “A Note on Descartes’s Entrance at the Coimbra ‘Colégio das Artes’ (mid-17th Century)” Revista Filosófica de Coimbra 29: 485-494.
  • Gomes (2012), João Pereira. Jesuítas, Ciência e Cultura no Portugal Moderno. Obra selecta do Pe. João Pereira Gomes, org. por H. Leitão e J. E. Franco, Lisboa: Esfera do Caos.
  • Gomes (1943), João Pereira Gomes. “Doutrinas Físico-Biológicas de António Cordeiro Sobre os Sentidos”, Brotéria 36: 293-304 [now in Gomes 2012: 47-59].
  • Gomes (1967), João Pereira. “Cordeiro (António)”, in Enciclopédia Luso-Brasileira de Filosofia, 5: 1727-1729.
  • Gomes (2005), Pinharanda. Os Conimbricenses. Lisboa: Guimarães Editores.
  • Gramsci (1999), Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, edited and translated by Q. Hoare and G. N. Smith, London: ElecBook
  • Guidi (2018), Simone. L’Angelo e la macchina. Sulla genesi della ‘res cogitans’ cartesiana, Milano: Franco Angeli.
  • Jorge (2016), Marcos. A Doutrina Cristã escrita em diálogo para ensinar os meninos. Apelação: Ed. Paulus.
  • Leitão (2004), Henrique. “Appendix A: Documents and Letters”, in Saraiva, Luís & Leitão, H. (eds.). The Practice of Mathematics in Portugal. Papers from the International Meeting organized bt the Portuguese Mathematical Society (Papers from the International Meeting held at Óbidos, 16-18 November 2000), Coimbra; Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 635-723.
  • Mancia (2001), Anita. “Metodologia, Contenuti e Forme letterarie dell’História Insulana di Antonio Cordeiro (1640-1720) a confronto com le Saudades da Terra di Gaspar Frutuoso (1552-1591). Riflessione su due modi de fare storia” Arquipélago. História 5/2ª série: 431-526.
  • Marques (2018), Lúcio Álvaro. A Lógica da Necessidade. O ensino de Rodrigo Homem no Colégio do Maranhão (1720-1725), Porto Alegre: RS Editora Fi.
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