The Brazilian edition of Zaba’s Method and its uses in schools in Bahia (1870-1871)

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate the materiality of the Brazilian edition of Zaba’s Method, authored by Polish writer Napoleon Felix Zaba, aiming to unveil its connections with observable school practices based on records produced in 1871 by two teachers in Bahia’s public education system: José Lourenço Ferreira Cajaty and João Theodoro Araponga. This is a bibliographic and documentary research. By addressing the printed material as a multifaceted cultural artifact (Chartier, 1990, 1998) and a product of the educational industry (Meda, 2015), I present the formal characteristics and content of this educational resource. Furthermore, I examine the materiality of the method in the context of teaching practices and school culture, analyzing its applications and adaptations, to demonstrate that knowledge and teaching methods are reworked and reinvented via pedagogical experiences and practices (Schueler, 2005), as well as revealed in individuals’ interactions with the world in its material form (Vidal, 2006).

Keywords:
history of education; teaching history; materiality of the school; teaching methods

Resumo

Neste artigo, investigo a materialidade da edição brasileira do Methodo Zaba (1870), de autoria do polonês Napoleão Félix Zaba (1803-1885), buscando desvelar relações com práticas escolares observáveis nos registros produzidos, em 1871, por dois professores do ensino público baiano: José Lourenço Ferreira Cajaty e João Theodoro Araponga. Para tanto, por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental e entendendo o impresso como objeto cultural complexo (Chartier, 1991, 1998) e produto da indústria escolar (Meda, 2015), no texto, apresento as caraterísticas formais e o conteúdo do material didático e, depois, exploro a materialidade do método à luz do fazer docente e da cultura escolar, reconhecendo possíveis usos e apropriações nos relatos de Cajaty e Araponga, com o intuito de demonstrar que conhecimentos e métodos de ensino são reelaborados e reinventados por meio das experiências e práticas pedagógicas (Schueler, 2005), bem como se revelam nas interações dos indivíduos com o mundo em sua forma material (Vidal, 2006).

Palavras-chave:
história da educação; ensino de história; materialidade da escola; métodos de ensino

Resumen

En este artículo, investigo la materialidad de la edición brasileña de Methodo Zaba (1870), de autoría del polaco Napoleão Félix Zaba (1803-1885), buscando revelar relaciones con las prácticas escolares observables en los registros producidos, en 1871, por dos profesores de escuelas públicas de Bahía: José Lourenço Ferreira Cajaty y João Theodoro Araponga. Para ello, a través de una investigación bibliográfica y documental y entendiendo el impreso como objeto cultural complejo (Chartier, 1991, 1998) y producto de la industria escolar (Meda, 2015), en el texto presento las características formales y de contenido del material didáctico, y luego exploro la materialidad del método a la luz de la enseñanza y la cultura escolar, reconociendo posibles usos y apropiaciones en los informes de Cajaty y Araponga, con el objetivo de demostrar que los saberes y métodos de enseñanza son reelaborados y reinventado a través de experiencias y prácticas pedagógicas (Schueler, 2005), así como revelado en las interacciones de los individuos con el mundo en su forma material (Vidal, 2006).

Palabras clave:
historia de la educación; historia de la enseñanza; materialidad de la escuela; métodos de enseñanza

Introduction

As a foreigner, it is a real pleasure for me to be able to say that my efforts to attract the attention of the intelligent part of this country to the usefulness of my method in the path of instruction, and especially as its adaptation to the study of universal History, will be welcomed with the agility that is nothing more than a reflection of the spirit that is always active and always looking for new ways to increase the versatility of their studies. […]. My ambition was to provoke the verdict of public opinion (Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro [AGCRJ], n.d., códice 11.3.34).

The epigraph that opens this article is an excerpt from a letter written on May 2, 1871, by Napoleon Felix Zaba (1803-1885) to Friar José de Santa Maria Amaral, interim General Inspector of Primary and Secondary Education in Rio de Janeiro. In it, the Polish teacher presented the advantages of his mnemonic method for teaching universal history and asked the Instruction Council to recommend using his teaching material in preparatory courses. The correspondence, produced during Count Zaba’s second visit to the imperial capital, shows that, although in his first stay in the city, from July to December 1870, he opened important channels for negotiation with the government and gave good visibility to his methodology, through lectures, public exams and introductory courses to the method, at that time, the author still hoped that bureaucratic bodies would validate the quality of the material, recommending it (officially) for preparatory exams, which would encourage its presence in secondary schools.

When writing this letter, Félix Zaba had already been to different cities in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and had intentions of going to Bahia and, later, Pernambuco (Diário de São Paulo, 1871), where his trip ended abruptly, according to the newspaper Diário de Pernambuco, dated August 31, 1871. According to Zaba, another factor in his favor would be the public demonstrations and the positive opinions he had been receiving (and would receive) from teachers and directors recognized in the educational scene, among them Joaquim Manoel de Macedo and Manoel José Pereira Frazão, in Rio de Janeiro¹; D. Caroline de Florence and Isidoro Pereira, in São Paulo²; Franco da Costa Meirelles, Antônio Garcia Pacheco Brandão, and Urbano da Silva Monte, in Bahia³; and José Augusto Ferreira da Costa, in Recife⁴, to name a few examples.

In that context, the Methodo Zaba⁵ aimed to meet the desires of the school public for ‘new means to increase the versatility of their studies’ at a time of consolidation of the school system and, consequently, of an industry aimed at serving and promoting the emerging consumer market. In this sense, the Polish mnemonic method-in its different versions-can be read as an “[…] industrial product and a consumer object, whose pedagogical nature almost takes a back seat” (Meda, 2015, p. 9) since the spectacularization of its results, through lectures and public exams, aimed, above all, to convince the public that, with the method, anyone would be able to memorize, in a short space of time, a significant amount of dates and names related to characters and events considered essential for the study of universal history.

Pedagogical trips were part of the author’s publicity strategy and have been his primary source of income since the mid-1840s. At the end of the 1860s, N. F. Zaba crossed the Atlantic in search of new audiences and followers of his method. In Brazil, the author was in at least four Provinces-Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Bahia, and Pernambuco. In addition to America, countries in the Australasia region were also destinations for the Polish. On these trips, accompanied by his daughter, the teacher gave lectures on the History of Poland and his method of studying Universal History. In each place, the author sought to close agreements with local booksellers and publishers to print copies and chronological maps, inspired by the work of two Poles exiled in France in the early 1830s-Antoni Jazwinski (1789-1870) and Jozef Bem (1784-1850).

Therefore, I consider that the evidence of Count Zaba’s transit and his materials indicate that it is, as Passeron and Revel (2005, p. 9) would say, a “[…] singular observable occurrence […]” from which it is possible “[…] to extract a more general interpretation.” In this case, a historical interpretation related to school material culture and the transnational circulation of subjects, artifacts, and pedagogical ideas in the 19^th century.

From this perspective, the case is not an isolated, ahistorical occurrence. It responds to the contingencies of the circumstances that produce it and, therefore, any historical argument about it requires that two characteristics be recognized in it that express its singularity: the difficulty of understanding it with already usual or prescribed explanatory models or norms and the need to “[…] follow the story of which it is the product, looking for the relevant ‘circumstances’ that specify it in its context.” The case offers the possibility of connecting separate elements of a configuration that is initially indecipherable or difficult to detect (Passeron & Revel, 2005, p. 19).

Although the history of the circulation of the Methodo Zaba seems to be at least a curious case, there are no specific studies on the methodology, and even more general information about it is scarce. For the record, one of the first to make (direct) reference to the method was Primitivo Moacyr in 1939. In the 1990s, Circe Bittencourt (1993) recovered the methodology by unfolding the relationships between teaching history and memorization. In 2013, Jacilene Clemente presented new information about Zaba’s presence in Recife. More recently, Magno Santos (2021) deals with Zaba’s passage through São Paulo, and Leandro Almeida (2022) addresses aspects of the methodology from the 1874 Canadian edition.

To give organicity to the ideas in this text, I begin by reconstituting the materiality of the Brazilian edition of the MethodoZaba, published at the Court in 1870 by Antônio Pinheiro de Aguiar, observing the context in which the methodology was produced and presenting some formal characteristics of the copy sold in Brazil, to bring elements to think about its (in)adequacy to the local school market and its use value for school subjects. In the final part, I turn to the reports and opinions produced in 1871 by two teachers from the Province of Bahia, José Lourenço Ferreira Cajaty and João Theodoro Araponga, whose records reveal critical and creative appropriations of the method in Brazil, intending to recognize that the knowledge and methodologies are “[…] (re)elaborated and (re)invented in and through the experiences and pedagogical practices of teachers and their students” (Schueler, 2005, p. 187), thus recognizing that teachers have always had some autonomy concerning official rules, prescriptions, and ordinances.

The Brazilian edition of Methodo Zaba (1870 )

Born in Krasław, a city in eastern Latvia, but of Polish nationality, Napoleon Felix Zaba was a writer and educator, had military training, and was directly involved in the November Uprising between 1830 and 1831. With the defeat of the Poles by the Russians, the following year, Zaba was tried in Paris and, after being acquitted, sent to Great Britain. His first stay was in Edinburgh, but after a few months, he moved to London. As a political refugee, he lived in English territory until mid-1868, when he began his pedagogical travels worldwide.

Still in England, on September 14, 1840, Zaba led the creation of the Cadogan Literary and Scientific Institution, whose purpose would be to promote literate culture and become a meeting space between Poles and non-Poles. In April 1842, representing the Society for the Propagation of the Polish Method in France, General Jozef Bem was on a mission in England and delegated to Zaba-his companion in arms in the battle of Ostrolenka (Caledonian Mercury, 1833)-the task of creating the English version of the Polish method, developed by Antoni Jazwinski, but perfected by him in Paris. Widely adopted in France, the method’s success was attributed to its ‘simple structure’ and ‘visually innovative,’ which could be used to educate children of different ages.

Based on the work of General Bem, in 1844, Zaba published in London, through Davis and Company, his first version of the Polish method, with 31 pages, under the title Chronological table of universal history arranged for the Polish mnemonic method. With the advent of pedagogical trips, other editions appeared throughout the 1870s (Chart 1), and in all of them, Zaba gave his name to the title. Therefore, for each country visited, a new edition (translated into the local language and with slight changes in the key of the method) was published so that, by listing⁶ various editions of the Methodo Zaba, it is also possible to follow the transit of the author during this period.

Chart 1
Editions of the Método Zaba.

Work	Year	City/Publisher
Chronological table of universal history arranged for the polish mnemonic method	1844	London: Davis and co.
Zaba's method of studying universal history; with chronological chart, key, and board of exercise.	1868	New York, Printed by J. Davis.
Methodo Zaba para o estudo da Historia Universal, com mappa chronologico, chave e taboa de exercício.	1870	Rio de Janeiro: Tip. Pinheiro e Cia.
Metoda ułatwiająca naukę historyi powszechnej.	1873	Kraków: Nakł. aut
Zaba's method of studying universal history: with chronological chart, key, and board of exercise.	1874	Montreal: Magnus & Co.
La Méthode de Zaba pour faciliter l’étude de L’Histoire Universelle: avec deux cartes coloriées, table d'exercice, boîte de jetons, et une brochure explicative.	1874	Montreal: Magnus & Cie.
Método Zaba para el Estudio de la Historia Universal, con mapas cronolójicos, clave i tablero de ejercicios.	1875	Santiago: Imprenta Estrella de Chile.
Zaba's method of studying universal history, with chronological chart, key, and board of exercise.	1875	San Francisco, A.L. Bancroft & Co., Printers.
N.F. Zaba's Method [of simplifying the science of universal history].	1875	London: Editora
Zaba's method of studying universal history: with chronological chart, key, and board of exercise.	1876	Sydney: Charles Troedel & Co.
Zaba's method of studying universal history: with chronological chart, key, and board of exercise.	1877	Adelaide: Scrymgeour & Sons.

• Source: The author (2022).

In 1870, the Brazilian edition of the Methodo Zaba was published in Rio de Janeiro by Tipografia Pinheiro & Cia, owned by Antônio Pinheiro de Aguiar, who in the same period launched a reading method of his own, called Bacadafá, whose graphic design is quite similar to Zaba’s material⁷. In addition to being pocketbooks, in-8 format, measuring approximately 14 cm x 21 cm, both methodologies involved a process of capturing ideas represented by graphic elements-letters, in Bacadafá, and icons, in Zaba-, so that each in their own way explored visuality as a teaching resource.

After attending Zaba’s lecture at a school in Freguesia da Glória (RJ), Cunha e Costa, a primary teacher, assessed that the methodology would produce:

[…] many good results, especially in children’s intelligence, which seem to be ‘always asking for living images, palpable objects, as they are the ones that are most easily recoded’ and persist in their tender intelligence, I mean memories, freeing them from boring routine and anti-diluvian I think, of this mortifying exercise that is usually called - memorizing lesson (AGCRJ, n.d., códice 11.3.33, emphasis added).

Zaba’s brochure, published in Rio de Janeiro, had 39 pages: thirteen dedicated to explaining the method and another twenty-seven with the list of factual data to be represented on the maps. The blue cover (Figure 1) contained the title-Methodo Zaba para o estudo da história universal, com mappa chronologico, chave e taboa de exercícios-, the year and city of edition, and the name and address of the typography . However, although the back of the title page carried the following message: “[…] the right of reproduction is the property of the author following the law […]”, the authorship of the material was not explicit because Napoleon Felix Zaba’s name did not appear on the cover or title page.

Figure 1
Cover and back of the title page of the Methodo Zaba.

The booklet, which Zaba called the ‘Chave do Methodo,’ contained an explanation of the methodology, the meanings of symbols and colors, and a list of historical events organized in chronological order. However, the method’s kit of materials also included some colored and blank diagrams, commonly called ‘maps,’ of two different sizes (large and small) used to form a Historical Picture of the centuries of the Christian era and a box of crystals of various colors and sizes to paint/designate the countries.

The option to publish the Methodo in the format of a pocketbook, on simple paper and in black and white, was strategic since there was a concern to reduce printing costs, facilitate public access to the materials, and make it viable large-scale sales contracts with public authorities. In fact, as Cynthia G. Veiga (2018) points out, problematizing the costs of school teaching materials, among other elements intrinsic to the functioning of educational institutions, is fundamental to understanding the materiality of the school.

According to the advertisements, a copy of the Methodo Zaba costs the average reader around 6$000 (six thousand réis)⁸ (Correio Paulistano, 1871). The price was compatible with other didactic works with wide circulation at the time, such as Lições de História do Brasil, by Joaquim Manuel de Macedo, which, according to the Catálogo da Livraria Garnier, was sold for 5$000 (five thousand réis). However, the two works are not comparable concerning the editorial project (layout, content, and number of pages).

In addition to selling in bookstores and publishing houses⁹, one of Zaba’s intentions was to sell the materials to governments so they could be sent to public schools. The venture was successful during the Pole’s stay in Brazil. On November 6, 1870, the Diário do Rio de Janeiro reported the purchase by the government of 20 large maps to send to the Provinces but did not specify which ones would receive the material. Part of these maps were likely sent to Recife, considering that, on January 3, 1871, the Diário de Pernambuco reported that the School of Law had received materials from Zaba. Furthermore, in December 1870, the Empire’s Business Secretariat sent a copy of the method to Colégio Dom Pedro II and, in the letter, indicated that the material should be used “[…] for teaching History and Statistics” (Núcleo de Documentação do Colégio D. Pedro II [NUDOM], 1871).

In Bahia, Antônio Franco da Costa Meirelles, deputy director of the Directorate of Public Instruction, through a letter dated June 18, 1871 (Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia [APEB], n.d., códice 3816), requested the General Directorate to send 50 copies to the Internship and another 50 to the Externato. Meirelles argued that the maps were ‘indispensable’ for students to understand the method, indicating-between the lines-the use of the materials in History classes. In the Relatório da Província of 1872, the acquisition of one hundred copies was recorded, 13 of which had been sent to schools, while 87 were still under the custody of the Directorate. In São Paulo, a letter was sent by the General Inspector of Public Instruction of the Province, Francisco Aurelio de Souza Carvalho, confirming the receipt of 50 large maps that, according to the document, would be sent to public school (Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo [APESP], n.d., códice CO4920).

Even though it is not possible to estimate precisely how many copies were purchased by the government¹⁰, as well as to establish a list of all institutions (school or not) that adopted and/or received the materials. The evidence indicates that the printed material was sent to some of the most important institutions of secondary education in the Empire, such as Colégio Pedro Segundo, Ginásio Pernambucano, Liceu Provincial, and Externato Normal da Bahia, and that Zaba’s methodology also reached the knowledge of primary teachers in more remote parishes¹¹.

In the MethodoZaba (1870), historical events, listed chronologically, are linked to Sacred History and the political history of European countries, with emphasis on wars, conquests, calamities, treaties, and insurrections. In this sense, the historical characters present in the material, in general, are biblical figures, Catholic saints and popes, and members of the different European monarchies. According to Zaba (1870, p. 4, author’s emphasis), “[…] the object of ‘Universal History’ requires rigorous attention, both in the collection of facts and in their coordination according to the chronological order in which have happened.”

Thus, the chronology adopted by the author is Christian, so two milestones are established: before and after Christ. Zaba explores 24 centuries before Christ, mobilizing the main events and characters that mark the Old Testament. It then covers a period that goes from the 1^st century AD to the 19^th century, highlighting people and events linked to the history of Christianity, the Catholic Church, Protestantism, Ancient Rome, Scotland, France, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Prussia, Poland, Russia, the United States, and Brazil (in the Brazilian edition)¹².

When comparing the editions, it is noted¹³ that in some names, addenda is made to characterize a specific character¹⁴, in addition to including historical facts linked to the history of the country where the work was being published. Undoubtedly, Zaba was concerned about including relevant information to the local public¹⁵. In the Brazilian edition, for example, there is mention of the ‘Abdication of D. Pedro I’ (19^th century), the ‘Paraguayan War’ (19^th century), and the construction of the ‘Buenos-Aires to Córdoba railway.’ The last two, by the way, reveal the incorporation of historical events of regional importance linked to the war and technical development in South America and, probably, were incorporated after Zaba’s passage through Argentina since there are reports that the author was in the country for three months before arriving in Brazil (Sarmiento, 1870 apud Boletin de la Academia Argentina de Letras, 1935, p. 4004), in addition to the news of his entry into the port of Rio de Janeiro indicating that he had come from Rio da Prata (Diário do Rio de Janeiro, 1870c).

Some changes and inclusions are curious, especially those linked to Ibero-American history¹⁶. In the Brazilian version, there is no mention of some important events in Portuguese history, such as the ‘Earthquake in Lisbon’ (18^th century), the birth of ‘Dom João VI’ (18^th century), the ‘Escape of Dom João VI to Brazil’ (19^th century), and the ‘Return of Dom João VI’ to Portugal (19^th century), and no reference to Camões, the main Portuguese writer. While, in the Quebec editions of 1874, apart from the presence of these events in Lusitanian history, the key (in French and English) temporally locates the birth and death of ‘Camões’ (16^th century), in addition to the ‘Creation of the Lusíadas’ (16^th century). These changes are likely related to Zaba’s departure to Portugal at the end of 1871, after his stay in Brazil. According to news published in Correio do Sul, on April 2, 1872, the Polish teacher was in Lisbon-and would later go to Porto-giving lectures on the method.

The Brazilian edition (from 1870), compared to the two Canadian ones (from 1874) and the Australian one (from 1877), has six more pages and does not contain important information that would be included in the following editions: I am referring to the mention that General Bem was his friend. Not by chance, in an article published in Jornal do Commercio, signed under the expression “A lover of public instruction,” Zaba was questioned about the originality of his method: “One wonders […] if the system he exposes in his lectures are not invented by the Polish general Bem, […] [edited] more than 20 years ago by Caron publishers, and whose only deposit for purchase is (according to what is read in them) rue Condé n. 19?” (Diário do Rio de Janeiro, 1870d). The question likely motivated Zaba to include the information in subsequent editions.

In his version, Félix Zaba maintained the structure of Jozef Bem’s diagram but replaced some symbols and colors, revised the factual data that made up the key, changed the order of the themes of the lines and included other types of historical events, such as plagues, fires, and other calamities (Figure 3). Zaba said that the ‘base of the method’ was a diagram (Figure 2), from which the student should decode the codes that referred to facts considered important in universal history. According to Zaba (1870, p. 6), the diagram:

It is a square with ten rows, each divided into ten spaces counted from left to right, as shown in the diagram. If there are ten rows with ten houses each, we will have one hundred houses in our square. In applying the [method] to the history study, each house represents a year. Therefore, each row has ten years, and the entire square represents a century. Each year is subdivided into nine compartments, counted equally from left to right. These compartments give us a distinct notion of the event’s character in the respective year.

Figure 2
Diagram of the Methodo Zaba.

Figure 3
Caption of the symbols used in the Methodo Zaba.

The recommendation to read the diagram (Figure 4) was that the counting of the boxes that represented the years (forming the century) should happen from left to right concerning the central line, with the boxes that are to the right of this line designated as ‘beyond’ the central line, while those to the left of it are ‘before’ the central line. For lines 5 and 6, the digit should not be said, just that they were ‘near’ and ‘across’ the central line, respectively. According to Zaba, all these terms (near, across, before, beyond the central line) “[…] are technical terms in the practice of the system” (Zaba, 1870, p. 9). Each row is mentally added to ten years to locate the year. So, row 1 (one) refers to the first ten years of a century; the second, from 11 to 20 years old; the third, from 21 to 30 years old; and so on.

Figure 4
Position concerning the central line and midline.

In the exercises proposed by Zaba, the learner was provided with a coordinate (for example, ‘fifth house beyond the central line in the first row’), from which they should temporally locate the event and/or character in question. To this end, the student needed to have already recorded in memory, in addition to the symbols and colors, the dynamics of locating the position of the historical data concerning the central line and the midline (Figure 4). Next, I systematize in a chart the examples presented by Zaba (1870, p. 9-11) in ‘Chave do Methodo.’ All of these refer to the 1^st century of the Christian Era (Chart2), and then I locate them in a diagram (Figure 5).

Chart 2
Examples from the 1^st century of the Christian Era.

	A	B	C	D	E	F
Color	Black (Roman History)	Black (Roman History)	Black (Roman History)	Black (Roman History)	Black (Roman History)	Blue (History of the Christian Church)
Row	first	first	second	second	third	third
House or position	Across the line	Third beyond the central line	One house before the central line	Four houses beyond the central line	Across the central line	Four houses beyond the central line
Compartment	second	first	fifth	fourth	fourth
Symbol	Filled square	Filled half square	Filled square	Upright cross	Filled square	Large square (around the house)
Event	Conquest	Battle	Sovereign	Death	Sovereign	Prominent event
Year	6 AD	9 AD	14 AD	19 AD	26 AD	30 AD
Key’s information	Judea	Arminius, prince of the Romans	Tiberius	Germanic	Pontius Pilate	Baptism of Christ

• Source: The author.

Figure 5
Examples given by Zaba in Methodo (1870).

In the first part of the booklet, the author (1870, p. 3-4, emphasis added) presents the method as being “[…] simple, practical, and wonderfully appropriate to the study of Universal History in particular.” One of its main advantages would be to enable the student “[…] to examine the facts year by year, or century by century, without the slightest ‘deviation’ from the order in which the facts occurred […]”, guaranteeing mastery the chronological order of historical events. For Zaba, the method provided “[…] easy mastery of the entire matter, despite it being voluminous” (Zaba, 1870, p. 4). However, the success of the methodology in teaching the subject was linked to the student’s ability to “[…] strictly observe the rules […]” of the system (1870, p. 5) and to the progressiveness of the lessons applied so that, as Zaba teaches, “[…] as soon as your sight is sufficiently familiar with the first century, move on to the second; and so on, until you cover all the diagrams of the entire map” (Zaba, 1870, 10).

If in the ‘content’ Count Zaba seems not to have innovated much, given the prevalence of factual data linked to sacred history and the most relevant characters and political events in European history, also present in commonly used Universal History or Civilization compendia in secondary schools, the innovative element of the methodology was related to the ‘way’ of representing chronology in a diagram covered by symbols and colors.

It was, therefore, the visuality of the teaching material that was its main novelty, as it presented an ‘other’ way of graphically representing the time that, despite maintaining the linear, chronological order, organized historical events in a grid composed of boxes and not in a timeline or a synoptic table, common to the teaching methods and materials aimed at teaching History at the time. Therefore, the colors and icons structured the visual character of the approach and sought to facilitate the association of information, leading students to retain a lot of (historical) data in memory, a common objective of mnemonic methodologies.

However, school practices are revealed “[…] in the concrete relationship between subjects and the materiality of the school, understood in the broad spectrum of spaces, times, objects, furniture, and school equipment” (Vidal, 2006, p. 154 ), so that, when considering the printed matter in its materiality as a cultural object, in comparison with teaching records, it is possible to make inferences about the practices that produce it and the uses that are made of it (Carvalho, 1998; Paulilo, 2019). In this direction, I begin to establish possible relationships between the materiality of the Methodo Zaba and the school practices observable in the experiences of two public school teachers in Bahia: José Lourenço Ferreira Cajaty and João Theodoro Araponga¹⁷.

Uses of the Methodo Zaba in Bahia

In Bahia, despite the publicity work done by Zaba and the recognition of the method’s usefulness by some authorities, Zaba’s materials do not seem to have achieved the popularity expected by their author. The Relatório dos Trabalhos do Conselho Interino do Governo da Bahia, in 1872, the year following the Pole’s departure, warned that “[…] after the conferences given by Count Zaba at the Liceu, the method he presented has not been followed […]”, indicating the low adherence of (public) teachers to the methodology.

In fact, some teachers whom the Instruction Board consulted expressed their opposition to using the teaching material. This was the case of Geography and History teachers Luiz José da Costa and João José Palma, from Liceu and Externato, respectively, who did not see great ‘literary merit’ in Zaba’s work. So, in addition to conceptual differences, both did not find any advantages in adopting the book (APEB, n.d., códice 3816). Public opinion, in turn, was undoubtedly impacted (negatively) by the many articles that journalist Bellarmino Barreto wrote from June to July 1871, in the pages of Diário da Bahia, questioning the effectiveness and quality of the material, the ‘good’ intentions of its author and the possible interests of the authorities in Methodo.

However, despite resistance from certain subjects, the Methodo Zaba ‘found favor’ with essential figures in the Bahian educational scene, such as Antônio Garcia Pacheco Brandão, general secretary of the Directorate of Public Instruction; Antônio Franco da Costa Meirelles, deputy director of Public Instruction and editor of the Magazine linked to the organization; and José Lourenço Ferreira Cajaty, Head of Externato. The three were emphatic in defending the benefits that could be achieved with the use of the Polish method and recommended that copies be distributed to schools in the Province. Due to the length of this article, I retrieved Cajaty’s opinion of those cited, based on the uses of the method suggested by the Head of Externato, to discuss the practices within the school.

Teacher since the 1850s-when he was a signatory, with many other colleagues, of a letter (dated March 23, 1854) in which teachers demanded a salary increase for the Public Instruction, Justice, and Finance Departments committees-, Lourenço F. Cajaty had a career as a teacher of arithmetic and linear drawing (Correio da Bahia, 23 out. de 1873) and was retired from his position in October 1873 (Correio da Bahia, 1873). While Zaba was in Bahia, he personally met the Pole and attended his conferences at the Externato and Liceu¹⁸. In his opinion, he points out that the teaching material was suitable for schools and family use and that teachers could adapt it to suit other subjects and purposes, in addition to considering that it would be essential to adopt different strategies for each school level to achieve the expected results. In Cajaty’s words,

[…] [the] method can be usefully adapted in lyceums and high schools, as well as in primary schools and even within families, maintaining the due gradation that, in such cases, teaching requires. The author’s symbolic map and the key that accompanies it, serving, as they do, only to show how to proceed in teaching history, are perfectly subject to all the modifications that may be desired without thereby altering in any way the essence of the method (APEB, n.d., códice 3816).

Based on his teaching experience, Cajaty suggested some steps for applying the method in lyceums and high schools, where, according to him, “[…] instruction is more extensive.” Thinking about planning the semester, the teacher should organize the use of the “[…] key according to the desired purpose, and it should contain facts of a certain importance from which a moral conclusion can be drawn” (APEB, n.d., códice 3816). Therefore, for the head of the Externato, history teaching should encompass events relevant to moral formation and characters that serve as ‘edifying’ examples for students so that the teacher is responsible for selecting and organizing the content to be taught.

Regarding the organization of the classroom, Cajaty considered that the students should be seated, each with a map on the table, and the teacher would need to have “[…] next to them a large symbolic map to serve them in their explanations and their recapitulations and exams.” In addition to expressing the teacher’s concern with the organization of furniture and students in the classroom space, the guidance denotes the variety of materials that made up the Polish methodology (large maps, individual maps, filled maps, and/or plain maps) and the centrality of the teacher in the teaching process.

Like Zaba, the head of Externato proposed working with the maps little by little, gradually expanding the amount of historical data studied. To this end, the suggestion was that teachers explore a century in each lesson, making students “[…] designate it on their maps, conveniently placing the respective symbols” (APEB, n.d., códice 3816). According to Cajaty, the ideal would be for this exercise to be repeated daily. However, when the teacher had ‘half the time,’ an alternative would be to send ‘one or more students to the big map’ to question them ‘about what they were taught.’ If a student made a mistake, another would have to correct them. However, if no student in the class could present the correct answer, the teacher would respond, resuming the explanation of the event. To some extent, the dynamics thought by Cajaty seem to mix procedures that would be associated with different teaching methods, as teachers commonly did within schools, especially in primary schools.

For the director, after the students had ‘mastered’ themselves of “[…] all the facts concerning a notable epoch, or one of the main divisions of history […]”, the master could then “[…] with their explanations and reflections, help them coordinate and comment on the facts, to know the influence they had on the destinies of humanity.” Cajaty was convinced that by following this ‘step,’ teachers would have ‘great results,’ but recognized that, with the Polish methodology, ‘the greatest work belongs to the master.’

Considering the school culture and common pedagogical practices within primary schools, Cajaty recommended that the exercises be carried out in the same way as in secondary schools. However, “[…] the object of teaching must be much more summarized.” According to the teacher, at this stage, the most important thing with the exercises was not “[…] to overload the boys’ memory with many details […]” but “[…] to speak to the heart, to form men of good and perfect Christians.” In addition to transmitting basic knowledge associated with the ability to read, write, and count, primary education had the ‘mission’ of training subjects with Christian values and principles associated with the ideal of nation and citizenship under construction in the 19^th century. Therefore, according to Cajaty (APEB, n.d., códice 3816), more than the “[…] idle narration of Sacred History, it is that of the country that must emerge the main and broadest foundations of the key in the application of the Zaba method to our national historical framework.”

In this direction, the criticisms of João Theodoro Araponga¹⁹, who had worked-since 1869-as an assistant professor in the public primary school in the Freguesia de Santana (BA) were concentrated. Defender of teaching History and Geography since primary school, Araponga tried to apply the Methodo Zaba in his classes throughout 1871. However, even though he recognized the methodology as ‘immensely useful,’ in his report, he declared that the Key of the Method would not be useful for “[…] our primary schools or secondary classes, because it fails to mention important facts, while it brings others to which we attach no importance” (Relatório dos Trabalhos…, 1872, p. 48). In the teacher’s words:

As there are already a large number of subjects in primary education, I had to discard Mr. Count Zaba’s key and map, as they were only helpful for the study of ancient history, which is no longer part of elementary education and for which I did not have time, and organize work based on that method, but with several modifications, dealing exclusively with Brazil, distinguishing the facts of each province (Relatório dos trabalhos…, 1872, p. 48).

In the report, Araponga revealed a double difficulty in applying the Polish method in his classes: the excess of primary education subjects and the material’s historical nature. In other words, the first is related to the school system, while the second is to the method itself. However, although there were ‘obstacles’ to using the Methodo in his classes, the teacher sought to overcome them by adapting Zaba’s material to what he considered most important to teach students: the history of Brazil.

The development of the work, however, came up against a ‘chronic problem’ in teaching in the country: teachers’ lack of time to plan classes and create teaching materials. Araponga acknowledged that he was unable to complete the work because he had difficulty consulting all the material necessary to develop a new key since it would require free time to study the historiographical production available on national history (produced, above all, in the Historical and Geographical Institutes) to compose a chronological table to be represented in the diagram. This work would, therefore, involve the selection of relevant historical events; classification according to the nature of events (birth, death, war, conquest, discovery, etc.); organization in chronological order; the representation of events in the diagram; and finally, the construction of the list of complementary data by century.

Unable to complete such an undertaking, Araponga called for “[…] the zeal of a secondary teacher, who is qualified in the subject, and their goodwill in applying it, so that we have a key, containing all the facts that must be studied” (Relatório dos trabalhos…, 1872, p. 49). However, it seems that the teacher from Freguesia de Santana produced, albeit at an initial stage, some material based on the Polish diagram and assessed that the work had “[…] great results, as some students, in a few days, they distinguished by dates all the facts of the first two centuries, specifying the provinces to which each one belonged” (Relatório dos trabalhos…, 1872, p. 48). In this sense, the assessment of learning (in History), carried out by the teacher, fundamentally considered two aspects: the time it took to absorb the content and the number of dates and historical facts recorded in memory. The evaluation also reveals that applying exercises to students was a characteristic practice of Brazilian school culture.

Theodoro Araponga saw, in the structure of Zaba’s method, a possible didactic strategy to make viable what he thought was fundamental in teaching history and, to some extent, reinforced the viability of the methodological proposal for primary schools. This happens because, once the significant events of national history are incorporated into the key, the methodology would contribute to students’ moral and citizenship formation so that the school would fulfill its moralizing and civilizational role. What was missing, therefore, was a “Zaba Method for the study of the History of Brazil” (paraphrasing the Polish title). At the end of the opinion, when mentioning the good results obtained in Universal History by students who had private classes with Zaba, Araponga leaves implicit the way he considered most appropriate to use the Polish system: combining it “[…] with the reading of good authors” (Relatório dos trabalhos…, 1872, p. 49), implying that the Polish book and maps would serve as complementary materials to be used alongside the compendia.

Apparently, despite Araponga’s outcry, a version of the Zaba method for the History of Brazil was never published, although there are signs that other teachers made adaptations for national events. One of these adaptations, in fact, was developed by a student at the Escola Normal da Bahia, Malaquias Permínio Leite²⁰. According to the Relatório do Conselho Interino da Bahia (1871), the aspiring professor presented a map he prepared involving notable facts from the country’s history using Polish methodology at the opening event of the institution’s painting gallery. Malaquias’ public demonstration surprised the audience and, at the time, was reported at the Court in the newspaper Diário do Rio de Janeiro on October 16, 1871.

Final remarks

If a specific internationalist aspiration marked the 19^th century (Caparelli, 2012; Fuchs, 2007), observed in the transit of goods, ideas, and people, the 1870s in Brazil were marked by the emergence of “[…] some pedagogical proposals and teaching methods for the various school subjects, many of which were designed and applied by public primary teachers throughout their teaching careers and experiences” (Schueler, 2005, p. 174). With this horizon, throughout this article, I sought to reconstruct the materiality of Félix Zaba’s work by placing it in this context, as well as trying to bring evidence of its reception and critical and creative appropriations observable in the experiences of primary and secondary school teachers in Bahia, especially.

I understand that the edition and circulation of the Methodo Zaba in Brazil gives us the possibility of problematizing “[…] the value of material objects based on their use value, allowing the classroom to be under human control through the interaction of objects with teachers and their students” (Lawn, 2018, p. 336). In this sense, it is possible to infer that the value of the methodology in question was related to its innovative character, even if the innovation was, in turn, more in the scope of ‘form’ (of presentation and transmission) than of ‘content.’ However, the limits of the content proved to be surmountable with the critical and creative solutions found by teachers who, based on their experiences and knowledge, reworked the method, giving it ‘other’ uses within Brazilian schools.

At the time, public opinion seemed convinced that the Polish system was adaptable to any historical context and other areas of knowledge. The cases of appropriations mentioned in the documentation are, for the most part, adaptations of the method for national history. However, there are records of the methodology applied to teaching statistics, for example. This movement makes perfect sense when we look at the 19^th century, in which, in the Western world, the school emerged in the context of the consolidation of National States, in which one of the pillars was the (massive) diffusion of identity and a national memory with romantic and positivist bases.

When thinking about the materiality of Zaba’s work, in light of the teachers’ evaluation and propositions, it was also possible to infer that the chronological maps (colored and/or plain; large and/or individual) might not be able to (fully) meet to classroom routines, to the expectations of school subjects-specifically, of teachers concerning the knowledge to be taught-and, no less critical, to the economic conditions that would guarantee access for Brazilian public school students to this type of complementary material.

In this sense, even though the editorial project denotes a concern with the costs of the material since the option for a printed version in a reduced format and at a lower price is related to the desire to bring the book closer to the masses, probably the precarious material conditions of the school Brazilian public schools (Vidal, 2006; Veiga, 2008; Gondra, 2018) made it difficult for the material to be widely adopted in classrooms across the country.

I consider the claim of Bahian teachers Cajaty and Araponga an essential indication of the discussions about the place of Brazilian History in teaching programs in the second half of the 19^th century, as well as denoting the critical reading that teachers made of the teaching materials that were given to them, recommended and/or prescribed by the authorities and by the fads that characterized the market around the school. Furthermore, it reinforces that the reception of the Methodo Zaba was not necessarily permeated by consensus and favorable evaluations. The methodology encountered public and covert resistance, which revealed the contradiction in the discourses about what to teach in History and the varied experiences recorded within the school.

Like Cajaty and Araponga, many teachers defended more significant space for national history in school programs (Mattos, 1993) since the subject was attributed to the moral formation of students and the dissemination of national identity. In this way, the events of ‘universal history’ listed by Zaba, even though they could be recognized as important, barely crossed paths with the history of Brazil, forcing teachers to adapt the methodology to meet ‘what’ and ‘how’ they wanted to teach. In this case, even if the cost were low, the idea that a (complementary) material, such as the Methodo Zaba, would only make sense to teachers if they took on the responsibility of adapting it, generating extra work for them (as pointed out Araponga), I do not think it helped convince the public about the advantages of methodological innovation.

While the method was presented by its author as being indiscriminately applicable to any age and school context, the Bahian teachers, Cajaty and Araponga, were, in some way, drawing attention to the differences that marked primary and secondary education in the pedagogical objectives as well as in the way of organizing subjects and school subjects. Therefore, to understand the ‘failure’ of the Methodo Zaba as a school product in Brazil, I sought to look at the teachers’ experiences within the school, considering the premise that primary education should not be confused with secondary education.

Therefore, the Polish system proved to be more suitable for secondary education in Lyceums and Preparatory High Schools, both due to the presence of History in the Programs and the volume of historical content to be taught at this stage, so that the reduced number of public secondary schools can be read as an obstacle to the popularization of the method and the closing of contracts with governments. On the other hand, in private schools, where data is underreported (Dick, 2001), the Polish system likely remained on the list of adopted materials for longer. The evidence points to the permanence of the Methodo Zaba in the programs of Colégio Abílio (Jornal do Commercio, 1872), Colégio Brasileiro (O Globo, 1875), and, with an even longer duration, Colégio de Meninas (Almanack Administrativo…, 1882), located in the Court.

The Normal Schools, in turn, were an essential audience for Zaba since these institutions’ main objective was to train primary teachers, a stage of public education with the most significant number of schools/classes and students. However, the strategy presumably did not produce the effects expected by the author. What I want to say is that although the teachers in training could have had contact with the Polish methodology and even carried out experiments based on it²¹, without meeting the empirical demands of public teachers in their daily work, it would hardly have space in the school.

In primary education, Zaba’s diagrams could even help the teacher present characters and events linked to Sacred History, supporting the study of the biblical text. Depending on the dynamics adopted by the teacher during the moments dedicated to reading, another possibility would be to use the Key of the Method as a reading book, both for silent individual reading and for reading aloud. As part of the teaching repertoire, teaching guidelines in this direction can be found in the central simultaneous teaching manual circulating in the province during this period, authored by the Methods teacher at the Escola Normal da Bahia, João Alves Portella. In it, Portella (1852) recommended that in reading practices (silent and collective), the use of alphabet books, printed syllabaries, and name letters. In practice, simultaneous teaching, formally used in most primary schools in Bahia (Nunes, 2008), was combined with pedagogical practices characteristic of mutual and individual teaching, as in other provinces (Vidal, 2006; Borges, 2021).

In fact, from what the teachers’ reports suggest, the exercises and chronological maps presented by Félix Zaba, especially the large maps, could primarily be used to optimize time and keep the class under control in the context of simultaneous teaching. This occurs because, like this school model, the Polish mnemonic method excelled at discipline, silence, and the optimization of time and space, as well as presupposing the establishment of assertive commands that guided communication between the subjects involved in the teaching process and learning. Therefore, besides the innovative visuality, these characteristics include the potential of the Polish method since the limits of historical content could only be overcome with teachers’ critical and creative work.

Ultimately, by reconstituting the materiality of the Brazilian edition and comparing it with observable practices within the school, we sought, in dialogue with Vidal (2005), to understand the likely failure of pedagogical innovation, taking ‘failure’ as a research topic. The probable ‘forgetfulness’ of the Methodo Zaba in Brazil in the years following the author’s departure can be explained not only by a set of variables that necessarily involve the way teaching (History) was organized in public schools but also by the dynamics of the publishing market aimed at educating the people. During the teacher’s trip across the country, the circulation of printed materials and the appropriation of the methodology produced evidence that contributed to the understanding of school culture(s) in the 19^th century and the recognition of teachers’ agency in the construction of the system and the production of knowledge. Furthermore, it is expected that, based on the method in question, the connections between pedagogical innovation and the acquisition of teaching materials, whose target audience is school subjects, will highlight the place of industry in expanding the modern schooling system.

Referências

• Almeida, L. A. (2022). O Método Zaba: as dimensões de um material didático de história do século XIX. Anais do 11º Encontro Estadual de História da ANPUH, Salvador, BA.
• Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro [AGCRJ]. (n.d.). Códices 11:3.23; 11.3.34
• Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia [APEB]. (n.d.). Códice 3816.
• Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo [APESP]. (n.d.). Códices CO4920.
• Bittencourt, C. M. F. (1993). Livro didático e conhecimento histórico: uma história do saber escolar (Tese de Doutorado). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.
• Borges, A. (2021). A urdidura do magistério primário na Corte Imperial: um professor na trama de relações e agências. Rio de Janeiro, RJ: SciELO-EDUERJ.
• Caparelli, A. (2012). Identidade e alteridade nacionais: transferências culturais na imprensa brasileira do século XIX. In V. Guimarães (Org.), Transferências culturais: o exemplo da imprensa na França e no Brasil (p. 25-38). Campinas, SP: Mercado das Letras.
• Carvalho, M. M. C. D. (1998). Por uma história cultural dos saberes pedagógicos. In C. P. Sousa, & D. Catani (Ed.), Práticas educativas, culturas escolares, profissão docente. (p. 31-40). São Paulo, SP: Escrituras.
• Chartier, R. (1998). A aventura do livro. São Paulo, SP: Unesp.
• Chartier, R. (1991). A história cultural: entre práticas e representações. Lisboa, PT: Difel.
• Clemente, J. S. (2013). Culturas escolares em Recife (1880-1888) (Dissertação de Mestrado). Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife.
• Dick, S. M. (2001). As políticas públicas para o ensino secundário na Bahia: o Liceu Provincial: 1860-1890 (Tese de Doutorado). Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador.
• Fuchs, E. (2007). Networks and the history of education. Paedagogica Historica, 43(2), 185-197.
• Gondra, J. G. (2018). A emergência da escola. São Paulo, SP: Cortez.
• Lawn, M. (2018). A materialidade dinâmica da educação escolar: professores, tecnologias, rotinas e trabalho. In V. L. Gaspar da Silva, G. Souza, & C. A. Castro (Org.), Cultura material escolar em perspectiva histórica: escritas e possibilidades (p. 341-366). Vitória, ES: Edufes.
• Mattos, S. R. D. (1993). Brasil em lições: a história do ensino de história do Brasil no Império através dos manuais de Joaquim Manuel de Macedo (Dissertação de Mestrado). Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro.
• Meda, J. (2015). A “história material da escola” como fator de desenvolvimento da pesquisa histórico-educativa na Itália. Revista Linhas, 16(30), 07-28.
• Núcleo de Documentação do Colégio D. Pedro II [NUDOM]. (1871). BR RJCPII-COM/OFR. Livro de minutas do Ministério dos Negócios do Império recebido pelo Reitor do Internato do Imperial Colégio de Pedro 2º. Período: 1870 - 1875.
• Nunes, A. D. A. (2008). Fundamentos e políticas educacionais: história, memoria e trajetória da educação na Bahia. Publicatio UFPG, 16(2), 210-224.
• Passeron, J. C., & Revel, J. (2005). Penser par cas. Paris, FR : Éditions EHESS.
• Paulilo, A. L. (2019). A cultura material da escola: apontamentos a partir da história da educação. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação, 19.
• Portella, J.A. (1852). O manual completo do ensino simultâneo. Bahia: Tipografia de João Alves Portella.
• Santos, M. F. D. J. (2021). “Maior somma de factos historicos, elucidados com mais methodo”: Américo Braziliense e a invenção do espaço paulista na escrita da história escolar (1873-1879). Almanack, (29).
• Schueler, A. F. M. (2005). O Método Bacadafá: leitura, escrita e língua nacional em escolas públicas primárias da Corte imperial (1870-1880). Revista História da Educação, 9(18), 173-189.
• Silva, A. L. D. (2008). Ensino e mercado editorial de livros didáticos de História do Brasil-Rio de Janeiro (1870-1924) (Dissertação de Mestrado). Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói.
• Souza, W. E. R., & Crippa, G. (2012). A materialidade do livro de bolso e a expansão do público leitor entre os séculos XV e XIX. Intexto, (27), 89-107.
• Veiga, C. G. (2008). Escola pública para os negros e os pobres no Brasil: uma invenção imperial. Revista Brasileira de Educação, 13, 502-516.
• Veiga, C. G. (2018). A história da escola como fenômeno econômico: diálogos com história da cultura material, sociologia econômica e história social. Cultura material escolar em perspectiva histórica: escritas e possibilidades (p. 26-63). Vitória, ES: EDUFES.
• Vidal, D. G. (2005). Culturas escolares: estudo sobre práticas de leitura e escrita na escola pública primária (Brasil e França, final do século XIX). Campinas, SP: Associados Cortez.
• Vidal, D. G. (2006). Cultura y prácticas en la escuela: la escuela pública brasileña en su investigación. Historia de la Educación, 25, 153-171.
• Zaba, N. F. (1870). Methodo Zaba para o estudo da história Universal, com mappa chronologico, chave e taboa de exercícios. Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Typ. Pinheiro & C.

• Peer Review Rounds:

  R1: 3 invitations: 1 report received.
  R2: 2 invitations: 1 report received.
  R3: 2 invitations: 2 reports received.

• Funding:

  The RBHE has financial support from the Brazilian Society of History of Education (SBHE) and the Editorial Program (Call No. 12/2022) of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

• 1
  Macedo was one of the leading Brazilian History teachers in the country, linked to Colégio Pedro Segundo, between 1849 and 1881, a member of the IHGB for the same period and a representative for some legislatures. He also made a career as a novel writer and had his school book—Lições de história do Brasil (1861)—adopted in several schools in the territory. Frazão, in turn, was a primary teacher in the Freguesia da Glória and proved to be a good political organizer, having been the rapporteur of the “Manifesto dos Professores Públicos de Instrução Primária da Corte,” published in 1871. Furthermore, he was one of the collaborators from the pedagogical newspaper A Verdadeira Instrução Pública, in which he even published an article about the Methodo Zaba. The newspaper—published from 1872 to 1875—played an essential role in circulating pedagogical ideas and didactic models at a time of teaching professionalization and intense debates between the category and government members about educational issues.
• 2
  Pereira and Florence were the supporters and directors of two of the leading secondary education institutions in the city of Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo, Colégio Alemão and Colégio Caroline de Florence, respectively. Both facilitated Zaba’s movement in the interior. Isidoro Pereira’s son even took classes with Zaba and participated in his presentations in the city.
• 3
  Meirelles was an English teacher at Liceu Baiano, one of the founders of IHB, and held the position of Deputy Director of Public Instruction in Bahia when Zaba was in the Province. Brandão, a doctor by training, was appointed, in February 1870, as General Secretary of the Directorate of Public Instruction and, in 1872, received the title of honorary member of the Baiana Typographic Association. Dr. Monte was a priest and director of Ateneu Baiano, an essential private secondary institution in the capital of Bahia.
• 4
  Ferreira Costa was a teacher at the Escola Normal and a Sociedade Promotora de Instrução Pública member. In 1871, he wrote a series of articles in the Diário de Pernambuco, defending the adoption of Zaba’s historical map and refuting the arguments against the methodology by Nery Collaço, a teacher at Ginásio Pernambucano, published in the same periodical.
• 5
  The investigation presented in this article is part of post-doctoral research developed by the author at the School of Education of the University of São Paulo (FEUSP). It should be noted that, in this text, it was decided to update the spelling of the documentary sources, maintaining the original punctuation in the citations. However, the titles of works and periodicals were kept as in the original, as is the case with Methodo Zaba, the object of the study.
• 6
  Editions indicated in the wordcat.org database, except the Chilean edition, cited in Estadìstica bibliográfica de la literatura chilena (1879) and the Brazilian edition, located at the National Library and referenced in the Catálogo do Gabinete Real Português de Leitura (1906).
• 7
  I found a copy of the Método Bacadafá in the General Archive of the City of Rio de Janeiro (AGCRJ).
• 8
  The value of printed matter does not seem to be an obstacle to disseminating the methodology. Although complaints from teachers about low salaries were not uncommon, as clearly seen in the Teachers’ Manifesto (from 1871) (Cf. Gondra, 2018), Alexandra Silva (2008, p.76) considers that “[.. .] buying textbooks was not a reality incompatible with the different salaries of the time, considering that there were books that cost less than 1$000, a value 60 times lower than the average salary of a servant, for example.”
• 9
  In the capital, for example, in addition to the Pinheiro de Aguiar typography, which was located at Rua Sete de Setembro, nº 159, maps could also be purchased at Jorge Leuztzinger’s bookstore, located on the same street at number 33 or at Rua do Ouvidor, nº 36, in addition to Literária Evangélica, located at Travessa da Barreira nº 11 (Imprensa Evangelica, 1871; Almanack Laemmert, 1871). At the time of the release of the booklet, subscribers to the Diário do Rio de Janeiro could pick up a copy of Zaba’s maps at the Laemmert bookstore or Nicolau Alves’ house, located at Rua Gonçalves Dias, 54 (Diário do Rio de Janeiro, 1870a), which indicates that these two bookstores probably also had copies to sell. In September, the Diário de Notícias (1870), in the capital of Rio, also announced that its subscribers would receive the “[…] historical script, coordinated by Count Zaba.”
• 10
  The evidence indicates that Zaba would have received 2:000$000 from the central government “[…] for his scientific tour” (Reforma, 1871), information also cited by professor Felipe Nery Colaço (Diário de Pernambuco, 1871). Another record of payment to Zaba is found in the Empire’s Revenue and Expense Balance, published in 1873, which indicates that 1:000$000 (one conto of réis) had been paid to the Polish author concerning the installments for the sale of maps of Universal History. The amount, for example, is similar to what José de Alencar received in 1870 for having sold the “perpetual ownership” of the following books to the publisher Garnier: O Guarani (with the right to a free translation into French), Lucíola, Cinco Minutos, and A Viuvinha. However, below the 1:000$800 (one conto and eight hundred thousand réis) that Canon Joaquim Caetano Fernandes Pinheiro would have received for the fourth edition of História Sagrada Ilustrada.
• 11
  An example is the assistant professor Antonio Estevão da Costa e Cunha, from the Preguesia de Nossa Senhora da Ajuda da Ilha do Governador, in Rio de Janeiro, who, following an invitation from the Directorate of Instruction, on December 27, 1870, went to a Zaba’s conference at the Segunda Escola da Freguesia da Glória. In his report on the activity, besides the distance covered, Cunha says that he had already heard about the method through the newspaper news (AGCRJ, n.d., códice 11.3.23).
• 12
  In the Brazilian edition (1870), there is mention of the Silver States and the Empire of Brazil, both of which were replaced by the generic designation “Colonies” in the Canadian (1874) and Australian (1877) editions.
• 13
  Within the scope of this study, in addition to the Brazilian edition, we accessed two Canadian editions from 1874, released in French and English by the publisher Magnus & Co., from the city of Quebec, and the English edition from 1877, published in Adelaide, Australia, by Scrymgour & Sons. These editions have been digitized and are available on the HathiTrust Digital Library website and at the Victoria University of Wellington Library, respectively. However, the works (from 1874 and 1877) translated into English are practically identical.
• 14
  An example is the name Alexandre, which, in the Canadian versions, is accompanied by the adjective “Great,” and the mention of Frederico, which, in the Brazilian edition, is accompanied by “red beard.”
• 15
  For example, the “Foundation of Quebec by Champlain” (17th century), as well as the “Foundation of Montreal” (17th century), the “Massacre at Lachine” (17th century), the “Division of the Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada” (18th century), and the “Union of Canada” (19th century) are events that do not appear in the Brazilian version, but are in the Canadian editions of 1874.
• 16
  Comparing the Brazilian version with Canadian editions (from 1874), the former, for example, instead of “Vasco Expedition,” brings “The Portuguese in India—their capital Goa,” and, instead of “Return of Dom João to Portugal,” “Brazilian Independence.”
• 17
  The opinion of José Lourenço Ferreira Cajaty, head of the Externato Normal, written on July 3, 1871, was consulted, sent eight days later to the General Directorate by Franco da Costa Meirelles, deputy director of Public Instruction, located in the Public Archive of the State of Bahia (APEB, n.d., códice 3816). Also, the report by professor João Theodoro Araponga, produced in 1841, based on his teaching activity in the Freguesia de Santana, transcribed in the Relatório dos Trabalhos do Conselho Interino do Governo da Bahia (1872).
• 18
  Reminding that it was the Instruction Reform of 1870, sent by the Baron of São Lourenço, which, through Resolution 1116, reformulated the Lyceum Program, establishing 14 subjects, among them: “Geography and History, ancient and middle; Modern Geography and History, with a specialty in Brazil” (Dick, 2001, p. 106). The measure expanded the presence of History in the curriculum, creating another subject related to History, although keeping it “joined” with Geography, and meeting teachers’ demand for more space for national history in the curriculum. In 1871, 2 students attended the Geography and History course and 18 Geography and modern History (Relatório do Diretor Geral …, 1871).
• 19
  Araponga had a remarkable trajectory in the Bahian educational scene. He was the author of didactic compendiums approved by the Instruction Council—Compêndio de Ortografia Elementar (1869) and Compendio de Geografia (1880)—in addition to being a member of several teacher service exam boards throughout the 1870s.
• 20
  There are records of adaptations elsewhere. In Rio de Janeiro, at the Colégio de Meninas, directed by Mme. Tanière, teacher Olympia Tanière—daughter of the director—had adjusted the method for events linked to the History of Brazil and showed the result during a visit that Count Zaba made to the institution, in which the baron of Cotegipe, Candido Mendes de Almeida, José Cardoso da Silva, and Pereira Frazão were also present (Diário do Rio de Janeiro, 1870b). In Pernambuco, there is also a record of possible adaptations, but, like the one in Araponga, they do not seem to have prospered. From what Diário de Pernambuco suggests, on August 21, 1871, at the time of Zaba’s first conference in Recife, a professor at Ginásio Pernambucano was already working on an adaptation of the method after the author had taught a course at the institution. In fact, a dispute over the “pioneer ship” of adaptation seems to have created a stir among some teachers from Ginásio (Diário de Pernambuco, 1871b).
• 21
  In addition to the experience of Malaquias Perminio, a student at Escola Normal da Bahia, at the Escola Normal in Rio de Janeiro, in October 1871, students would have had weekly lessons using the method, with “[…] more than 54 history lessons for male students and 53 for female students […],” so that “[…] through the system of alternating teaching, each sex has no more than three lessons per week” (A Instrucção Publica, 1873, p. 364).

Edited by

Responsible associate editor:

José Gonçalves Gondra (UERJ) E-mail: [e-mail] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0669-1661

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  13 Nov 2023
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  22 Sept 2022
• Accepted
  15 June 2023
• Published
  20 Sept 2023
• Published
  16 Oct 2023