Using documentary sources, in this article, we examine the pedagogical practices of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil, seeking elements that shaped the relation between the teaching of humanities, the primary function of Jesuit schools, and instruction in manual crafts. The results of the research reveal that there was an imbrication between liberal arts and instruction in mechanical crafts, the latter being complementary to the former. This explains why, in the context of slavery, schools needed to build attached workshops, in which manufactured products necessary for their own consumption were produced. In the workshops, the priests instructed students using a method similar to that of the medieval craft guilds. Based on the data obtained, it is also possible to affirm that the pedagogical practices of the Society of Jesus in colonial Brazil went beyond the stipulations of the Ratio studiorum and the Constitutions, documents which defined the precepts of Jesuit education worldwide.
Education and work; Jesuit schools; liberal arts; mechanical crafts
