Nor was geography neglected. In the earlier Jesuit schools it was treated more fully only in the philosophical course, in connection with astronomy, or as "erudition" in the class of rhetoric. As early as 1677 a geographical text-book, written by Father König,[1] was used in German colleges. We have proofs that geography was taught in the colleges in France, twelve years after the publication of the Ratio Studiorum. A few years ago a manuscript was found belonging to the old Jesuit college of Avignon, written in the year 1611 by Father Bonvalot. It contains, in ninety-four folio pages, a brief but complete course of geography. This course is divided into two parts: Europe, and the countries outside of Europe. Every country of Europe forms the subject of a special chapter, in which ancient and modern geography are combined. Special attention is paid to the customs of the peoples, the form of government, etc. This manuscript was used as the basis of lessons in geography, which were dictated to the pupils. It has been said that geography was not taught in Jesuit schools until long after this branch had been cultivated in the schools of the Oratory and the Petites-Écoles of Port-Royal. And yet Father Bonvalot wrote his course of geography the very year in which the Oratory was founded and more than thirty years before the opening of the Petites-Écoles. But Father Bonvalot was perhaps an exception. By no means. Documentary evidence is at hand to show that, before the middle of the seventeenth century, there was hardly a manuscript "course of rhetoric" in the colleges of Lyons, Tournon, Avignon, etc. , which did not contain a course of geogra-
- ↑ Pachtler, l. c., pp. 106-107.
