Jesuit Studies Caf茅
The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies and its collaborating partners at the University of Lisbon and the Italian-German Historical Institute at the Bruno Kessler Foundation, invite you to join informal conversations with the world's preeminent scholars working on the history, spirituality, and educational heritage of the Society of Jesus. These discussions 鈥� hosted at the Institute over coffee and also available via Zoom videoconference 鈥� are unique opportunities to learn more about the newest and most interesting scholarship in Jesuit Studies.
If you would like to attend a caf茅 via videoconference, please register, and you will receive information on how to access the online meeting space 24 hours before the discussion. Please contact the Institute with any questions or if you wish to join or lead a caf茅 in the future (iajs@bc.edu).
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Fall 2025 Conversations
At Jesuit Studies Cafes in the fall of 2025, we will disscuss the history and culture of the Society of Jesus.听
October 9, 2025
Simon Ditchfield, University of York, United Kingdom
The Accidental Historian: The Case of Daniello Bartoli (1608鈥�85)
The author of the first published attempt to write a global history of the Society (1653鈥�85), Daniello Bartoli, actually did not see himself as ahistorian. Nor did most of his contemporaries, who admired him for hispreaching, his moral essays, and his skills as a natural philosopher (hepublished works on acoustics and ice properties). So how did he come towrite a series of volumes that so impressed readers like Giacomo Leopardi,who called him "the Dante of baroque prose," and whose work wasreprinted in the nineteenth century to teach schoolchildren how to writegood Italian? This presentation will aim to understand Bartoli in theround: not only as a historian but also as a hagiographer, moral essayist, and natural philosopher.
November 13, 2025
Micah True, University of Alberta, Canada
Reconsidering the Seventeenth-Century Jesuit Relations from New France听
The Jesuit Relations from New France鈥攁nnual mission reports producedbetween 1632 and 1673 by Jesuit missionaries in Eastern Canada鈥攁reamong the most frequently cited sources on the early history of FrenchNorth America and Indigenous-European encounters. But they are alsoripe for reevaluation. Drawing from his new book (The Jesuit Relations:A Biography), Micah True brings to light little-known aspects of thesewell-known texts and shows how they can help us better understand thehistory of the Jesuits in New France.
December 11, 2025
Francesco Lu铆s Campos Ribeiro, University of Naples "L'Orientale", Italy听
The Good Shepherd Rockery from Portuguese India: Emulation and Dissimulation in a Case of Missionary Art
Francesco Gusella analyzes the composite ivory carvings of the Good Shepherd Rockery from Portuguese colonial India, focusing specifically on the origin of this subject鈥檚 iconography between the 1570s and 1650s. By examining material evidence from South Indian sites alongside Jesuit accounts of the Latinization of Saint Thomas Christians, the study reveals that the original design of these ivories came from theiconographic program of the so-called Persian Crosses鈥攁 particular type of sacred stone relief associated with the Nestorian Christians of South India.
Past Conversations
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Jesuit Studies Caf茅 Partners
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Department for the History and Philosophy of Science
Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon
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Italian-German Historical Institute
at the Bruno Kessler Foundation
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If you have any questions, please contact (iajs@bc.edu)