The Ratio Studiorum often designates the document that formally established the globally influential system of Jesuit education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 in 1599. Its full title is Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Iesu ("The Official Plan for Jesuit Education").

The work is the product of many hands and wide experience, but it most directly derives from the efforts of an international team of academics at the Jesuit school in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, the Collegio Romano.

The Society of Jesus

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 had not originally envisaged running a network of schools when it was founded, but it soon became progressively involved in and then largely associated with educational work. The many schools taken over or started by the Society in its first decades all needed plans (rationes). In addition, an increasing number of young men were entering the Society in need of the educational background that was required for priestly service, and the Society began to assume a greater and greater role in the direction of its own formational program. For these two reasons, there grew a great desire for a standard plan for all of the Society's educational institutions.

Under the generalate of Claudio Aquaviva, in 1581, a committee of twelve Jesuit priests was appointed without clear results. A new committee of six was soon formed in 1584: Juan Azor (Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

), Gaspar González (Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

), James Tyrie

James Tyrie

James Tyrie was a Scottish Jesuit theologian.-Life:Educated first at St. Andrews, he joined Edmund Hay at the time of de Gouda's mission in 1526...

 (Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

), Peter Busée (Holland), Anthony Ghuse (Flanders

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

), and Stephen Tucci (Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

). This committee produced a trial document, the Ratio of 1586, which was sent to various provinces for comments from the teachers. This plan was not intended for actual use in the classrooms. Reflection on the reactions led to the issuance of another document in 1591, which was to be employed in all Jesuit schools for three years. The reflection on these experiments was then used by the committee in Rome to create the final official document of 1599.

One hundred years after the order's founding, the Jesuits were running 444 schools. By 1739, they were running 669 schools.

The Ratio had an major impact on later humanist education. In his Renaissance Literary Theory and Practice, Charles Sears Baldwin writes, “The sixteenth century closed with the full [classical] doctrine operative in the Ratio Studiorum and in the rhetoric of Soarez” (64).

Further Reading

• Ratio atque Institutio Studiorum Societatis Iesu. Volume 5 of the Monumenta Paedagogica Societatis Iesu, ed. Ladislaus Lukàcs. Volume 129 of the series Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu
  Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu
  The Monumenta Historica Societatis Iesu is a collection of scholarly volumes on critically edited documents on the origin and early years of the Society of Jesus, including the life and writings of St Ignatius of Loyola.-Origin:...
  
  , 357-454. Rome: Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 1986.

• Abbott, Don Paul. “Rhetoric and Writing in the Renaissance.” A Short History of Writing Instruction. Ed. James J. Murphy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001. 145–72.

• Atteberry, John. “Humanities and Rhetoric.” Ratio Studiorum: Jesuit Education 1540–1773. Ed. John Atteberry and John Russell. Boston: John J. Burns Library, 1999.

• Baldwin, Charles Sears. Renaissance Literary Theory and Practice. New York: Columbia UP, 1939.

• Donohue, John W., S.J. Jesuit Education: An Essay on the Foundation of Its Idea. New York: Fordham University Press, 1963.

• Farrell, Allan Peter, S.J. The Jesuit Code of Liberal Education; Development and Scope of the Ratio Studiorum. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company, 1938.

• Ganss, George, S.J. Saint Ignatius' Idea of a Jesuit University. Second Edition. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1956.

• Pavur, Claude, S.J. The Ratio Studiorum: The Official Plan for Jesuit Education. Saint Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2005.

• Scaglione, Aldo. The Liberal Arts and the Jesuit College System. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1986.

• Schwickerath, Robert, S.J. Jesuit Education: Its History and Principles Viewed in the Light of Modern Educational Problems. Saint Louis, Missouri: B. Herder, 1903.

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Ratio Studiorum
• "The Method of Teaching in Practice," a chapter from Jesuit Education: Its History and Principles Viewed in the Light of Modern Educational Problems by Robert Schwickerath, S.J. (with bibliography)
• Translation of the Ratio Studiorum by Allan P. Farrell, S.J., available in PDF or HTML