Knowledge and Society: The Role of Two Universities in Southern Europe in the Early Nineteenth Century – the Case of Coimbra and Salamanca

Based on the methodological approaches in the history of knowledge,
this article carries out a comparative analysis of the creation of university curric-
ula while taking into account the objectives of the central government favouring a
certain type of practical knowledge, for reasons of public health and economic de-
velopment. In this sense, the Portuguese and Spanish reformers chose to value the
various disciplines that encapsulate natural philosophy. This decision, which
sought to meet the interests of the objectives of the central governments, ended
up causing a complete change in the hierarchy of knowledge at Salamanca and
Coimbra. Starting in the early 1770s, we begin to see the introduction of disciplines
such as natural history, experimental physics, and chemistry. In turn, these disci-
plines were accompanied by an obligation to attend practical classes in the various
laboratories created as a result of this process.