From Jesuit letters to science blogs: the diversity of voices and ways of reporting scientific knowledge in Brazil Part I - 1551-1808

Abstract

Based on online collections of newspapers and historical publications, this retrospective exposes the diversity of actors – religious, travelers, lawyers, agronomists, botanists, zoologists, physicists, mathematicians, doctors, professional journalists and bloggers – and printed forms – letters, books, newspapers, magazines, blogs – involved in the dissemination of knowledge about zoology, botany, anthropology and agriculture in Brazil since the 16th century. This first of the three parts argues that the propagation of this information began in 1551 with the letters of the Jesuits and was strengthened from 1797 onwards with agricultural manuals for the settlers of the Portuguese colony – therefore, two centuries before 1808, considered the starting point of the scientific dissemination in the country.