DUFOUR, Joannes Baptista "Cursus Philosophicus" Manuscript [Douai, 1738] Jesuit

DUFOUR, Joannes Baptista Josephus. Cursus Philosophicus: Logic Courses from the Jesuit College of Douai.

Douai, 1738. Latin text. Two manuscript volumes bound together in one, contemporary calf. Large folio format, 513pp + 317pp manuscript pages. Manuscript title pages identify the compiler as Joannes Baptista Josephus Dufour and place the work within the Jesuit educational context at Douai. The text preserves two complete courses in scholastic logic and philosophy, following the Aristotelian and Thomistic curriculum standard to eighteenth-century Jesuit higher education. Includes engraved allegorical frontispieces and inserted printed academic disputation material, giving the work stronger bibliographic and visual presence than a typical student notebook. Contemporary calf binding with expected rubbing and wear from use; internally substantial, sound, and highly legible. Very Good.

An unusually extensive surviving witness to formal Jesuit philosophical instruction in the pre-Enlightenment period. The manuscript records the structure of advanced scholastic education as taught at the Jesuit College of Douai, preserving not merely excerpts or lecture notes but a full working curriculum of logic, disputation, and methodical argumentation. As a student compilation of oral teaching and formal exercises, it documents how elite Catholic students were trained to reason, debate, and proceed through the intellectual foundations of theology and philosophy. The engraved frontispieces and inserted printed disputations further situate the manuscript within the ceremonial and institutional life of Jesuit academic culture. Material of this scale and completeness is increasingly uncommon on the market and particularly well suited to collections focused on Jesuit history, Catholic intellectual life, early modern education, and the history of philosophy.