Page 121 - Textos de Matemática Vol. 34

MATHEMATICS IN COIMBRA IN THE 19TH CENTURY 111
Mathematics Course - 1861
Year
Chair
First
1st
Higher Algebra - principles of number theory - analytic geometry - theory of circular functions - spherical trigonometry
Second
2nd
Differential and Integral Calculus; of differences, direct and inverse; of the variations and of probabilities
Third
3rd
Rational Mechanics and its applications to mechanics
Third
4th
Descriptive Geometry - applications to stereometry, perspective and shadow theory
Fourth
5th
Description and use of optical instruments - Practical Astronomy
Fourth
6th
Geodesy - topography - cadastral operations
Fifth
7th
Celestial Mechanics
Fifth
8th
Mathematical Physics
- applications of mechanics to constructions
In 1898 the Faculty of Mathematics obtained permission to create a 9th discipline in the 4th year, called Higher Analysis, with the justification that it would be impossible to have a good teaching of the 7th and 8th discipline without it. The syllabus of this discipline included Functions of a Complex Variable, Differential Equations and Calculus of Variations. Near the end of the century, the Faculty of Mathematics managed to teach the theoretical foundations it deemed necessary.
2. The professors
The first 6 years of the new Faculty of Mathematics were difficult because there were only 4 professors, none of them with a doctorate in mathematics (two were Italian and two were Portuguese - Jos´e Monteiro da Rocha and Jos´e Anast´acio da Cunha - these produced some notable work); but in 1778 the University began hiring the former students that obtained Doctorates, and from 1778 to 1787 five new Professors were hired. But the three French invasions and the Portuguese Civil War caused a lot of damage to the university (it was closed for six years during the first half of the 19th century). Nevertheless the rate of new Doctorates was satisfactory and there were enough graduates and doctorates to give professors to the University of Coimbra and other higher education institutions in Portugal.
Several professors from the 19th century are worth mentioning: Manuel Pedro de Mello, Rodrigo Ribeiro de Sousa Pinto, Luciano Pereira da Silva, Lu´ıs da Costa