Cartas Sobre a Educação Da Mocidade

Written in 1760 by the Portuguese physician and Enlightenment thinker António Nunes Ribeiro Sanches, this series of letters addressed to Monsenhor Salema constitutes a bold polemic against the state of Portuguese education. Sanches wrote in response to a royal decree on educational reform, and his treatise dismantles the dominance of ecclesiastical institutions over learning, arguing instead for an education rooted in civic virtue and practical knowledge. He contends that youth must be prepared not merely for spiritual salvation but for meaningful service to the kingdom in times of peace and war. This is not dry pedantry but a passionate argument for what a nation owes its young people and what they, in turn, owe their country. For scholars of European Enlightenment, Portuguese history, or the philosophy of education, these letters offer a fascinating window into an era when Portugal struggled to reconcile tradition with modernity.