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abstract: MICHAEL J. GORMAN Private
lessons: The Mathematical Cubiculum of the Collegio Romano
Much scholarly attention has been focused on the public teaching curricula of Jesuit colleges. Retreating from the noisy classroom, this paper will attempt to explore the private spaces of mathematical learning in the Collegio Romano, and their interactions with the public life of the college. The focus of the paper is on the career of the Jesuit mathematician Christoph Grienberger (c. 1564-1636), successor to Clavius as professor of mathematics at the Collegio Romano. The career of Grienberger demonstrates the multiple spaces of mathematical learning of the Collegio, and the public and private personas of the mathematical practitioner. In stark contrast to Galileo, it is argued that Grienberger deliberately attempted to avoid public celebrity in order to elevate the status of the mathematical disciplines at the Collegio Romano. The cubiculum of the senior mathematician in the Collegio Romano, containing mathematical instruments, manuscripts and also the site of "private lessons" in mathematics was one of the only rooms in a Jesuit college to have a door with a key. This paper will trace its history from the time of Clavius to that of Athanasius Kircher. 
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