The Royal Board of Censorship and the Portuguese School System

Abstract

The article analyzes the historical evolution of censorship institutions in Portugal and their deep connection with the institutionalized school system, focusing on the transition from the Tribunal of the Holy Office (Inquisition) to the Real Mesa Censória, established in 1768 under the Pombaline government. While the Inquisition initially functioned as a court focused on religious orthodoxy and ideological control , the Real Mesa Censória assumed a centralized, state-driven nature that combined book censorship with the planning and supervision of the public education network in Portugal and its overseas territories.

The Real Mesa Censória played a modernizing and normative role aligned with Enlightenment principles, defining criteria for establishing Schools of Minor Studies (Estudos Menores) and Royal Chairs of First Letters (Primeiras Letras) based on demographic and socio-economic factors. The analysis concludes that textbooks and reading practices (censored, normalized, and guided) became tools for regulation and preventive pedagogy, whose principles of centralization and state control extended their influence and continued to manifest throughout the Contemporary era.