festive oratory, the hospices for apprentices, for student-seminarians, in the boarding colleges for students and artisans, for boys of middle and upper classes (like those at Alassio, Turin-Valsalice and Este), in the Patronages of Southern France and in similar institutions in Argentina and Uruguay. It is quite natural to find the essential elements and basic inspirations everywhere but quite different accents and elements as well and at the same time And it is also natural that similar differences might be noticed in written documents which are different because of the reality they refer to, or because of the situations at the time they were written or because of the literary genre. We have already hinted at the hypothesis of a preventive system carried out with a variety of preventive methods and firstly the reference to the different “open” institutions, an “open” institution like the oratory, and comprehensive schools like the colleges or boarding schools.448
3. Don Bosco, educator and author of pedagogical literature
Even though Don Bosco had published many things, in none of them had he provided a systematic explanation of his ideas on pedagogy or provided basic directions for his educational praxis. However, there was little he wrote which did not have some connection with the education of young people and the masses, whether he was writing history, apologetics, didactic material, catechetics, religious content, hagiography, biography or normative texts.449
For this reason, any faithful reconstruction of Don Bosco's ideas on education should not leave out any of his writings, published or unpublished, even though a privileged place should be given to the more explicitly pedagogical writings. Added to these should also be the abundant endorsements by his co- workers and contemporaries: books, chronicles, memoirs, biographical profiles, the history of institutions, minutes of general and particular meetings or conferences, General Chapter and Superior Chapter meetings. The collected letters are particularly important.450 We shall limit ourselves to singling out writings and endorsements of an obvious pedagogical nature and intent, both theoretical and practical.
“A cheerful and happy way of living as a Christian” is what Don Bosco wanted to teach young people with his Companion to Youth written in l847.451 The first essays on the pedagogical thinking of the Oratory are: An introduction to the regulated plan of life; the Historical outline of the Oratory of St. Francis of Sales l852-54 and the Historical outlines of the Oratory of St. Francis of Sales, 1862.. 452 Linked to the structure of the college-seminary are some well-known biographical outlines published during the decade 1859-1868: On the life of Dominic Savio (1854); 453 A biographical sketch of the young Michael Magone (1861) 454, The little shepherd of the Alps, namely the life of Besucco
448 Cf. P. Braido, “L’esperienza pedagogica di Don Bosco nel suo divenire”, in Orientamenti Pedagogici 36 (1989): 11-39;
L. Pazzaglia, La scelta dei giovani e la proposta educativa di Don Bosco, in Don Bosco nella storia, Atti del 1
Congresso Internazionale di Studi su Don Bosco (UPS – Roma, 16-20 January 1989), ed. M. Midali, (Rome: LAS
1990), 259-288; in paticular, 273-282.
449 A complete summary of Don Bosco’s vast literary output including writings of other genres,( such as hagiography,
history, juridical etc) and offered by P. Stella, Gli scritti a stampa di S. Giovanni Bosco, (Rome: LAS 1977). We find a
grouping by literary genre in P. Stella, Don Bosco nella storia della religiosità cattolica, vol ,1 230-237.
450 Four volume edition ed. Eugenio Ceria, (Turin: SEI 1955-59). A more complete critical edition is underway: G. Bosco,
Epistolario. Introduzione, testi critici e note, ed. F. Motto, 2 vols, (Rome: LAS 1991/1996: vol 1 (1835-63); II (1864-
68).
451 Cf. P. Stella, Valori spirituali nel “Giovane provveduto” di San Giovanni Bosco, (Rome: PAS 1960), 131 pages. 452 Cf- P. Braido, Don Bosco per la gioventù povera e abbandonata in due inediti del 1854 e del 1862, in P. Braido, ed.,
Don Bosco nella Chiesa al servizio dell’umanità, (Rome: LAS, 1987), 13-81.
453 Cf. La vita di Savio Domenico e “Savio Domenico e don Bosco”. Study by A. Caviglia, (Turin: SEI, 1942-43), 43-92.
609 pages.
454 Cf. A. Caviglia,Il “Magone Michele”. Una classica esperienza educativa, in Il primo libro di Don Bosco. Il “Magone
Michele”. (Turin: SEI, 1965), 129-202.