By the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Brazil in 1759, their Brazilian libraries collectively owned 60,000 books, with Salvador da Bahia the largest library owning 15,000 items. The suppression of the order dealt a devastating blow to the Brazilian educational system, and indeed to that of Spanish Peru, where the Jesuits were also active.

Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile Hist…, loc. 376