Drawing practices and geometric knowledge in the Textbooks of the 19th century

Abstract The article analyzes the different drawing practices in the educational process of geometric knowledge present in the textbooks of the 19th century and discusses the differences between the translated books and the Brazilian production. The question guiding the analysis is: How do drawing practices take part in the education process of geometric knowledge? The textbooks reveal the presence of two distinct approaches to the education of geometric knowledge: the freehand drawing and the geometric drawing with instruments. Despite the translations of foreign books propagating elements of the intuitive method, in which freehand drawing formalizes geometric knowledge, this proposal does not prevail in Brazilian productions, characterized by geometric drawings of predefined figures, so that the geometrical knowledge supports the drawing practice.