The Society of Jesus did not start as a teaching order. The first decade of its history (1540-1550) was still a time of feeling one’s way and hesitant decisions. It was the success of some of the experiments, notably at Messina, which prompted Ignatius Loyola to make teaching one of the priorities of the new order. The humanist college at Messina was founded by Hieronymus Nadal, Loyola's closest collaborator. He followed the Parisian model (modus parisiensis), but added to it some new elements. This combination resulted in the humanist Jesuit model, which is the subject of this article. It was not long before such a large number of such Jesuit schools sprang up all over Europe. Poland, too, became part of the new trend. The early phase of the development of Jesuit education in Poland and Lithuania was heavily influenced by the Jesuit college in Vienna. It not only managed to attract lots of young Poles and Lithuanians, but also to establish its principles of education and upbringing as a model for Polish and Lithuanian schools. The success of that cultural process was due to the work of two Jesuits, Lorenzo Maggio, an Italian, rector of the College, and Francisco Sunyer, a Spaniard, lecturer in philosophy and prefect of the college boarding house. Maggio, a member of the Jesuit elite, had the backing of his superiors and even of the General of the Society himself when he drew up his instructions, outlined curricula, mies and organisational schemes for the new schools. Maggio’s instructions and suggestions were implemented by Sunyer, who took great care to ensure the high standard of the schools. It is clear from the irtstructions sent by Maggio to colleges at Braniewo (1568, 1570 and 1580), Pułtusk (1568 and 1570), Wilno (1570) and Poznań (1580) that the Jesuits took note of specific needs and responded to requests made by local communities. Thus — a long time before the Ratio Studiorum (1599) — they introduced into their curriculum subjects like German, history, dialectic, physics, mathematics, and lectures in polemical and moral theology. But even with these additions the schools fell short of the purely humanist model. It was not until the coming of Ratio Studiorum, a constitution which all Jesuit schools had to accept, that such a model was actually introduced. The humanist school in its pure form, no deviation allowed, was dominated by rhetoric. Even a subject like history was treated as if it were a branch of rhetoric and its materials a useful quarry for an orator. This article is the first attempt to explore the beginnings of Jesuit schools in Poland and Lithuania. Pragmatism and a considerable freedom and flexibility in the shaping of educational programmes and school structures were among the characteristic features of Jesuit education in that early phase. If only for that reason that chapter of our history deserves greater interest on the part of historians of education.