Literacy and the Alphabetization of Europe and America
Latin writing and Vernacular Writing
Did people speak Latin in the Middle Ages? For the most
part, Latin was the language of reading and learning;
vernacular languages, like French,
Italian, and Spanish were the spoken languages, and most often,
the language of poetry, music and theatre. Comparatively
speaking, the writing of vernacular works developed later
and after the innovations of Latin scholarship. until
about 1200, most stories and poetry was composed orally
and dictated. Only later are works like Dante's Divine
Comedy composed in writing.
The growth of written vernaculars combined with the
introduction of the printing press to lay groundwork for
an explosion in literacy. From the period of about
1300-1600, literacy (and numeracy as well) became
something not only sought after, but often necessary for
various trades.
Of course technology-- whether spaces or
printing press-- would have meant nothing without
major changes in education and it is here that
renaissance Humanism and the
Protestant Reformation helped the process
along. One of the principle aspects of the Protestant
movement was its focus on breaking the control of the
Catholic church on the minds and bodies of the faithful.
Protestant reformers (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin etc.) often
stressed the need for individual bible reading and study
as one path towards salvation. Without the successes (as
well as the successes of the Catholic counter-reformation)
literacy in Western Europe would have advanced less
aggressively.
Comenius and Humanist Pedagogical Reform
We skip forward in time to the 1600s and
the introduction of one of the most successful literary
genre's in history: The Dick and Jane Book.
John Amos Comenius was a 17th century Reformer and
philosopher whose philosophy was called "pansophia":
knowledge of everything. It was explicitly Christian,
though he was a Protestant Reformer whose works were often
banned by the Pope and the monarchies. He
spent most of his time in England, the Netherlands and was
actually invited to be the head of Harvard College arounf 1650.
Comenius is most famous for the Orbis
Pictus of 1657. This book was part of a much
larger universalist "pansophist" project to reform
education, to increase literacy, to make good
Christiam boys and girls and to advance the knowledge
of the world in general. Comenius imagined the
curriculum of learning as a graded architectural
space, along the lines of a memory system vestibule,
courtyard, palace, treasury etc. In which learning of
all kinds was stored. The universalist aspect of his
reform program meant that the entire universe would be
represented and named in a rational and structured
order.
Patricia Crain's book The Story of
A begins by looking at Comenius' book. She calls the
alphabet primer a genre which "cloak[s]
the fact that the unit of textual meaning-- the letter--
lacks meaning itself." Why is it a genre, and not a simply
a guide?
Primers, according to crain, start with
the hornbook, or "battledore"
which taught both the alphabet and the lord's prayer at
the same time. Crain's argument is that the alphabet
itself is therefore allied with Christian teaching in
the mind of the learner. She suggests something that
might seem familiar even to modern readers (consider
these symbols, do they generate ritual practice? do they
indicate ownership or control?) Most of these hornbooks and
primers were used with very young children, and in
nurseries rather than in school.
The Orbis Sensualum Pictus and the Universal Language
Some plates of the Orbis:
In the Orbis Pictus, the young reader
is
invited by the scholar to enter the world of
learning and to "become wise. He is, as is the
case with all primers, first shown the
alphabet. The alphabet of Comenius is a
peculiar one. Given the inherent
meaninglessness of letters, it is necessary, as
Crain suggests, to attribute meaning to the
letters. Notice the sounds of the animals (and
a selection of humans) used to
give meaning to the letters.
Following the alphabet, the
child is led through the entirety of existence
beginning with god,
the
world, the heavens and the elements (like air).
This picture of the universe shares some
characteristics with the "Great Chain of Being"
inherited from Aristotle and the Scholastics,
and yet differes in its remarkably secular
imagery of trades, machinery, and other human
activities.
Naturally, as we know in this class, birds come
first (there are 6 plates of birds, a general
plate showing the parts, and then varieties:
domesticated, ravenous, singing, fields
and woods, and aquatic). Other
vermin and
beasties follow. Then of course, Adam and Eve
(but note the mysterious figures in the
background...). The ages and parts of man
(including deformed men, and the spooky soul of man) are
detailed, and it is here that we can see the
nursery-school function of these books, teaching
the names and vocabulary in English and in
Latin.
A very large section of the book
is devoted to the various trades of humans,
including everything from bread-baking to
bookselling to
tailoring
to "carrying to and fro". The various arts and
sciences are represented (
grammar, astronomy) as
well as aspects of philosophy and ethics
(esp. prudence
who will return again later). The various
associations of people are represented (family,
marriage, and of course
Master and Servant). And
what would a universal history be without
Judgment day?
The New England Primer Crain also discusses the famous New England
Primer, a book used from the late 17th century until even
the beginning of the 20th in some places. It has been
reprinted in hundreds of versions (our library has 128
different copies on microfilm). The alphabet
in the New England Primer is another oddity, containing a
number of images that Crain uses as clues to understand
what life and early learning were like in the American
Colonies. Of all the Reformationists, the Puritans were
among the most committed to literacy campaigns, and it was
therefore good luck for early American colonists that the
Puritans settled first. The book itself was one of the
most profitable products for an early Boston printer,
Benjamin Harris. It contains fewer pictures than the
Orbis, and many more catechisms and prayers for practice
in reading, rather than recognizing vocabulary. However,
even though the goal of the book was bible reading, the
images are not all religious, many are secular or trade
and market oriented. Why? Some of the images, Crain
suggests, are folk images, from stories or songs, such as
"The cat doth play and after slay" for which Crain offers
two images from the past ( 1 | 2).
What would a A Modern Orbis Pictus look like? Perhaps a picture dictionary?
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