Latin school
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The Latin school was the
Emphasis was placed on learning
History
Medieval background
Medieval Europe thought of grammar as a foundation from which all forms of scholarship should originate.[4] Grammar schools otherwise known as Latin schools taught Latin by using Latin.[3] Latin was the language used in nearly all academic and most legal and administrative matters, as well as the language of the liturgy. Some of the laity, though not instructed formally, spoke and wrote some Latin.[3] Courts, especially church courts, used Latin in their proceedings, although this was even less accessible than the vernacular to the lower classes, who often could not read at all, let alone Latin.[3]
Students often studied in Latin school for about five years, but by their third year, students would be deemed as "knowledgeable enough" in Latin grammar to assist the master teacher in teaching the younger or less skilled pupils.[5] Most boys began at the age of seven but older men who wanted to study were not discouraged as long as they could pay the fees.[6] Students usually finished their schooling during their late teens, but those who desired to join the priesthood had to wait until they were twenty-four in order to get accepted. There was usually a limit to how long a student could stay in school, although if a relative was one of the school's founders then an extended stay was possible.[7]
Schools were managed by appointing a committee who then employed a teacher and paid their salary. These schools usually had limited supervision from the town authorities. Freelance Latin masters opened up their own schools quite frequently and would provide Latin education to anyone willing to pay. These freelance schools usually taught students in the master's home. Others taught as a tutor in a student's household by either living there or making daily visits to teach.
Renaissance and Early Modern perceptions
As Europeans experienced the intellectual, political, economic and social innovations of the
Still considered as the language of the learned, Latin was esteemed and used frequently in the academic field.[17] However, at the start of the 14th century, writers started writing in the vernacular.[18] Due to this event and the common practice of interweaving Latin with a dialect even at advanced stages in learning, the precedence of Latin schools from other pedagogical institutions diminished.[19]
Latin church schools
Clergy often funded ecclesiastical schools where clerics taught. Many historians argue that up until 1300 the Church had a monopoly on education in Medieval Italy.[2] Latin church schools seemed to appear around the 12th century, however very few remained after the 14th century as a vernacular, more definite form of Latin school emerged in Italy.[8] In some areas in Spain during the late 15th century, the church encouraged priests and sacristans to train others in reading and writing.[20]
After the
Latin school curriculum
The Latin school curriculum was based mainly on reading Classical and some Medieval authors. Students had to learn the principles of Ars Dictaminis in order to learn how to write formal letters. Authors often had lists of books that were supposed to be used in the curriculum that would teach students grammar. These texts however, were often not the original texts, as more often than not, texts were changed to include moral stories or to display rules of grammar.[22] These were usually in the form of fables or poems. New students generally started off with easy basic grammar, and steadily moved into harder Latin readings such as the Donatus (Ars Minor stage), which was a syntax manual that was memorized, or even more advanced with glossaries and dictionaries. Although many teachers used many books that varied from person to person, the most popular textbook would have been the Doctrinale.[23] The Doctrinale was a long verse of Latin grammar. This textbook dealt with parts of speech, syntax, quantity and meter, as well as figures of speech. The Doctrinale as well as a large sum of other books (though not nearly as popular) was often referred to as the "canon of textbooks".[22] Similarly, as the student advanced into the Ars Dictaminis stage more theory and practice writing formal or prose letters were focused on. Poetry was often a teachers favorite as it taught not only Latin, but mnemonic value and "truth".[22] Poetry was not chiefly studied during the medieval times, although some classic poems were taken into the curriculum. However, during the Renaissance, pupils greatly studied poetry in order to learn metrics and style. As well, it was viewed as a broader study of Latin grammar and rhetoric, which often included concepts, and analysis of words[24]
Ars Dictaminis
Ars Dictaminis was an area of study that was created in the latter part of the
Studia Humanitatis
Part of a series on |
Rhetoric |
---|
Studia Humanitatis was the new curriculum founded in the
Other institutions
Latin schools in colonial North America and the US
Latin schools, on the same model, were founded in North America, importing the European methods of education. The first of these was Boston Latin School, founded in 1635. These fed early universities such as Harvard, with students capable of speaking, reading and debating in Latin. The challenge to the Latin, Greek and "classical" domination of education came earlier than in Europe, but the tradition continued at a diminished level through the twentieth century. A number of "Latin Schools" still exist in the US, some of which teach Latin, while others do not.[28]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wiesner-Hanks, p122.
- ^ a b Grendler, p6.
- ^ a b c d e Burke, p84.
- ^ Piltz, p17.
- ^ Grendler, p4.
- ^ a b Orme, p129.
- ^ Orme, p130.
- ^ a b Grendler, p5.
- ^ Orme, p131.
- ^ Ferguson, p. 89.
- ^ Wiesner-Hanks, p. 130.
- ^ a b c d Wiesner-Hanks, p. 32.
- ^ Grendler, p. 110.
- ^ Wiesner-Hanks, p. 129.
- ^ Woodward, p. 38.
- ^ a b c Grendler, p. 136.
- ^ Goldgar and Frost, p. 320.
- ^ Wiesner-Hanks, p30.
- ^ Black, p. 275.
- ^ Wiesner-Hanks, p119.
- ^ Burke, p89.
- ^ a b c d Grendler, p114.
- ^ Grendler, p111.
- ^ Grendler, p235.
- ^ Piltz, p21.
- ^ Grendler, p115.
- ^ Wiesner-Hanks, p120.
- ^ "Accredited Schools". Classical Latin School Association -. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
References
- Black, Robert. Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Tradition and Innovation in Latin Schools from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
- Burke, Peter. The historical anthropology of early modern Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
- Ferguson, Wallace K. The Renaissance in Historical Thought: Five Centuries of Interpretation. Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin, 1948.
- Goldgar, Anne, and Robert I. Frost. Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society. Boston: BRILL, 2004.
- Grendler, Paul F. Schooling in Renaissance Italy Literacy and Learning, 1300-1600. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.
- Orme, Nicholas. Medieval Schools: From Roman Britain to Renaissance England. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
- Piltz, Anders. The World of Medieval Learning. trans. David Jones. New Jersey: Barnes & Noble Books, 1978.
- Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E.Early Modern Europe, 1450-1789. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
- Woodward, William Harrison. Studies in Education during the Age of the Renaissance 1400-1600. New York: Russell and Russell⋅Inc, 1965.
Further reading
- Courtenay, William J. 1987. Schools and scholars in fourteenth-century England. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Hunt, Tony. 1991. Teaching and learning Latin in thirteenth-century England. Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer.
- Martin, John Jeffries. 2007. The Renaissance World. Abingdon: Routledge.
- Mehl, James V. 1993. Hermannus Buschius' Dictata utilissima: a textbook of commonplaces for the Latin school. Humanistica Lovaniensia 42: 102-125.
- Nellen, Henk J. M. 2005. Short but not sweet: the career of Gisbertus Longolius (1507–1543), headmaster of the Latin school in Deventer and professor at the University of Cologne. Lias 32: 3-22
- Verweij, Michiel. 2004. Comic elements in 16th-century Latin school drama in the low countries. Humanistica Lovaniensia 53: 175-190.
- WItt, Ronald. 1982. Medieval "ars dictaminis" and the beginnings of humanism: a new construction of the problem. Renaissance Quarterly 35: 1-35.
- Proctor, Robert E. 1990. The studia humanitatis: contemporary scholarship and renaissance ideals. Renaissance Quarterly 43: 813-818.