0 INTRODUCTION

4. RHETORIC AND THE WORLD OF SCIENCE IN THE EModE PERIOD
vernacular was fostered as it started to be considered as “the useful language” (Jones
1953: 293).
By 1600 most of the children acquired basic literacy by means of the parish
curate, but only some of them had the privilege of attending a grammar school to learn
Latin, and in some cases, also Greek. These children were taught the classics by rote
learning of the Latin language. However, as Salmon (1996: 14, 175) claims, at this stage
figures such as John Brinsley insisted on the importance of teaching also the vernacular to
the children. Many others followed his example, creating the first contrastive grammars
of English and Latin. The teaching of Latin to schoolboys was still considered to be
important because this language was the key to access a huge cultural heritage, much
more extensive and serious than that available in English. Furthermore, knowledge in
Latin facilitated the correct use of Latin borrowings, widely used at this period.
In short, although Latin had enjoyed a privileged position as the lingua franca of
science, during the EModE period it lost ground in favour of the vernacular, which was
increasingly used in prestigious registers.
4.3.2. The vernacularization of science
During ME, the vernacular was used in manuscripts together with Latin, to the extent that
we can say that the process of vernacularization has its origin already in the 14 th
century, 12 when medical writings at all levels were composed or translated into English.
The spread of literacy to all ranks of English society already in the 15 th century had,
12 Certain genres, such as recipes, handbooks with practical advice and charms, were written in the
vernacular even in OE times (Taavitsainen 2002: 204-205, 2006: 689).
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