«Merge Record #»«Title» - Schulz-Falster Rare Books

providing background and context, rather than just providing a list of words. This
had first been published in Latin and Czech in the same year. His Latin, French and
English primer revolutionized seventeenth century education, it is arranged in one
hundred lessons, covering a thousand subjects. This first Western languages edition
teaches Latin, French and English, attractively printed in three columns in Roman,
Gothic and Italic type respectively. 'His 'Open Door to Langues', Janua Linguarum
Reserata secured the fairly uniform teaching of latin throughout the continent' (PMM
139). It is not to be confused with the earlier 'Janua linguarum' of William Bathe and
others, which it is an entirely different work.
Comenius (1592-1670) was the pioneer of contemporary developments in education,
his proposals and maxims have shaped educational thinking ever since, and, even
though some his suggested methods are outdated, his final goals are still valid today
and some have still not been completely attained. To mention just some of his
pronouncements regarding education: he stressed the importance of pre-school
education within the family, maintained that education had to pleasurable to be
effective, proclaimed life-long education, and demanded international education for
the international community of nations. Everybody should learn two languages, his
own vernacular language and a 'lingua franca', which at the time was clearly Latin.
All these demands have a surprisingly modern ring to them and are all contained in
modern textbooks of education.
This is one of three states printed the same year with different combinations of
names in the imprint and different signatories in the dedication. Here the dedication
is signed by Anchor and Comenius, but not Sam. Hartlieb. No priority has been
assigned. Young identifies the version also signed by Hartlieb as a pirated edition.
The publisher and social reformer Samuel Hartlieb or Hartlib (c 1600 –1662), who
originally came from Poland, was a notable figure in the English republic of letters.
He specialised in the organisation and distribution of knowledge, was a keen
follower of Comenius pansophic ideas, and in fact issued a pirated edition of his
early work on the subject. This seems to support Young’s suggestion, that the edition
with Hartlieb as a signatory of the dedication is a pirated edition.
Marcel Bekus' library was sold at auction in Nantes in 1985 by his grandson.
STC (2nd edn) 15078.5 (Cambridge); not in Naarden, Comenius Museum; see Robert
Fitzgerald Young, Comenius in England, p. 61; on Hartlib see Greengrass, M.
‘Samuel Hartlib and the Commonwealth of Learning.’ In The Cambridge History of the
Book in Britain, edited by John Barnard and D. F. Mc Kenzie. Vol. 4, pp. 304–322.
Cambridge, U.K., 2002.
Civilité Type
16.
[CORDIER, Mathurin.] La Civilité puerile et honneste, pour
l'instruction des Enfans, en laquelle est mise au commencement la
maniere d'apprendre à bien lire, prononcer & écrire; corrigée de
nouveau, & augmentée à la fin d'un beau Traité pour bien apprendre
l'Orthographe. Dressée par un Missionnaire. Avec des precepts &