In the 17th century, education was undergoing transformation, and John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) was a prominent Czech educational reformer and religious leader who was a fervent supporter of universal education.
Comenius is considered to be the author of one of the first illustrated children’s books, Orbis Pictus (“The World in Pictures”), published in 1658, a large work of 150 chapters, which combines text with appropriate images – copper engravings – to facilitate the learning process and make it more enjoyable. Designed for children under six who are beginning to learn to read, the book contains a series of pictures and simple descriptions of activities in everyday life, botany, zoology, religion, history, etc., written in both Latin and the vernacular. The introduction helps the reader understand the context of the book, with the author emphasizing the importance of children’s learning through sensory experiences, stating that knowledge undoubtedly begins with what can be perceived through the senses.
First published in Latin and German in 1658 at Nuremberg, the book soon spread to schools in Germany and other European countries. The first English edition by Charles Hoole was published in 1659, and the first quadrilingual edition (in Latin, German, Italian, and French) was published in 1666. Also, the first Czech translation was published in the quadrilingual edition of 1685 (together with Latin, German and Hungarian), by the Breuer publishing house in Lőcse (today Levoča, Slovakia), and between the 1670s and 1780s, new editions were published in various languages, improving both the images and the content of the text.
John Amos Comenius, who was born on March 28, 1592 in Nivnice to a Protestant family from Moravia, Habsburg Domain, now in the Czech Republic, was remembered in history for his teaching methods, especially foreign languages, favoring language learning latin
Comenius’s interest in study arose from his early educational years, when, orphaned by both parents, he was sent by his aunt to a secondary school in Přerov. There, the teaching methods were weak, but the director of the institution sensed the flashes of his intelligence, preparing and encouraging Comenius especially for the “ministry”. In 1613 he attended the University of Heidelberg, during which time he became familiar with and embraced the ideas of the Protestant millenarians, who believed that salvation could be achieved on earth.
The political and religious movements caused by the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War in 1618 and the determination of Emperor Ferdinand II to re-Catholicize Bohemia, writes britannica.com, pushed Comenius into hiding with other Protestant leaders, in 1628 established -se in Leszno, Poland. Estranged from his native places, but optimistic about the fate of the Protestants, Comesius began to prepare for the day when it would be possible to rebuild Bohemian society by envisioning a reformed educational system. He began with a “Brief Proposal”, a project in which he promoted full-time schooling for all young people, also emphasizing the study of both the youth’s native cultures and those of other countries, spoke of new methods of teaching, to help learning become fast, enjoyable and complete, about the importance of careful interaction between pupil and pupil, he then wrote The School of Childhood, a book for mothers about the first years of children’s lives, encouraged the teaching of Latin, emphasizing the study of “things” rather than grammar, wrote Janua Linguarum Reserata, a bilingual Latin-Czech textbook that became very popular and translated throughout Europe and even in Asian countries.
“With the liberation of Bohemia less certain than before, Comenius turned to an even more ambitious project—the reform of human society through education. Encouraged by other European intellectuals, including a German merchant settled in London, Samuel Hartlib, Comenius was invited to England to found a college of pansophical learning.” It happened in the year 1641. In London, Comenius made an extraordinarily good impression, met influential people and was appreciated in his later writings, however, things did not go any further due to the outbreak of the English Civil War, Comenius leaving England in 1642. From London, to Paris, at the invitation of Cardinal Richelieu, then to Sweden, where the government representatives offered him to help reform Swedish schools by writing a series of school textbooks, based on his own philosophical system: pansophy, which was based on a principle by which all knowledge could be harmonized and which aimed to expand and open to the eyes of all “the totality of things, so that everything is pleasant in itself and necessary for the expansion of the appetite’.
“The Peace of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Thirty Years’ War, was a blow to Comenius and other Czech exiles, who thus lost their last hope of restoring ethnic and religious freedom in their native land. Few of them returned as they would have been asked to recant their beliefs. Comenius left Elbing and returned to Poland, where the brothers from Leszno had been driven to despair. In 1648, he was consecrated chief bishop of the Moravians, the last of the Bohemian-Moravian clergy to hold this position”.
But Comensius’ prestige was growing. This was followed, in 1650, by going to Hungary, at the invitation of Prince Zsigmond Rákóczi, who wanted to establish a model pansophical school in Sárospatak. But although the school opened with 100 students, the project was a failure, mainly due to the lack of interest of teachers who did not understand Comensius’ idylls of teaching and learning.
In 1657, Comensius brought together most of his writings on education and published them in a collection, Didactica Opera Omnia, devoting the last years of his life to work on his great work, the Consultation. In 1670, when he was already dying, he managed to enjoy the publication of part of the collection, but over time the manuscripts were lost until 1935, when they were found in an orphanage in Halle, Germany.
Seen in his time as an educational leader due to his innovative visions, Comensius nevertheless failed to impose his pansophistic philosophy, his dream of universal harmony being too vague and grandiose for the 17th century mental outlook.
John Amos Comenius died at the age of 78 in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam, where he had lived the last 14 years of his life.
Comenius was married three times and had five children.
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Source: www.descopera.ro
