What can historians of the Reformation learn from studying changes in the way academic texts were presented and reproduced?

WHAT CAN HISTORIANS OF THE REFORMATION LEARN FROM STUDYING CHANGES IN THE WAY ACADEMIC TEXTS WERE PRESENTED AND REPRODUCED?

The evolution of the printing press took a furious pace in the 1480’s that had its peak after 1550. England’s particular case is enlightening, as the Church Reformation undertaken by King Henry VIII from the late 1520’s onwards was a revolution in itself that would logically influence the one that was already taking place in the printing press industry. Religious policies would shake the world of the English during the sixteenth century in an unprecedented way, leaving an indelible mark on the social and political arenas of the days and of many generations to come. The printing press was used as both a tool and a weapon in the struggling period that ensued. The huge amount of books published on religious matters during the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I as both successive regimes fought to conquer public and foreign opinion bears witness to how difficult – albeit creative – a process it was. But these were not the only areas affected by the revolutions taking place in the printing industry and the religious system of England. Indeed, universities and educational institutions in general were also there to attend the birth of a ‘new way of learning’; one which was far away from being any similar to the hitherto popular scholastic system that had predominated as the academic way of teaching in Medieval Europe. What had become the classic system – composed by the lectio, the disputatio, the quaestio, the determinatio and the reportatio – began being replaced by the new trends brought forward by the rise of Humanism, which enhanced the interest that Scholasticism had posed in the classics, by provoking a true revival of the culture of Greece and Rome that was used to study in universities and schools.

The first English publisher was the Kentish William Caxton, who, after thirty years of living in Bruges, learned the craftwork and published in the same city an English translation of Raoul Lefèvre’s chivalrous romance Recueil des histoires de Troye. He dedicated the work to Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy and, upon his return to England, where he established another press in 1476, he would be patronised by Edward IV, Richard III and, after 1485, Henry VII, the first Tudor king[1]. He would be succeeded in the business by his associate, Wynkyn de Worde, who dedicated a significant part of his output to schoolbooks about grammar, such as grammars by and after Donatus and John Garland and works of reformers of the school curriculum such as John Colet, Erasmus of Rotterdam and William Lily. Important early printers would be William Fawkes, a Frenchman who became Henry VII’s regius impressor in 1503 and who published an important Psalterium (1504), and the Norman Richard Pynson, who would succeed Fawkes as royal printer in 1508 and would print Henry VIII’s Assertio septem sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum in 1521[2].

The Renaissance brought about a whole new frame of mind regarding the handling of ancient books and documents. There was an incipient awareness of the difference between ancient and contemporary Latin grammatical systems as well as of other aspects of ancient thought. Confusion, however, remained, as Renaissance scholars still considered ancient writers, historians, philosophers, and scientists their forefathers[3] and were unable to conceive Antiquity as the remote past and detach their own world from that of Cicero or Caesar.

The appearance of Lutheranism and its development after 1517 called for new concerns in the printing world. Quoting A.G. Dickens, Elizabeth Eisenstein tells us that ‘unlike the Wycliffite and Waldensian heresies, Lutheranism was from the first the child of the printed book’[4] and, as such, its path towards settling down in the minds of thousands of Europeans, making an irreversible mark on society, had been smoothed by the evolution of printing. The industry was immensely revitalised and developed due to the spread of Lutheranism, as the initially weak stand of Lutherans had to be supported by words, as well as by acts. There was no better way to distribute the ideas of the ‘new religion’ than putting them into print, making them available to all those who could read. Thanks to Humanism, there were an increasingly greater number of them.

The Catholic Church, however, was not one to stand still, and it replied to this pouring of Protestant works in full force, one of its first champions being – quite ironically – King Henry VIII with his Assertio. In spite of this, Protestantism has remained associated with the printing industry in a manner that the Catholic Church never did. It would be John Foxe who would state, in his Book of Martyrs, ‘that either the pope must abolish knowledge and printing or printing must at length root him out’[5].

The wider use of the vernacular in the printing industry, which was a natural consequence of the increase in readers, would be of great importance in the diffusion and acceptance of the ‘new ideas’. This was a common trend in the sixteenth century, although Latin publications were still being produced at very high rates during the Reformation period. England and Denmark, both Protestant countries after the 1520’s, published eleven books in Latin against the eighty-nine that they printed in the vernacular, as the analysis made by Matthew Hall of 10,000 consecutive items taken from the Index Aurelianensis[6] shows[7]. Catholic Spain also showed a significant difference, with twenty-eight items published in Latin against seventy-two in Spanish. This is revealing about the importance ascribed to the vernacular in the Reformation period as well as of which countries were more involved in the religious struggle. As Pettegree and Hall argue, although there was still a large market for Latin books, it was dispersed and mainly concentrated in universities and other cultural and scientific institutions[8].

It is the intent of this essay to explore what can historians of the Reformation learn from the way academic texts were presented and produced. To that effect, I have chosen as a case study Roger Ascham’s The Scholemaster[9], published posthumously in 1570[10]. I will be using the London edition of 1571 printed by John Day, and I will be focusing on the first sixteen folios of the chapter ‘The first booke teaching the bringing up of youth’.

Born in 1515 in Kirby Wiske, Yorkshire, Roger Ascham received a humanist education at St John’s College, Cambridge, where, exceeding in all the studia humanitatis, he became an expert in Greek. At Cambridge he met and befriended notorious evangelicals such as Sir John Cheke, the future tutor of Edward VI; Sir Thomas Smith, appointed a secretary and knighted under the government of the Duke of Somerset; and Robert Pember, a reader of Greek at Trinity College who guided Ascham in his studies[11]. Having criticised the Pope, he had a hard time obtaining a fellowship – although he eventually did – even though he was being supported by Nicholas Metcalfe, the master of St John’s who was an archdeacon as well as, in Ascham’s own words, ‘a papist’ who was devoted to the ‘new learning’. Ascham then obtained his M.A. degree in 1537 and spent some years at Cambridge as a teacher. He would be appointed a Latin and Greek tutor to Princess Elizabeth in 1548, after her former tutor, William Grindal, who had been Ascham’s pupil, died. He would teach the Princess Greek and Latin until 1550, devoting the mornings to the former and the afternoons to the latter. They would read together the New Testament in Greek or Cicero and Livy’s works and would then comment the readings.

He would develop an intense and sincere – although adaptable, as he would also serve under Mary – Protestant faith throughout his life and a great love for teaching. This would prompt him to write his most ambitious work, The Scholemaster, which seems to have been completed by 1563. In his tract, Ascham describes the role the schoolmaster of the new times should be playing. It was intended for tutors at private houses rather than teachers at schools, although most of its principles could be applied to both.

The text of The Scholemaster, divided into two sections – called books – of educational methodology, was printed in a classical Early Modern gothic form. The first section, called ‘The first booke teaching the bringing up of youth’, is dedicated to the daily upbringing and acquisition of manners of children, and he uses tips, positive and negative examples, and classic references from Greek and Roman authors to make his point. The second section deals with the difficulties that can be encountered and the correct methodology to follow while teaching Latin using the works of Cicero, Terence, Caesar and Livy, among others, and its name is ‘The second booke teaching the ready way to the Latin tong’. The title page (see Figure 1) is decorated with stylised but plain foliage motifs and the title, subtitle, year and place of print and royal permission of the book are written in italics. The name of the printer, however, is written in the roman type (‘Printed by Iohn Daye, dwelling ouer Aldersgate’, see Figure 1). The book then opens with a letter from Margaret Ascham to Sir William Cecil printed in italics in which she dedicates the work to him for the friendship that had bonded the secretary to her late husband (see Figure 2 and 3). The first letter of this dedication, a capital s, is an illuminated one. Although the letter remains plain in itself, it is profusely decorated with a landscape background in which a noble manor or tower, a forest, a river, two men pointing at the s, and a human-faced sun can be seen (see figure 4). Then follows ‘A Præface to the Reader’ with an illuminated first letter (a capital w), that has been decorated with plant motifs more detailed than those that can be found in the title page (see Figure 5). After the conclusion of every chapter, the printer has placed a decorative element composed of geometrical and foliage motifs (see Figures 6 and 7), this pattern remaining constant throughout The Scholemaster. The text of the ‘Præface’ has been mainly printed in the roman type. John Day has been credited with the introduction of the roman form in England in the early 1570’s, thus signalling the beginning of the end of the gothic forms in English books[12], of which this edition of The Scholemaster was one of the last examples.

What can we infer from the formal characteristics of Ascham’s work described above? Firstly, even if the main text has been printed in the gothic form, John Day is clearly moving towards the continental trends, and detaching himself from the usual tendency, when he prints Ascham’s ‘Præface’ in the roman type. This is consistent with Chappell’s theory, explained earlier, that it was Day who introduced the latter type into England. This can be clearly seen if we compare the work with older books in print such as The Lamentacion of a sinner, by Katherine Parr, published in 1547 or Sir John Cheke’s The hurt of sedicion howe greueous it is to a commune welth of 1549, where there is no trace of the roman type.

Also of interest and easily perceivable is the austere style of the decorations. There is no decoration whatsoever after folio 1 until the end of the ‘The first booke’ and the start of ‘The second booke’ (folios 30 verso and 31). The next time we encounter some decoration again is at the end of the work (folio 65 verso, again a geometrical and vegetal compound), and on the recto side of the back cover. This, the last piece of decoration in the book is the most profusely decorated of all. In the engraving, two noblemen look at a skeleton lying on a tomb from which a leafy tree has grown. One of them points at the roots of the tree, exclaiming the Latin motto: Etsi mors indies accelerat, post fvnera virtvs vivet tamen, which can be translated as even though death hastens day by day, virtue will live after the burial (see Figure 8). This self-proclaimed virtuousness, further expressed by the austerity palpable throughout The Scolemaster, is indicative of the author’s faith. Protestantism, even when not connoting a Puritan approach to it, was supposed to be austere, thus opposing to the numerous and colourful decorations produced by Catholic printers. This austerity also reminds us of the functionality of the book. This is no mere devotional book for some nobleman in which illustrations and colours are more important than the actual text. This book, the author and the printer are implying, is useful, and it has been written to enlighten and edify masters on how to teach youth. Thus, there is no need for illustrations and the ones included are not only scarce, but also sober, and in the case of the more profuse image shown in Figure 8, didactic.

Notes in the margins of the printed book are also noteworthy formal aspects of Ascham’s work. We can distinguish between subtitles and references. Subtitles are used as small explanatory remarks that disclose in few words what the text next to them refers to. For example, not much after the beginning of ‘The first booke’, we find the following guidelines:

The order of teaching. First, let him teach the childe, cherefullie and playnlie, the cause, and matter of the letter: then, let him construe it into English, so oft, as the childe may easelie carry away the understanding of it: Lastly, parse it ouer perfectly.[13] (see Figure 9)

The same paragraph contains two other examples: ‘Two paper bokes’ needed for the lesson, one Latin, one English; and one that states that ‘Children learn by prayse’, for ‘there is no such whetstone, to sharpen a good witte and encourage a will to learning, as is prayse’ (see idem).

The second category, that of marginal referential notes, is used to draw the reader’s attention to parts of the text in which Classic authors, politicians, or other ancient and contemporary personages are quoted or mentioned. An example of this can be seen in the case of the marginal reference ‘Sturmius de Inst. Princ.’[14]. Next to it we can read: ‘He that would see a perfite discourse of it, let him read that learned treatise, which my frende Ioan Sturmius wrote de institutione Principis, to the Duke of Cleues’ (see Figure 10). References to personal names appear in italics, whereas references to work titles or Latin expressions appear in roman type. This is the case of the Latin motto ‘Qui parcit virgæ, odit filiu[m]’[15] (see idem), which marks the point in which he starts commenting on the extended view that beating is useful and, moreover, necessary, when teaching children.

Ascham presents his Scholemaster peppered with comments that imply or make a blatant statement of his own political and religious beliefs. We learn that he believed – and here we can clearly see the influence that Humanism had on his writings – that in the bringing up of children, “love is fitter than feare, ientleness better than beating”[16]. When explaining the seven marks that Plato established in order to choose the level of wit in a learning child, which are all, naturally, in Greek, Ascham tells us:

And because I wright English, and to Englishmen, I will plainly declare in Englishe both, what these words of Plato meane, and how aptlie they be lyncked, and how orderly they follow one an other.[17]

This display of Englishness is also a hint to the mentality of the times. After Elizabeth’s accession in 1558 and the subsequent passing of the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity in 1559, there was an increasingly marked feeling of community awareness on the part of the English Protestants. This sense of belonging to a group would be matched, throughout the rest of the reign, with an identification of Elizabeth and her subjects as a whole. There was a maturing sense of being useful and protective towards the state, which would, in turn, reward them with the same. To put it briefly, what Ascham is unexpectedly making us witnesses of in an educational tract, is the evolution of an incipient English nationalism, which had been favoured by the new religious policies implemented by the Queen; among them, the publishing of a new Book of Common Prayer and the progressive sponsoring of the use of the vernacular.

Furthermore, apart from praising fellow educators, as shown above with Sturm’s example, Ascham uses his treatise to express his admiration for fellow Protestants. His depiction of Lady Jane Grey, a prominent Protestant martyr, as a learned and pious teenager despite her parents having her “so sharply taunted, so cruelly threatened”, has made him famous[18]. To stress the importance of his description of the lady, he even dedicates a marginal reference and a lengthy paragraph to her. He is setting forth the example of a very well educated child of the nobility who revels in the reading of Plato’s Phaedo while everybody else is hunting and regardless of her parents’ “pinches, nippes, and bobbes”[19]. At the same time, however, he is also making an apology of the virtuousness and learning of a Protestant martyr (see Figure 11). We can also detect his political ideas when he denounces the “disorders in the countrey”, probably referring to religious nonconformists and the tensions created during Queen Elizabeth’s serious illness in 1563. Ascham tells us that

“for co[m]monly in the countrey also euerie where, innocencie is gone : bashfulnesse is banished: much presumption in yougth : small authoritie in age : Reverence is neglected : dueties be confounded : and to be short, disobedience doth overflowe the bankes of good order, almost in euerie place, almost in euerie degree of man.”[20]

The Scholemaster is just one example, among the many extant, of an academic text published during the Reformation period. It is illustrating, however, of how the minds of both a Protestant author and a Protestant publisher work together. The tract’s references to coreligionists such as the educator Sturm or the ill-fated Jane Grey; its exhortations to behave well, and the consistent austerity of the book, all bear witness to Ascham’s Protestant faith. At the same, they are making a statement of John Day’s religious beliefs as, then as now, author and publisher were bound to work together. In this case, the meeting could not take place physically, given that Roger Ascham had died in 1568, but it certainly took place posthumously, when his widow took the manuscript to Day’s press.

As of recently historians such as Pettegree or Eisenstein have become aware that the ‘printing revolution’ has a lot more to offer to the historian of the Reformation than it had hitherto been noticed. As I have tried to prove with Ascham’s example, a book does not only tell us what is written inside. A closer look to its presentation can speak volumes about the author’s mindset, about the concerns of the publisher, and about the flavour of the times.

APPENDIX

Figure 1. Roger Ascham’s The Scholemaster, title page.

Figures 2 and 3. ‘The Epistle’ of Margaret Ascham to Sir William Cecil. Note the floral and geometrical decoration after the rubric.

Figure 4. Illuminated first letter of ‘The Epistle’.

Figure 5. First letter of the ‘Præface’, decorated with foliage motifs.

Figures 6 and 7. Decorative elements appearing after the end of ‘The Præface’ (left, Figure 6) and after ‘The first booke’ (right, Figure 7).

Figure 8. Decorated recto side of the back cover with the Latin motto Etsi mors indies accelerat, post fvnera virtvs vivet tamen.

Figure 9. Marginal notes acting as subtitles.

Figure 10. A marginal reference to Johannes Sturm and his treatise De institutione principis and then a marginal note with the Latin motto Qui parcit virgæ, odit filium referring to the text next to it.

Figure 11. Ascham’s first sentences of the account of his meeting with Lady Jane Grey. Note the marginal reference with her name and the use of the roman type for names of people, places and works.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

Ascham, Roger, The Scholemaster or plaine and perfite way of teaching children, to understand, write, and speake, the Latin tong, but specially purposed for the priuate bringing up of youth in ientlemen and Noble mens houses, and commodious also for all such, as haue forgot the Latin tonge, and would, by them selues, without à Scholemaster, in short time, and with small paines, recouer à sufficient habilitie, to understand, write, and spaeke Latin (London, 1571).

Secondary Works

Chappell, Warren, A Short History of the Printed Word, (London, 1972).

Eisenstein, Elizabeth L., The Printing Press as an Agent of Change, (Communications and cultural transformations in early-modern Europe, II; London, 1979)

Eisenstein, Elizabeth L., The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, (Cambridge, 1997).

O’Day, Rosemary, ‘Ascham, Roger (1514/15–1568)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/732; 2004], accessed Jan 2001.

Pettegree, Andrew, and Hall, Matthew, ‘The Reformation and the Book: A Reconsideration’, The Historical Journal, Vol.47, No. 4 (2004)

Steinberg, S. H., Five Hundred Years of Printing (London, 1996).

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[1] S.H. Steinberg, Five Hundred Years of Printing, (London, 1996), p. 47.

[2] Steinberg, ibid., p. 49.

[3] Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, (New York, 1997), p. 120.

[4] Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution, p. 148.

[5] Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution, p. 151.

[6] A union catalogue for all books from the sixteenth century.

[7] Andrew Pettegree and Matthew Hall, ‘The Reformation and the Book: A Reconsideration’, The Historical Journal, vol. 47, no. 4 (2004), 798.

[8] Pettegree and Hall, ibid., 797-798.

[9] Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster or plaine and perfite way of teaching children, to understand, write, and speake, the Latin tong, but specially purposed for the priuate bringing up of youth in ientlemen and Noble mens houses, and commodious also for all such, as haue forgot the Latin tonge, and would, by them selues, without à Scholemaster, in short time, and with small paines, recouer à sufficient habilitie, to understand, write, and spaeke Latin, (London, 1571).

[10] He died in 1568.

[11] Rosemary O'Day, ‘Ascham, Roger (1514/15–1568)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/732; 2004], accessed Jan 2011.

[12] Warren Chappell, A Short History of the Printed Word, (London, 1972), p. 108.

[13] Roger Ascham, Scholemaster, f. 1v.

[14] Ascham, Scholemaster, f. 12.

[15] He who spares the whip, hates his son.

[16] Ascham, Scholemaster, f. 4.

[17] Ascham, Scholemaster, f. 7v.

[18] Ascham, Scholemaster, f. 11v-12.

[19] Ascham, Scholemaster, f. 11v.

[20] Ascham, Scholemaster, f. 15v.