Chapter 1
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[Transcriber's Note:
This text is intended for users whose text readers cannot use the "real" (Unicode/UTF-8) version of the file. There are two main changes:
--The "oe" ligature, used in the original Latin text, has been unpacked to its separate letters. The "oe" sequence (words such as "coeuntia") does not occur. --The two sections numbered CIV used astrological symbols. When a symbol was used _in addition to_ text such as a planet name, it is shown as empty brackets in its original location: Mercury []. When a symbol was used _instead of_ text it is shown in brackets: [Mercury].
In the _Orbis Pictus_ text, apparent errors in punctuation and typography (such as Italic type where Roman is expected) were unchanged except in chapter headers. Other errors, whether corrected or not, are listed at the end of the e-text. Note that "Dutch" generally means "German".
The original text was printed in parallel columns with English on the left. For this e-text the English and the Latin are shown in small blocks with differing indentation. Line breaks are approximately but not exactly the same as in the original.]
The
ORBIS PICTUS
of
JOHN AMOS COMENIUS.
This work is, indeed, the first children's picture book. --ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA, 9TH EDITION, vi. 182.
[Publisher's Device: School Bulletin Publications 1874]
SYRACUSE, N.Y.: C. W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER, 1887.
Copyright, 1887, by C. W. BARDEEN.
It may not be generally known that Comenius was once solicited to become President of Harvard College. The following is a quotation from Vol. II, p. 14, of Cotton Mather's MAGNALIA:
"That brave old man, Johannes Amos Commenius, the fame of whose worth has been TRUMPETTED as far as more than three languages (whereof everyone is indebted unto his JANUA) could carry it, was indeed agreed withal, by one Mr. Winthrop in his travels through the LOW COUNTRIES, to come over to New England, and illuminate their Colledge and COUNTRY, in the quality of a President, which was now become vacant. But the solicitations of the Swedish Ambassador diverting him another way, that incomparable Moravian became not an American."
This was on the resignation of President Dunster, in 1654--Note of Prof. PAYNE, Compayre's History of Education, Boston, 1886, p. 125.
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
When it is remembered that this work is not only an educational classic of prime importance, but that it was the first picture-book ever made for children and was for a century the most popular text-book in Europe, and yet has been for many years unattainable on account of its rarity, the wonder is, not that it is reproduced now but that it has not been reproduced before. But the difficulty has been to find a satisfactory copy. Many as have been the editions, few copies have been preserved. It was a book children were fond of and wore out in turning the leaves over and over to see the pictures. Then as the old copper-plates became indistinct they were replaced by wood-engravings, of coarse execution, and often of changed treatment. Von Raumer complains that the edition of 1755 substitutes for the original cut of the Soul, (No. 43, as here given,) a picture of an eye, and in a table the figures I. I. II. I. I. II., and adds that it is difficult to recognize in this an expressive psychological symbol, and to explain it. In an edition I have, published in Vienna in 1779, this cut is omitted altogether, and indeed there are but 82 in place of the 157 found in earlier editions, the following, as numbered in this edition, being omitted:
1, the alphabet, 2, 36, 43, 45, 66, 68, 75, 76, 78-80, 87, 88, 92-122, 124, 126, 128, 130-141.
On the other hand, the Vienna edition contains a curious additional cut. It gives No. 4, the Heaven, practically as in this edition, but puts another cut under it in which the earth is revolving about the sun; and after the statement of Comenius, "_Coelum rotatur, et ambit terram, in medio stantem_" interpolates: "_prout veteres crediderunt; recentiores enim defendunt motum terrae circa solem_" [as the ancients used to think; for later authorities hold that the motion of the earth is about the sun.]
Two specimen pages from another edition are inserted in Payne's Compayré's History of Education (between pp. 126, 127). The cut is the representative of No. 103 in this edition, but those who compare them will see not only how much coarser is the execution of the wood-cut Prof. Payne has copied, but what liberties have been taken with the design. The only change in the Latin text, however, is from _Designat Figuras rerum_ in the original, to _Figuram rerum designat_.
In this edition the cuts are unusually clear copies of the copper-plates of the first edition of 1658, from which we have also taken the Latin text. The text for the English translation is from the English edition of 1727, in which for the first time the English words were so arranged as to stand opposite their Latin equivalents.
The cuts have been reproduced with great care by the photographic process. I thought best not to permit them to be retouched, preferring occasional indistinctness to modern tampering with the originals that would make them less authentic.
The English text is unchanged from that of the 1727 edition, except in rare instances where substitutions have been made for single words not now permissible. The typography suggests rather than imitates the quaintness of the original, and the paper was carefully selected to produce so far as practicable the impression of the old hand-presses.
In short my aim has been to put within the reach of teachers at a moderate price a satisfactory reproduction of this important book; and if the sale of the _Orbis Pictus_ seems to warrant it, I hope subsequently to print as a companion volume the _Vestibulum_ and _Janua_ of the same author, of which I have choice copies.
C. W. BARDEEN.
_Syracuse, Sept. 28, 1887_.
COMMENTS UPON THE ORBIS PICTUS.
During four years he here prosecuted his efforts in behalf of education with commendable success, and wrote, among other works, his celebrated Orbis Pictus, which has passed through a great many editions, and survived a multitude of imitations. --SMITH'S HISTORY OF EDUCATION, N.Y., 1842, p. 129.
The most eminent educator of the seventeenth century, however, was John Amos Comenius...... His Orbis Sensualium Pictus, published in 1657, enjoyed a still higher renown. The text was much the same with the Janua, being intended as a kind of elementary encyclopædia; but _it differed from all previous text-books_, in being illustrated with pictures, on copper and wood, of the various topics discussed in it. This book was universally popular. In those portions of Germany where the schools had been broken up by the "Thirty years' war," mothers taught their children from its pages. Corrected and amended by later editors, it continued for nearly two hundred years, to be a text-book of the German schools. --HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF EDUCATION, BY PHILOBIBLIUS, N.Y., 1860, p. 210.
The "Janua" would, therefore, have had but a short-lived popularity with teachers, and a still shorter with learners, if Comenius had not carried out his principle of appealing to the senses, and called in the artist. The result was the "Orbis Pictus," a book which proved a favorite with young and old, and maintained its ground in many a school for more than a century.... I am sorry I cannot give a specimen of this celebrated book with its quaint pictures. The artist, of course, was wanting in the technical skill which is now commonly displayed even in the cheapest publications, but this renders his delineations none the less entertaining. As a picture of the life and manners of the seventeenthcentury, the work has great historical interest, which will, I hope, secure for it another English edition. --QUICK'S EDUCATIONAL REFORMERS, 1868; Syracuse edition, p. 79.
But the principle on which he most insisted is that the teaching of words and things must go together, hand in hand. When we consider how much time is spent over new languages, what waste of energy is lavished on mere preparation, how it takes so long to lay a foundation that there is no time to lay a building upon it, we must conclude that it is in the acceptance and development of this principle that the improvement of education will in the future consist. Any one who attempts to inculcate this great reform will find that its first principles are contained in the writings of Comenius. --ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 9th edition, vii. 674.
The first edition of this celebrated book was published at Nuremberg in 1657; soon after a translation was made into English by Charles Hoole. The last English edition appeared in 1777, and this was reprinted in America in 1812. This was the first illustrated school-book, and was the first attempt at what now passes under the name of "object lessons." --SHORT HISTORY OF EDUCATION, W. H. PAYNE, Syracuse, 1881, p. 103.
Of these, the "Janua" and the "Orbis" were translated into most European and some of the Oriental languages. It is evident that these practices of Comenius contain the germs of things afterwards connected with the names of Pestalozzi and Stow. It also may be safely assumed that many methods that are now in practical use, were then not unknown to earliest teachers. --GILL'S SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION, London, 1876, p. 13.
The more we reflect on the method of Comenius, the more we shall see it is replete with suggestiveness, and we shall feel surprised that so much wisdom can have lain in the path of schoolmasters for two hundred and fifty years, and that they have never stooped to avail themselves of its treasures. --BROWNING'S INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF EDUCATIONAL THEORIES, 1882, New York edition, p. 67.
The "Orbis Pictus," the first practical application of the intuitive method, had an extraordinary success, and has served as a model for the innumerable illustrated books which for three centuries have invaded the schools. --COMPAYRE'S HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY, Payne's translation, Boston, 1886, p. 127.
He remained at Patak four years, which were characterized by surprising literary activity. During this short period he produced no less than fifteen different works, among them his "World Illustrated" (_Orbis Pictus_), the most famous of all his writings. It admirably applied the principle that words and things should be learned together.... The "World Illustrated" had an enormous circulation, and remained for a long time the most popular text-book in Europe. --PAINTER'S HISTORY OF EDUCATION, N.Y., 1886, p. 206.
Or, si ce livre n'est qu'un équivalent se la véritable intuition; si, ensuite, le contenu du tout paraît fort défectueux, au point de vue de la science de nos jours; si, enfin, un effort exagéré pour l'intégrité de la conception de l'enfant a créé, pour les choses modernes, trop de dénominations latines qui paraissent douteuses, l'Orbis pictus était pourtant, pour son temps, une oeuvre très originale et très spirituelle, qui fit faire un grand progrès à la pédagogie et servit longtemps de livre d'école utile et de modèle à d'innombrables livres d'images, souvent pires. --HISTOIRE D' ÉDUCATION, FREDERICK DITTES, Redolfi's French translation, Paris, 1880, p. 178.
Here Comenius wrote, among others, his second celebrated work the "Orbis Pictus." He was not, however, able to finish it in Hungary for want of a skilful engraver on copper. For such a one he carried it to Michael Endter, the bookseller at Nuremberg, but the engraving delayed the publication of the book for three years more. In 1657 Comenius expressed the hope that it would appear during the next autumn. With what great approbation the work was received at its first appearance, is shown by the fact that within two years, in 1659, Endter had published a second enlarged edition. --KARL VON RAUMER, translated in Barnard's Journal of Education, v. 260.
The "Janua" had an enormous sale, and was published in many languages, but the editions and sale of the "Orbis Pictus" far exceeded those of the "Janua," and, indeed, for some time it was the most popular text-book in Europe, and deservedly so. --LAURIE'S JOHN AMOS COMENIUS, Boston edition, p. 185.
Joh. Amos Comenii
ORBIS SENSUALIUM PICTUS:
hoc est
Omnium principalium in Mundo Rerum, & in Vita Actionum,
PICTURA & NOMENCLATURA.
Joh. Amos Comenius's
VISIBLE WORLD:
or, a
NOMENCLATURE, AND PICTURES
of all the
CHIEF THINGS that are in the WORLD, and of MENS EMPLOYMENTS therein;
In above 150 COPPER CUTS.
Written
By the Author in Latin and High Dutch, being one of his last ESSAYS; and the most suitable to Childrens Capacity of any he hath hitherto made.
Translated into English By CHARLES HOOLE, M.A. For the Use of Young Latin Scholars.
The ELEVENTH EDITION Corrected, and the English made to answer Word for Word to the Latin.
_Nihil est in intellectu, quod non prius fuit in sensu._ Arist.
_London_; Printed for, and sold by _John_ and _Benj._ _Sprint_, at the _Bell_ in _Little Britain_, 1728.
_Gen._ ii. 19, 20.
The Lord God brought unto _Adam_ every Beast of the Field, and every Fowl of the Air, to see what he would call them. And _Adam_ gave Names to all Cattle, and to the Fowl of the Air, and to every Beast of the Field.
Gen. ii. 19, 20.
_Adduxit Dominus Deus ad _Adam_ cuncta Animantia Terræ, & universa volatilia Coeli, ut videret quomodo vocaret illa. Appellavitque _Adam_ Nominibus suis cuncta Animantia, & universa volatilia Coeli, & omnes Bestias Agri._
I. A. Comenii opera Didactica par. 1. p. 6, Amst. 1657. fol.
Didacticæ nostræ prora & puppis esto: Investigare, & invenire modum, quo Docentes minus doceant, Discentes vero plus discant: Scholæ minus habeant Strepitus, nauseæ, vani laboris; plus autem otii, deliciarum, solidique profectus: Respublica Christiana minus tenebrarum confusionis dissidiorum; plus lucis, ordinis, pacis & tranquilitatis.
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE READER.
_Instruction is the means to expel Rudeness_, with which young wits ought to be well furnished in Schools: But so, as that the teaching be 1. _True_, 2. _Full_, 3. _Clear_, and 4. _Solid_.
1. It will be _true_, if nothing be taught but such as is beneficial to ones life; lest there be a cause of complaining afterwards. We know not necessary things, because we have not learned things necessary.
2. It will be _full_, if the mind be polished for wisdom, the tongue for eloquence, and the hands for a neat way of living. This will be that _grace_ of one's life, _to be wise, to act, to speak_.
3, 4. It will be _clear_, and by that, firm and _solid_, if whatever is taught and learned, be not obscure, or confused, but apparent, distinct, and articulate, as the fingers on the hands.
The ground of this business, is, that sensual objects may be rightly presented to the senses, for fear they may not be received. I say, and say it again aloud, that this last is the foundation of all the rest: because we can neither act nor speak wisely, unless we first rightly understand all the things which are to be done, and whereof we are to speak. Now there is nothing in the understanding, which was not before in the sense. And therefore to exercise the senses well about the right perceiving the differences of things, will be to lay the grounds for all wisdom, and all wise discourse, and all discreet actions in ones course of life. Which, because it is commonly neglected in schools, and the things which are to be learned are offered to scholars, without being understood or being rightly presented to the senses, it cometh to pass, that the work of teaching and learning goeth heavily onward, and affordeth little benefit.
See here then a new help for schools, A Picture and Nomenclature of all the chief things in the world, and of men's actions in their way of living: Which, that you, good Masters, may not be loath to run over with your scholars, I will tell you, in short, what good you may expect from it.
It is _a little Book_, as you see, of no great bulk, yet a brief of the whole world, and a whole language: full of Pictures, Nomenclatures, and Descriptions of things.
I. _The Pictures_ are the representation of all visible things, (to which also things invisible are reduced after their fashion) of the whole world. And that in that very order of things, in which they are described in the _Janua Latinæ Linguæ_; and with that fulness, that nothing very necessary or of great concernment is omitted.
II. _The Nomenclatures_ are the Inscriptions, or Titles set every one over their own Pictures, expressing the whole thing by its own general term.
III. _The Descriptions_ are the explications of the parts of the Picture, so expressed by their own proper terms, as that same figure which is added to every piece of the picture, and the term of it, always sheweth what things belongeth one to another.
Which such Book, and in such a dress may (I hope) serve,
I. To entice witty children to it, that they may not conceit a torment to be in the school, but dainty fare. For it is apparent, that children (even from their infancy almost) are delighted with Pictures, and willingly please their eyes with these lights: And it will be very well worth the pains to have once brought it to pass, that scare-crows may be taken away out of Wisdom's Gardens.
II. This same little Book will serve to stir up the Attention, which is to be fastened upon things, and even to be sharpened more and more: which is also a great matter. For the Senses (being the main guides of childhood, because therein the mind doth not as yet raise up itself to an abstracted contemplation of things) evermore seek their own objects, and if they be away, they grow dull, and wry themselves hither and thither out of a weariness of themselves: but when their objects are present, they grow merry, wax lively, and willingly suffer themselves to be fastened upon them, till the thing be sufficiently discerned. This Book then will do a good piece of service in taking (especially flickering) wits, and preparing them for deeper studies.
III. Whence a third good will follow; that children being won hereunto, and drawn over with this way of heeding, may be furnished with the knowledge of the prime things that are in the world, by sport and merry pastime. In a word, this Book will serve for the more pleasing using of the _Vestibulum_ and _Janua Linguarum_, for which end it was even at the first chiefly intended. Yet if it like any, that it be bound up in their native tongues also, it promiseth three good thing of itself.
I. First it will afford a device for learning to read more easily than hitherto, especially having a symbolical alphabet set before it, to wit, the characters of the several letters, with the image of that creature, whose voice that letter goeth about to imitate, pictur'd by it. For the young _Abc_ scholar will easily remember the force of every character by the very looking upon the creature, till the imagination being strengthened by use, can readily afford all things; and then having looked over a _table of the chief syllables_ also (which yet was not thought necessary to be added to this book) he may proceed to the viewing of the Pictures, and the inscriptions set over 'em. Where again the very looking upon the thing pictured suggesting the name of the thing, will tell him how the title of the picture is to be read. And thus the whole book being gone over by the bare titles of the pictures, reading cannot but be learned; and indeed too, which thing is to be noted, without using any ordinary tedious spelling, that most troublesome torture of wits, which may wholly be avoided by this method. For the often reading over the Book, by those larger descriptions of things, and which are set after the Pictures, will be able perfectly to beget a habit of reading.
II. The same book being used in English, in English Schools, will serve for the perfect learning of the whole English tongue, and that from the bottom; because by the aforesaid descriptions of things, the words and phrases of the whole language are found set orderly in their own places. And a short English Grammar might be added at the end, clearly resolving the speech already understood into its parts; shewing the declining of the several words, and reducing those that are joined together under certain rules.
III. Thence a new benefit cometh, that that very English Translation may serve for the more ready and pleasant learning of the Latin tongue: as one may see in this Edition, the whole book being so translated, that every where one word answereth to the word over against it, and the book is in all things the same, only in two idioms, as a man clad in a double garment. And there might be also some observations and advertisements added in the end, touching those things only, wherein the use of the Latin tongue differeth from the English. For where there is no difference, there needeth no advertisement to be given. But, because the first _tasks of learners ought to be little and single_, we have filled this first book of training one up to see a thing of himself, with nothing but rudiments, that is, with the chief of things and words, or with the grounds of the whole world, and the whole language, and of all our understanding about things. If a more perfect description of things, and a fuller knowledge of a language, and a clearer light of the understanding be sought after (as they ought to be) they are to be found somewhere whither there will now be an easy passage by this our _little Encyclopædia_ of things subject to the senses. Something remaineth to be said touching the more chearful use of this book.
I. Let it be given to children into their hands to delight themselves withal as they please, with the sight of the pictures, and making them as familiar to themselves as may be, and that even at home before they be put to school.
II. Then let them be examined ever and anon (especially now in the school) what this thing or that thing is, and is called, so that they may see nothing which they know not how to name, and that they can name nothing which they cannot shew.
III. And let the things named them be shewed, not only in the Picture, but also in themselves; for example, the parts of the body, clothes, books, the house, utensils, &c.
IV. Let them be suffered also to imitate the Pictures by hand, if they will, nay rather, let them be encouraged, that they may be willing: first, thus to quicken the attention also towards the things; and to observe the proportion of the parts one towards another; and lastly to practise the nimbleness of the hand, which is good for many things.
V. If anything here mentioned, cannot be presented to the eye, it will be to no purpose at all to offer them by themselves to the scholars; as colours, relishes, &c., which cannot here be pictured out with ink. For which reason it were to be wished, that things rare and not easy to be met withal at home, might be kept ready in every great school, that they may be shewed also, as often as any words are to be made of them, to the scholars.
Thus at last this school would indeed become a school of things obvious to the senses, and an entrance to the school intellectual. But enough: Let us come to the thing it self.
THE TRANSLATOR, TO ALL JUDICIOUS AND INDUSTRIOUS SCHOOL-MASTERS.
Gentlemen.
There are a few of you (I think) but have seen, and with great willingness made use of (or at least perused,) many of the Books of this well-deserving Author Mr. John Comenius, which for their profitableness to the speedy attainment of a language, have been translated in several countries, out of Latin into their own native tongue.