Comments on: 0.01 Humanism in Crisis

By: Paul Gehl

Paul Gehl — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:59:17 +0000

All of the typographical and layout devices you mention, Miles, originated in the manuscript period, but of course, in single manuscripts reproduced individually. They became much more common in the first age of print both because there were many more copies mad at once, but also because printers copied (and teachers began more and more often to demand) things like this that made it easier to use the textbooks.

By: milestbird

milestbird — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:10:24 +0000

How much of the modern day textbook is carried over from its original forefather in the 15th century? Did these texts have practice questions, highlighted passages, summaries? What tools for memorization and/or learning were specifically contained within the textbook

By: Paul Gehl

Paul Gehl — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 13:14:54 +0000

Our evidence is almost entirely the surviving schoolbooks, which is why it is important to interpret the title pages, prefaces, and other introductory material so carefully. We do have documents to evidence the lives of some of the teachers, but for their actual teaching, the textbooks are our best source.

By: siribeckett

siribeckett — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 00:10:27 +0000

It’s interesting that spreading the word about different school books played such a big role in this history. How did one advertise to large groups of teachers and students in the middle ages? I suppose that’s where the “celebrity” teachers come in; if they advocate for a certain author or book, then that book or person’s reputation would leap upwards. Does there still exist records or stories of how a particular book became so well known and widely used? Or do we only know which books were used based on what still exists today?

By: Paul F. Gehl

Paul F. Gehl — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:33:43 +0000

Can’t argue with Lewis and Short, but in my reading of the larger debate, the term has a strongly linguistic dimension colored by the humanists’ emphasis on the recovery of ancient usages. Although the humanists as rhetoricians were always trying to achieve a “pure … style,” that translation doesn’t quite get at the pervasiveness of the linguistic urge.

By: sgaylard

sgaylard — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:51:37 +0000

I couldn’t agree more about the footnotes — it’s hard to chase them by scrolling up and down, so would be great to be able to find the right footnote directly from the text. I also agree with Diana Robin, though — I find the footnotes and “Next section” links are placed so as to interrupt the flow of the chapter from section to section.

By: John Vincler

John Vincler — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:21:31 +0000

Perhaps this has been changed since Diana Robin’s comment, but there is a “Next” link at the bottom of each section. Scrolling to the bottom of the page leads to “Next: 0.02 Regionalism” allowing for the sort of linear continuity Diana seems to be seeking. Perhaps this is slightly less intuitive since it appears after the footnotes (if one skips the footnotes this feature may be missed).

Along a similar line, I think it would be useful to link the footnotes in the text to the footnotes on the bottom of the page. The hyperlinking of footnotes from citation to entry seems to be a fairly accepted convention at this point in electronic scholarly publishing. This works best when one can return to the original place in the text by hitting the browser’s back button (i.e. rather than having this return to the top of the page and having to work your way down again). A pop-up window for footnotes is another potential solution. In this scenario the reader can simply exit out of the pop-up and continue reading.

By: dianarobin

dianarobin — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:19:12 +0000

latinitas should be translated “latinity”
or “a pure Latin style” (Lewis and
Short).

By: dianarobin

dianarobin — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:56:12 +0000

I find the breaking up of the chapters into small bubbles serves to fragment the concepts. I find myself constantly stopping to scroll back up to begin the next section when I want simply to read on, to move from section to section.In this way I lose the flow and continuity of the chapter. Why all these short sections? These would be perfect for museum wall texts moving us nicely from exhibit to exhibit. But for the continuous narrative or exposition of a book the sections interrupt and irk, I find.

By: Laszlo

Laszlo — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:29:14 +0000

A good example for this on the field of poetry is Iacobus Piso, Schedia, no. 1. De suo libello.

Si quis habet nostrum cerdo caupoue libellum,
Sic vendat patiar, ut neget esse meum.
Irritare tamen si vult emptoris alutam,
Nequicias satis est dicere vendo novas.

Analecta nova ad historiam renascentium in Hungaria litterarum spectantia, iusu Academiae Scientiae Hungaricae ex scriptis ab Eugenio ABEL relictis cum commentariis edidit partimque auxit Stephanus HEGEDÜS, Budapestini, Hornyánszky, 1903, 408.