residence of fourteen years as rector of the Moravian
gymnasium here, he accomplished many reforms in the
schools, and began to embody his ideas in a series of
remarkable textbooks. The first of these works was pro-
duced in 1631, and has generally been known by the name
of Janua Linguarum Reserata ('Gate of Languages Un-
locked'). It was intended as an introductory book to
the study of Latin,1 and consisted of an arrangement into
sentences of several thousand Latin words for the most
familiar objects and ideas. The Latin was printed on
the right-hand side of the page, and on the left was given
a translation in the vernacular. By this means the pupil
obtained a grasp of all ordinary knowledge and at the
same time a start in his Latin vocabulary. In writing
this text, Comenius may have been somewhat influenced
by Ratich, the criticism of whose methods by the pro-
fessors at Giessen 2 he had read while at Herborn,3 but he
seems to have been more specifically indebted both for
his method and the felicitous name of his book to a
Jesuit known as Bateus, who had written a similar work.
1 In the first edition it was called Janua Linguæ Latina Reserata.
2 See pp. 20 f.

3 As, however, Ratich had failed to answer the letter of inquiry he wrote him from Leszno, Comenius must have largely worked out the plan independently.

Batty or Bateus was an Irishman, although at the College of Salamanca in Spain. Comenius makes acknowledgments to him in the Janua, but says his ideas had been outlined some time before his attention was called to the book of the Jesuit father.

series of texts

on the study

of Latin, he was influ

enced by Ratich and

Bateus.

The Vestibu

lum was an introduction

the Atrium, a

It was soon apparent that the Janua would be too difficult for beginners, and two years later Comenius to the Janua; issued his Vestibulum ('Vestibule') as an introduction to it. While the Janua contained all the ordinary words of the language, - some eight thousand, there were but an edition of a few hundred of the most common in the Vestibulum.

third book;

the Palatium, a fourth; the

Orbis Pictus,

the Janua

and the

Schola Lu

tized Janua.

with pictures; Both of the works, however, were several times revised, modified, and enlarged. Also grammars, lexicons, and dus, a drama- treatises to accompany them were written in later periods of Comenius's literary career. Much work of this sort was done between 1642 and 1650. During this period Comenius had accepted the invitation of Sweden to settle, under the patronage of his friend, Ludovic De Geer, at Elbing, a quiet town on the Baltic, and develop his ideas on method and school improvement. Here the Vestibulum and Janua were revised,1 and the third of his Latin readers, the Atrium ('Entrance Hall'), which took the pupil one stage beyond the Janua, was probably started. But the Atrium was not finished and published until Comenius began his residence of four years at SarosPatak, where he was in 1650 urged by the prince of

1In Elbing the Methodus Linguarum Novissima ('Latest Method in Languages'), which outlines his idea of the purpose and principles of language teaching, together with several other didactic works, was also produced.

2 When planning this work in the Didactica Magna (Chap. XXII, 19 and 22-24), he refers to it as Palatium, and the fourth book, afterward called Palatium, he there speaks of as Thesaurus.

Transylvania to come and reform the schools of the country.

From his description of an ideal school for Patak,1 and from other works, it is known that he intended also to write a fourth 2 work in the Janual series, but he never completed it. This was to be known as Sapientiæ Palatium ('Palace of Wisdom'), and was to consist of selections from Cæsar, Sallust, Cicero, and others of the best prose writers. While in Patak, however, Comenius did write two supplementary textbooks, the Orbis Sensualium Pictus ('The World of Sense Objects Pictured') and the Schola Ludus ('School Plays'). The latter, which is an attempt to dramatize the Janua, soon fell into disuse, but the former, in which Comenius applied his principles of sense realism more fully than in any other of his readers, remained a very popular text for two centuries, and is most typical of the Comenian principles. It is practically an edition of the Janua accompanied with pictures, but is simpler and more extensive than the first issue of that book. Each object in a picture is marked with a number corresponding to one in the text. It is the first illustrated reading book on record.

1 Schola Pansophica Delineatio.

2 It would be the fifth, if we should count the unimportant Auctarium ('Supplement'), which he afterward (1656) produced in Amsterdam and inserted between the Vestibulum and the Janua.

The reprint of the English edition, published by Bardeen (Syracuse, 1887), should be consulted. This method of presentation is referred to by

content, and

methods of education.

The Didactica Magna as the Basis of All, His Works

1

The Didac- Thus, throughout his life Comenius was more or less tica gives his principles, engaged at every period in writing texts for the study of organization, Latin. But these books connected with method were only a part of the work he contemplated. During his whole career he had in mind a complete system of the principles of education, and of what, in consequence, he wished the organization, subject-matter, and methods to be. His ideas on the whole question of education were early formulated at Leszno in his Didactica Magna ('Great Didactic'). While this work has many original features and is more carefully worked out than anything similar, Comenius frankly recognizes his obligations to many who have written previously. In fact, he rather strove to assimilate all that was good in the realistic movement and use it as a foundation. In this way the Didactica may be said to develop many of the scientific principles and methods found in Vives,2 Bateus, Ratich,

It owes much

to the works

of Bacon, the

Encyclopadia of Alsted,

and the writ

ings of many others.

Comenius as early as the Vestibulum as a desirable one, which at that time could not be carried out for lack of a skilful engraver. It may have been suggested to Comenius in the first instance by a Greek Testament edited early in the seventeenth century by a Professor Lubinus of the University of Rostock.

1 This is a singular, the noun ars being understood. The original title has in it over one hundred words, beginning Didactica Magna; Omnes Omnia Docendi Exhibens. For a translation of the entire title, see Keatinge, The Great Didactic of Comenius, p. 155.

Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) was a Spanish humanist, who spent

4

Andreæ,1 Frey,2 and Bodinus,3 but it owes a greater debt for its pansophic basis of education to the works of Bacon and even more to the Encyclopædia of Johann Heinrich Alsted, under whom Comenius had studied at Herborn. The Didactica seems to have been completed in the Moravian dialect about the time the Janua first appeared, and must have been contemplated somewhat earlier. Hence, while this work was not translated into Latin and published until 1657, and was never printed in the language in which it was originally written until a century and three quarters after the death of its author, the point of view must have been established even before Comenius came to Leszno, and influenced him throughout his career.

The Didacexplicit in the

tica was made

The rest of the books of Comenius may be regarded as amplifications of certain parts of the Didactica. To make his instructions on infant training more explicit, he wrote, while still at Leszno, the Informatorium Skoly vernacular

several years in England. His chief treatise, De Tradendis Disciplinis, insists upon religion and classics as the main content of education.

1 Johann Valentin Andreæ (1586-1654), court preacher at Stuttgart, attacked the formal religion and education of the times in numerous pamphlets.

2 Janus Cæcilius Frey (?-1631) was a German educationalist, living in Paris, who produced a number of practical works.

'Jean Bodin (1530-1596) was a French writer on political theory, who published also an unusual educational treatise called Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem.

4 Czech was spoken in Moravia.

D

Mother
School, the