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Hermeneutics, history and memory

Although the German and Latin versions of this textbook are similar in basic content, they differ in its presentation to the distinct categories of intended readership. Ruf is shown to stand at the threshold between the spheres of practical or body-based procedural knowledge and book-centred academic knowledge. Moving away from medicine, Donal R. Kelley’s essay offers a brief yet informative overview of the nature of legal education in the early modern period. He demonstrates the longevity of Justinian’s Institutes and Digest as pedagogical resources in the Renaissance. In this period educators also drew on scholastic and humanistic models to deliver their pedagogy and were attracted by the innovative methods of Ramus. Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer examines the role of textbooks on elementary Latin conversation and catechisms in facilitating confessional compromise and conflict. She finds that colloquies tended not to entrench confessional polemics but served as an important device for considering complex positions. She demonstrates that the breeding ground for sectarian prejudice in a pedagogical environment can be located more readily in catechetical instruction. Emidio Campis’ article explores the teaching career of Peter Martyr Vermigli in Zurich between 1556 and 1562 where he was “divinarum literarum professor” at the Schola Tigurina. Campis finds that this environment was one which facilitated vigorous publication activity on the part of Vermigli. The final article of the volume is placed in a section of its own “Approaching Modernity: A Perspective from the History of Education”, and remains the sole article dealing with the eighteenth century. Jürgen Oelker’s specific subject is elementary textbooks in this period and the theory of the learning child. This book offers a valuable and informative exploration of scholarly knowledge as manifested in the form of the textbook in early modern Europe. It is particularly strong in describing the nature of pedagogical works deployed in a university setting. It is also especially useful for scholars interested in university teaching in the Holy Roman Empire and Italy during the sixteenth century. The volume is particularly detailed in its treatment of the content of pedagogical works. Given the physicality of the objects of study, more consistent consideration of questions of form and materiality might have proved rewarding. This is not to say that these matters are ignored – indeed they are the focus of a number of the articles. Similarly, greater consideration of the nature of textbook usage among students would have been worthwhile. In conclusion, this book offers a wealth of informative discipline-orientated case studies and ultimately provides a broader sense of the nature of the textbook in early modern Europe.