Post by agnes on Sept 8, 2010 8:56:37 GMT 1
This information below pertains to males only. Females were not educated, as a rule, to this extent. Exceptions are made - as in Thomas More and the tutors for the Princess Mary.
Any son of a peer (Baron and above) that has been educated at University would know all of these things.
A Classical Education
If you have a university education (or know someone who has), you should be at least slightly familiar with the following authorities and course of study, which has been in place since medieval times. Courses in beer and mayhem are supplementary.
In the Faculty of the Arts:
The principal authority is always Aristotle on...
Logical or Rational Philosophy: Organon, Categories, On Interpretation, Analytics, etc.
Moral Philosophy: Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics
Natural Philosophy, or Natural History: Physical Discourse, On the Heavens, On the Soul, On Parts of Animals, Meteorologics,, etc.
The Seven Liberal Arts:
Grammar: Priscian, Donatus, Villedieu, Cassiodorus, and some pagan and early Christian writers.
Rhetoric: Quintillian, Cicero, Eberhard de Bethune
Logic: Porphyry, Gilbert de la Poré, Hispanus
Arithmetic: John of Holywood, John of Pisa
Geometry: Euclid, Boëthius
Music: Boëthius, Jehan de Muris of Paris (Ars novae musicae, 1319), Plato's Timaeus, Aristoxenos
Astronomy: Gerard de Cremona
In the Faculty of Law
The principal Latin authorities are:
In civil law
Corpus Juris Civilis, the Code, the Pandects (a digest), the Institutes, the Novellae
In canon (church) law:
Gratian, Bartholomew, Pope Gregory IX, Pope Boniface VIII, Constitutiones Clementiae
In the Faculty of Theology:
Peter Lombard, Church Fathers, and great doctors of the church such as Origen, Augustine, and Aquinas
In the Faculty of Medicine
Hippocrates, Galen, Arabic and Jewish medical texts, Theodore of Lucca, Lanfranci, Chauliac
Some specialized authorities
Isidore of Seville: Etymologiae (On Language) and Sententiae (Maxims)
Rabanus Maurus, On the Universe and On the Instruction of the Clergy
(Emperor) Frederick II, The Falcon Book
Gordanus Rufus, On Horse Healing
***********************
What Every Schoolboy Knows
In general, only boys go to school. A girl's education is accomplished at home, although it usually includes reading and arithmetic. Of course, noble children get their education at home, from private tutors.
It is understood that students must have their education beaten into them, like their manners and deportment. Parents tend to support this theory.
Public education refers to going out to school, as opposed to being tutored at home. It does not mean they are paid for out of public funds. Hence, the great "public schools" like Eton.
The school day begins at 7:00am in winter or 6:00am in summer. After prayers, they work till about 9:00 when they are permitted breakfast, then they work till 11:00. Dinner is from 11:00 to 1:00. The school day ends at 5:00 or 5:30pm.
The most elementary level of schooling is called petty school. You learn to read and write in English and do sums, but the main idea is to get you into grammar school.
The petty school is often run by a young wife who teaches the local children in her home for a small fee, like the "dame schools" of Colonial days.
The primary study of a grammar school is Latin grammar, using Lily's Grammar as the basic text, with Plautus, Terence, and Seneca as classical sources. Any history, literature, or drama is mainly a vehicle for illustrating the grammar.
The function of the grammar school is to prepare you for university, where courses are conducted in Latin, even after the Reformation. Music, modern languages, and science are irrelevant.
Latin is also the language of international affairs, and men of affairs are expected to be able to communicate in it. Or employ someone who does. Anyone who wants to make his way in the world must have at least a working knowledge of Latin.
A private education takes a slightly broader view:
7:00-7:30 Dancing
7:30-8:00 Breakfast
8:00-9:00 French
9:00-10:00 Latin
10:00-10:30 Writing and Drawing
10:30-1:00 Prayers, Recreation, Dinner
1:00-2:00 Cosmography
2:00-3:00 Latin
3:00-4:00 French
4:00-4:30 Writing
4:30-5:30 Prayers, Recreation, Supper
Notice that there is time for writing but not for spelling. After all, what good is a man who can only spell his name one way?
**************************
Any son of a peer (Baron and above) that has been educated at University would know all of these things.
A Classical Education
If you have a university education (or know someone who has), you should be at least slightly familiar with the following authorities and course of study, which has been in place since medieval times. Courses in beer and mayhem are supplementary.
In the Faculty of the Arts:
The principal authority is always Aristotle on...
Logical or Rational Philosophy: Organon, Categories, On Interpretation, Analytics, etc.
Moral Philosophy: Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics
Natural Philosophy, or Natural History: Physical Discourse, On the Heavens, On the Soul, On Parts of Animals, Meteorologics,, etc.
The Seven Liberal Arts:
Grammar: Priscian, Donatus, Villedieu, Cassiodorus, and some pagan and early Christian writers.
Rhetoric: Quintillian, Cicero, Eberhard de Bethune
Logic: Porphyry, Gilbert de la Poré, Hispanus
Arithmetic: John of Holywood, John of Pisa
Geometry: Euclid, Boëthius
Music: Boëthius, Jehan de Muris of Paris (Ars novae musicae, 1319), Plato's Timaeus, Aristoxenos
Astronomy: Gerard de Cremona
In the Faculty of Law
The principal Latin authorities are:
In civil law
Corpus Juris Civilis, the Code, the Pandects (a digest), the Institutes, the Novellae
In canon (church) law:
Gratian, Bartholomew, Pope Gregory IX, Pope Boniface VIII, Constitutiones Clementiae
In the Faculty of Theology:
Peter Lombard, Church Fathers, and great doctors of the church such as Origen, Augustine, and Aquinas
In the Faculty of Medicine
Hippocrates, Galen, Arabic and Jewish medical texts, Theodore of Lucca, Lanfranci, Chauliac
Some specialized authorities
Isidore of Seville: Etymologiae (On Language) and Sententiae (Maxims)
Rabanus Maurus, On the Universe and On the Instruction of the Clergy
(Emperor) Frederick II, The Falcon Book
Gordanus Rufus, On Horse Healing
***********************
What Every Schoolboy Knows
In general, only boys go to school. A girl's education is accomplished at home, although it usually includes reading and arithmetic. Of course, noble children get their education at home, from private tutors.
It is understood that students must have their education beaten into them, like their manners and deportment. Parents tend to support this theory.
Public education refers to going out to school, as opposed to being tutored at home. It does not mean they are paid for out of public funds. Hence, the great "public schools" like Eton.
The school day begins at 7:00am in winter or 6:00am in summer. After prayers, they work till about 9:00 when they are permitted breakfast, then they work till 11:00. Dinner is from 11:00 to 1:00. The school day ends at 5:00 or 5:30pm.
The most elementary level of schooling is called petty school. You learn to read and write in English and do sums, but the main idea is to get you into grammar school.
The petty school is often run by a young wife who teaches the local children in her home for a small fee, like the "dame schools" of Colonial days.
The primary study of a grammar school is Latin grammar, using Lily's Grammar as the basic text, with Plautus, Terence, and Seneca as classical sources. Any history, literature, or drama is mainly a vehicle for illustrating the grammar.
The function of the grammar school is to prepare you for university, where courses are conducted in Latin, even after the Reformation. Music, modern languages, and science are irrelevant.
Latin is also the language of international affairs, and men of affairs are expected to be able to communicate in it. Or employ someone who does. Anyone who wants to make his way in the world must have at least a working knowledge of Latin.
A private education takes a slightly broader view:
7:00-7:30 Dancing
7:30-8:00 Breakfast
8:00-9:00 French
9:00-10:00 Latin
10:00-10:30 Writing and Drawing
10:30-1:00 Prayers, Recreation, Dinner
1:00-2:00 Cosmography
2:00-3:00 Latin
3:00-4:00 French
4:00-4:30 Writing
4:30-5:30 Prayers, Recreation, Supper
Notice that there is time for writing but not for spelling. After all, what good is a man who can only spell his name one way?
**************************