HoB_ABCs

Title Orbis Sensualium Pictus Quadrilinguis

Brief description Tan calf over boards, tooled in blind; all edges red; black leather label on spine.

Full description The educator Johann Amos Comenius published his first edition of the Orbis Sensualium Pictus in 1658 in Nuremberg, Germany. In this substantial book, Comenius provides a brief introduction to the Roman alphabet before launching into encyclopedia-like entries that describe the entire world to the reader. Although this work was likely beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest children, it distinguished itself as one of the first works to appeal to a perceived need of children to learn about the world around them by means of the written word.

Literacy The majority of the Orbis Pictus is not in the form of lessons of language, but rather lessons about the world. Most of this book is in the form of an encyclopedic survey of everything that comprised the world, ranging from God to animals and professions, and even to abstract concepts such as virtues or sins.

The contents of this comprehensive work are framed in the context of language: in an introductory dialog between master and pupil, the master promises to make the pupil wise by showing him the world. Before being shown the world, however, the pupil is urged to learn the letters and their sounds. The letters are briefly introduced alongside animals whose cries resemble the phonics of the respective letter.

Though brief compared to the body of this work, Comenius makes clear that he hopes to bring wisdom to his readers through his encyclopedia. In Comenius' aspirations to provide a surrogate of the world in a single book, he also supports the idea that wisdom is dependent upon the ability to read.

Childhood Though the Orbis Pictus is framed as a dialog between a master and a pupil, Comenius makes clear that in his view childhood was merely a state of uninitiated adulthood rather than a distinct stage of existence. The lessons within Comenius' work do not celebrate or romanticize childhood: though there are a handful of mythological and cosmological elements that we might today recognize as fantastic, they were in earnest at the time. The book as a whole aims to introduce the readers to the world as it really was, not provide respite within a fantasy idyll.

Iconography The Orbis Pictus is a testament to the importance of religion at the time of its publication, and Comenius' encyclopedia of the world is prominently framed within a Christian cosmology. Although it aims to describe the contents of the entire world to its readers, the world described is a decidedly Christian one. The entries within this expansive work begin with God and end with the Last Judgement. Though there are many more secular subjects illustrated within, these other facts of life were unimaginable outside of a Christian framework.

Production Comenius' encyclopedia of the world used many woodcut illustrations to help bring surrogates of the world's component parts to the readers. These woodcuts functioned as diagrams with numbered items within that were paired with the accompanying text. Perhaps because of the early appearance relative to other instructional books, or the ease with which it lent itself to translation, the Orbis Pictus had a long publication history and many editions in various languages, though the contents would eventually become dated as conceptions of childhood changed and the Western world became increasingly secularized.