History of Medieval Education

Masters Thesis: The reputation and importance of Ari hinn fróði in the development of the Icelandic literary corpus is evident and widely recognized, but nevertheless, the importance of Íslendingabók in the development of the Íslendingasögur has not been investigated in detailed.
Showing the importance of the narrative structure and fundamental argumentation of Ari Þorgilsson in the genesis of an Icelandic historical ethos that allowed Icelanders to recover, reshaped and made use of their pagan ancestry is important to understand the close relation that Icelanders kept with their past in the centuries following the conversion.
Thus, it will be investigated how Íslendingabók represents an emerging ethos in Icelandic scholar tradition, that re-appropriates the past as praise-worthy but looks forward to a Christian future. In Íslendingabók, Ari chose an array of historical events, that became in the Íslendingasögur creating a Christian narrative that, like the one of many Íslendigasögur, evolves from one pole towards the final resolution. Ari’s narrative gravitates around the Christian origins of the land, and its final rising of an independent Church in the land.
By doing this, Ari created a new cultural ethos in Iceland, that wrote in vernacular rather than Latin, and influenced the narrative structure of the sagas while also rising the indigenous narratives to an scholar production.

A educação transmitida por Alcuíno de York, importante mestre do século IX, evidencia propostas pedagógicas para a formação de dirigentes da dinastia carolíngia. Numa perspectiva moral, Alcuíno escreve sobre as virtudes e os vícios no Livro a respeito das virtudes e dos vícios para o conde Guido, no qual  organiza os principais vícios que devem ser evitados pelo líder a fim de que  primeiramente o líder saiba governar a si mesmo, para depois se tornar apto a governar outrem. Observadas suas influências, ele não só transmite regras baseadas na religião cristã, mas as fundamenta na filosofia antiga, cujo escopo é a tentativa de explicar o significado e a dialética existente entre as funções do corpo e da alma. Exatamente por essa obra possuir estas características  foi considerada um modelo de “Espelho de Príncipe” pelos estudiosos do período.

English:
The education transmitted by Alcuíno de York, an important master of the IX century, evidences through his works, pedagogical proposals for the formation of leaders of the carolíngia dynasty. In a moral perspective, Alcuíno writes about the virtues and vices in the Book about the virtues and the vices for the Count Guido, in which he organizes the main vices that must be avoided by the leader in a way that he firstly know how to rule himself, for then become able to rule others. His influences observed, he not only transmits rules based in the Christian religion, but fundaments them in the ancient philosophy, whose scope is the attempt to explain the meaning and the dialectics existing between the functions of the body and the soul. Exactly for this work possessing these characteristics is that it is considered a model of “specula principum” by the scholars of the period.

This study will analyze the relationship between education and politics at the University of Paris in the thirteenth century. The source for this study is based on two questions of the Summa Theologiae (II - II), written by Thomas Aquinas. They relate to the Question 101 on the Mercy, and Question 102, on Respect. When dealing with piety and respect, Master Thomas teaches his students the importance of tolerance and respect among men, so that life could elapse in the collective space. Given this urban environment, Thomas showed that the life in the city and in the university became complex, requiring people to have new concepts about social interaction, especially in relation to the ruler. Men, therefore, needed to learn the art of living together and the art of politics to meet new social laws. Reflecting on the
writings of Master Thomas, we learn, through historical memory, how the theorists of earlier times were
able to combine, in their writings and teachings, the knowledge to be taught as well as the guiding principles of politics as important for social relationship, regardless of historical time.

La escuela primaria apenas sí está documentada en las épocas anteriores al Renacimiento, y en el caso de las matemáticas el caso es todavía más difícil, puesto que se aprendían sobre el ábaco (sea este de arena o de fichas), que se borraba una vez la operación se había acabado, para volver a ser reutilizado. El De Computo de Rabano Mauro (ca. 780-856) es un manual para calcular la Pascua. Sin embargo, los primeros ocho capítulos ofrecen una buena perspectiva de lo que podría ser la escuela primaria en la época carolingia y cómo los niños aprendían a contar: primero, las diferentes clases de números (con un criterio de aproximación más gramatical que aritmético), seguido de las diferentes formas de escribir los números y el cálculo digital; finalmente el estudiante era introducido en el extraño mundo de las fracciones según fueron conocidas por los romanos. En este artículo se ofrece el texto latino de los ocho primeros capítulos junto con su correspondiente traducción al español.

Primary school is hardly documented in the ages before the Renaissance, and in the case of Mathematics the case is even more difficult since they were learned on the abacus (either the dust board or the counters abacus) that was deleted after the operation had been completed, to reuse it again. The "De Computo" of Rabanus Maurus (ca. 780-856) is a handbook of Easter reckoning. However the first eight chapters offer a good insight in the primary school and in the ways by which children would have been taught to count: the different sorts of numbers (in an approximation that is more grammatical than arithmetical), the different forms of writing them and finger counting; finally the student is introduced in the study of the bizarre world of fractions, such as they were known by the Romans. Here we offer the Latin text together with the translation into Spanish of these eight chapters.

Resumo: Neste artigo, examinamos as contribuicoes de Jacques Le Goff (1924-2014) para o campo da Historia da Educacao Medieval. Nossa intencao e, primeiro, situar a obra de Jacques Le Goff no conjunto de uma tradicao historiografica inaugurada no seculo XIX, principalmente no que se refere aos principios de totalidade e de longa duracao como essenciais para a pesquisa historica. Em segundo, procuramos evidenciar o estudo de Le Goff acerca dos intelectuais na Idade Media, a partir do qual eles passaram a ter maior destaque no conjunto da civilizacao medieval. Palavras-chave: Historia da Educacao Medieval. Jacques Le Goff. Totalidade. Longa Duracao. Abstract: This article examines the contribution from Jacques Le Goff (1924-2014) for the History of Medieval Education. Our intention is, firstly, to place the work of Jacques Le Goff in the historiography tradition, started on the 19th century, especially with regard to the principles of fullness and long term as essential for historical...

Medieval illustrated books of animals known as bestiaries were one of the most popular genres of late medieval European literature. These were not so much scientific as moralized accounts of animals, used to teach students the elements of Christian doctrine; the more elaborately decorated manuscripts were collected by nobles. Today about one hundred bestiary manuscripts, divided by scholars into textual groups called families, survive. The bestiary is rooted in the Physiologus, a collection of moralized stories about mythological creatures, animals, birds, and magical stones mostly to be found in Africa and Asia. The purpose of the book was strictly didactic: it used the characteristics of animals and other creatures to provide young Christians with lessons to be followed in their lives. The original text (written in Greek circa 2nd century C.E., probably in Alexandria) has long been lost, but because of its popularity, it was translated into many languages in the 4th and 5th centuries. In the 8th and 9th centuries in France, several Latin versions of the Physiologus were produced. By the 12th century, the so-called version B of the Latin Physiologus had been transformed into a bestiary by the addition of pseudo-zoological material taken from Book XII of the authoritative Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville (570-636). In the same century bestiaries manuscripts were produced in England, and over the following three centuries, the use of bestiaries became very widespread.

The course aims to contribute to the students understanding of the medieval bestiaries tradition, their origin, structure, and development from 4th until 15th century. We are going to learn the vocabulary related to the subject and possess the required skills to enable a student to work with medieval bestiaries in their original form.