"Schooling in Renaissance Italy"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the book, "Schooling in Renaissance Italy: Literacy and Learning 1300-1600," chronicles the shift in educational philosophy that characterized the Renaissance, not in a purely chronological fashion, but by sectioning the text along the lines of several broad, historical overviews. It looks at how the purpose of education is something all students and graduates grapple with to some extent over the course of their own lives and how Grendler's text provides an accessible introduction to this period of human history. It also discusses how the book forces the reader to grapple with the purpose of his or her own education, whether it is moral, philosophical, vocational, or instructional in nature, and how Italy offers models for all of these different facets of the educational process over the course of the three hundred years chronicled in the book.

From the Paper:

"Grendler backs up his overviews of education in the different city states with specific biographical examples, such as the aforementioned biographies of famous teachers, Gasparino Barzizza, Guarino, and Vittorino, and the way individual classical historical figures such as Cicero were taught differently, depending on the way that Italy's republican past was viewed by the elite. Lastly, Grendler concludes his work with an overview of the Reformation and how that affected education. This structure enables Grendler to touch upon the organization of schooling, the changed view of the Latin curriculum in the Renaissance versus the Middle Ages, the introduction of a vernacular curriculum into schooling, and then to conclude with an overview of the schools of the Catholic Reformation and the beginning of the Jesuit order."

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