''Orbis Pictus'', or ''Orbis Sensualium Pictus'' (''Visible World in Pictures''), is a
textbook
A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...
for children written by Czech educator
John Amos Comenius
John Amos Comenius (; cs, Jan Amos Komenský; pl, Jan Amos Komeński; german: Johann Amos Comenius; Latinization (literature), Latinized: ''Ioannes Amos Comenius''; 28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) was a Czech Philosophy, philosopher, Ped ...
and published in 1658. It was the first widely used children's textbook with pictures, published first in Latin and German and later republished in many European languages.
The revolutionary book quickly spread around Europe and became the defining children's textbook for centuries.
Contents
The book is divided into chapters illustrated by
copperplate prints, which are described in the accompanying text. In most editions, the text is given in both Latin and the child's native language. The book has 150 chapters and covers a wide range of subjects:
*
inanimate nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
*
botanics
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
*
zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
*
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
*
humans
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
and their activities
History
Originally published in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
and
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
in 1658 in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
, the book soon spread to schools in Germany and other countries. The first
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
edition was published in 1659. The first
quadrilingual edition (in Latin, German, Italian and French) was published in 1666. The first
Czech
Czech may refer to:
* Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe
** Czech language
** Czechs, the people of the area
** Czech culture
** Czech cuisine
* One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus'
Places
* Czech, ...
translation was published in the 1685 quadrilingual edition (together with Latin, German and
Hungarian), by the
Breuer Breuer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Amit Breuer, Canadian-Israeli documentary filmmaker
* Annabel Breuer (born 1992), German wheelchair fencer and wheelchair basketball player
* Bessie Breuer (1893–1975), American jo ...
publishing house in
Levoča
Levoča (; hu, Lőcse; rue, Левоча)
is a town in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,700. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Gothic church with the highest wooden altar in the wor ...
. In the years 1670 to 1780, new editions were published in various languages, with upgraded both pictures and text content.
''Orbis Pictus'' had a long-lasting influence on
children's education. It was a precursor of both audio-visual techniques and the
lexical
Lexical may refer to:
Linguistics
* Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language
* Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification
* Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
* Lex ...
approach in language learning.
In 1930
Otto Neurath
Otto Karl Wilhelm Neurath (; 10 December 1882 – 22 December 1945) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist. He was also the inventor of the ISOTYPE method of pictorial statistics and an innovator in mu ...
claimed that images in ''Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft'' constituted a new ''Orbis Pictus''.
See also
*
Comenius
John Amos Comenius (; cs, Jan Amos Komenský; pl, Jan Amos Komeński; german: Johann Amos Comenius; Latinized: ''Ioannes Amos Comenius''; 28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is considere ...
*
Great Didactic
The ''Great Didactic'' or ( la, Didactica Magna), full title ( la, Didactica Magna, Universale Omnes Omnia Docendi Artificium Exhibens), ''The Great Didactic, The Whole Art of Teaching all Things to all Man'', is a book written by Czech philosop ...
References
External links
Online selections from Orbis Pictus in Latin*
* At Internet Archive, the first American from the twelfth London edition, 1810. https://archive.org/details/orbissensualiump00come/page/n5/mode/2up
* - translation by
Charles Hoole
Charles Hoole (1610–1667) was an English cleric and educational writer. He produced a visually-improved English translation of the ''Orbis Pictus'' of Comenius, a year after its original publication in 1658.
Life
The son of Charles Hoole of Wak ...
, at Google Book Search
Orbis sensualium pictus trilinguis. Latin, German and Hungarian, 1708''Orbis sensualium pictus trilinguis'' Leutschoviae : Typis Samuelis Brewer, Anno Salutis 1685. 484 s. - - available at
ULB's Digital Library
''Orbis Pictus, in hungaricum et germanicum translatus'' Po'sonban: Weber, 19. stor. 172 s. - available at
ULB's Digital Library
''Orbis pictus von Amos Comenius'' ürnberg .n. 1770. 263 s. - available at
ULB's Digital Library
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Books by John Amos Comenius
Children's encyclopedias
1658 books
Illustrated books
Latin encyclopedias
Czech encyclopedias
German encyclopedias
Hungarian encyclopedias
Italian-language encyclopedias
French encyclopedias
Multilingual texts
17th-century encyclopedias
John Amos Comenius
17th-century Latin books