In today's Claire Chats, I talk about how children were taught to read in the medieval and Tudor periods.
The book I recommend is Nicholas Orme's Medieval Children which gives very detailed information on education in that period and is also fully referenced.
Here are links for things I mention in my talk:
- www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_208_f001r - see folios 87v to 88r for the alphabet written at the top of the page. It gives the letters A-Z, missing out j and v, and also gives the signs for the Latin “et” and English “and” along with four Anglo-Saxon letters. It ends with the opening phrase of the Lord's Prayer in Latin.
- https://archive.org/details/abcbothinlatynen00londuoft - The 1538 primer.
- https://archive.org/stream/threeprimersputf00unknuoft#page/436/mode/2up - Henry VIII's 1545 primer
- http://hockliffe.dmu.ac.uk/items/0391A.html - The A. B. C. With the catechism; that is to say, an instruction to be learned of every person before he be bought to be confirmed by the Bishop
