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English Medieval Education since 1970—So Near and Yet So Far

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Joel T. Rosenthal*
Affiliation:
SUNY Stony Brook

Abstract

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Type
Essay-Reviews
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

1. I wish to thank Dr. JoAnn H. Moran of Georgetown University for encouragement and advice, the editors of this journal for general support, and the National Endowment of the Humanities for a fellowship which made possible the final bibliographical search and revisions. I have made no effort to include material usually considered to be ‘intellectual history’. For an annual listing of historical publications, Elton, G. R., ed. Annual Bibliography of British and Irish History, produced for the Royal Historical Society, (Hassocks, Sussex, 1976-).Google Scholar

2. Adamson, J. W., ‘The Extent of Literacy in England in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries’, The Library, 4th series, 10 (1930), 163–93; Galbraith, V. H., ‘The Literacy of the Medieval English Kings’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 21 (1935), 201–38; Thompson, J. W., The Literacy of the Laity in the Middle Ages (Berkeley, 1939), Univ. of California Publications in Education, ix; Bennett, H. S., English Books and their Readers, 1475–1557 (Cambridge, 2nd ed., 1969); Thrupp, Sylvia, The Merchant Class of Medieval London (Ann Arbor, 1948), ch. iv.Google Scholar

3. Clanchy, M. T., From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066–1307 (Cambridge, Mass., 1979). Also, Bauml, Franz H., ‘Varieties and Consequences of Medieval Literacy and Illiteracy’, Speculum, 55 (1980), 236–65.Google Scholar

4. Wormald, C. P., ‘The Uses of Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England and its Neighbors’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 27 (1977), 95114. For one of the few recent articles on Anglo-Saxon education, Eckenrode, T. R., ‘The Venerable Bede as an Educator—A Neglected Aspect’, History of Education, VI (1979), 159–68.Google Scholar

5. Parkes, Malcolm, ‘The Literacy of the Laity’, in Literature and Western Civilization: The Medieval World, ed., Daiches, D. & Thorlby, A. (London, 1973), 555–77: the quotation is from p. 556.Google Scholar

6. Pantin, W. A., ‘Instructions for a Devout and Literate Layman’, in Medieval Learning and Literature: Essays Presented to Richard W. Hunt, ed. Alexander, J. J. G. and Gibson, M. T. (Oxford, 1976), 398422. On a different slant, see two articles by Evans, Gillian R., ‘The Development of Some Textbooks on the Useful Arts, c. 1000 - c. 1250’, History of Education, 7 (1978), 85–94, and ‘St. Anselm and Teaching’, History of Education, 5 (1976), 89–101.Google Scholar

7. Turner, Ralph V., ‘The Miles Literatus in Twelfth and Thirteenth Century England: How Rare a Phenomenon?’, American Historical Review, 89 (1978), 928945, and his ‘The Judges of King John: Their Background and Training’, Speculum, 51 (1976), 447–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Fisher, John H., 'Chancery and the Emergence of Standard Written English in the Fifteenth Century, Speculum, 52 (1977), 870899; Richardson, Malcolm, ‘Henry V, the English Chancery, and Chancery English’, Speculum, 55 (1980), 726–50. On tri-lingualism and record keeping, Clanchy, , op. cit., ‘Languages of Record’, pp. 151–74, and Rothwell, W. M., The Role of French in Thirteenth Century England', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 58 (1975–76), 443–66: French declined as a second language after 1200, except for cultural and administrative purposes. Illiterate Englishmen and women were not bilingual.Google Scholar

9. McFarlane, K. B., ‘The Education of the Nobility in Later Medieval England’, in The Nobility of Later Medieval England (Oxford, 1973), 228–47. The paper was presented, orally, in 1963.Google Scholar

10. Rosenthal, J. T., ‘Aristocratic Cultural Patronage and Book Bequests, 1350–1500’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 64 (1982), 522–48, and also Catto, Jeremy, ‘Religion and the English Nobility in the Later Fourteenth Century’, in History and Imagination: Essays in Honour of H. R. Trevor-Roper, eds., Lloyd-Jones, Hugh, Pearl, Valerie, and Warden, Blair (London, 1981), 43–55.Google Scholar

11. McFarlane, K. B., Lancastrian Kings and Lollard Knights (Oxford, 1972), pp. 114–20, and Appendix C, ‘Henry V's Books’, pp. 233–38. Also, Ross, Charles, Edward IV (London & Berkeley, California, 1975),257–77. Not to concentrate wholly upon the laity: Thomson, R. M., ‘The Library of Bury St. Edmunds Abbey in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, Speculum, 47 (1972), 617–45.Google Scholar

12. Davis, Norman, ed., Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century (Oxford, vols. MI, 1973–76), though a full discussion of language and literacy must await publication of Vol. III. Hanham, Alison, ed., The Cely Papers, 1472–1488, Early English Text Society, 273 (1975), xxi–xxvii. The recent Caxton scholarship is voluminous and much of it touches, at least in passing, upon relevant matters; Blake, N. F., Caxton: England's First Publisher (London, 1976); ‘Papers Presented to the Caxton International Congress, 1976’, Journal of the Printing History Society, 11 (1976–77); Painter, G. D., William Caxton: A Quincentenary Biography (London, 1976); Armstrong, Elizabeth, English Purchases of Printed Books from the Continent', English Historical Review, 94 (1979), 268–90.Google Scholar

13a. Moran, J. H., ‘Literacy and Education in Northern England, 1350–1500: A methodological inquiry’, Northern History, 17 (1981), 123.Google Scholar

13. Orme, Nicholas, English Schools in the Middle Ages (London & New York, 1973. Orme has a list of schools with medieval origins, pp. 293325, and an extensive bibliography, pp. 325–54. For scholarly reviews, Kibre, Pearl, American Historical Review, 80(1975), 92–93, and Jensen, Kenneth, Speculum, 51 (1976), 524–26.Google Scholar

14. Leach, A. F., The Schools of Medieval England (London, 2nd ed., 1916), with a bibliography of Leach's works, pp. vii–ix; Educational Charters and Documents, 598–1909 (Cambridge, 1911); Early Yorkshire Schools, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, vols. 27 and 33 (1899 and 1903). For an assessment, Tate, W. E., A. F. Leach as an Historian of Yorkshire Education, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, 23 (1963).Google Scholar

15. Thomas, Keith, Rule and Misrule in the Schools of Early Modern England, Stenton Lecture, University of Reading, 1975.Google Scholar

16. Haines, Roy M., ‘Education in English Ecclesiastical Legislation of the Later Middle Ages’, in Studies in Church History, 7: Councils and Assemblies, ed. Cumming, G. J. and Baker, Derek (Cambridge, 1971), 161175; for an assessment of reforming' legislation and clerical education, Boyle, Leonard E., Aspects of Clerical Education in Fourteenth Century England', Acta, 4: The Fourteenth Century (1977), 19–32. This covers Boniface VIII's Constitution, Cum ex eo', issued in 1298.Google Scholar

17. Orme, , English Schools, p. 207.Google Scholar

18. I have excluded from a detailed consideration the extensive recent literature on Lollardy and literacy. See, among others, Aston, Margaret, ‘Lollardy and Literacy’, History, 62 (1977), 347–71; Hudson's, Anne various works; A Lollard Quaternion', Review of English Studies, n.s., 22 (1971), 435–42; Some Aspects of Lollard Book Production', in Studies in Church History, 9:147–157; Schism, Heresy, and Religious Protest, ed., Baker, Derek (Oxford, 1972), 147–157 (for ‘Some Aspects of Lollard book production); The Debate on Bible Translation, Oxford, 1401’, English Historial Review, 90 (1975), 1–18.Google Scholar

19. Orme, Nicholas, Education in the West of England, 1066–1548 (Exeter, 1976); ‘The Medieval Schools of Worcestershire’, Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society, 3rd series, 6 (1978), 43–51; ‘Evesham Schools before the Reformation’, Vale of Evesham Historical Society, research papers vi (1977), 95–100; Education in the West of England, 1066–1548: additions and corrections', Devon and Cornwall, Notes & Queries, 34, i (1978), 22–25.Google Scholar

20. Orme, Nicholas, The Minor Clergy of Exeter Cathedral, 1300–1548 (Exeter, 1980); Orme, Exeter Cathedral Church Musicians, 1276–1548', Music and Letters, 59 (1978), 395–410; Orme,‘Education and Learning at a Medieval English Cathedral: Exeter, 1380–1548’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 32 (1981), 265–83.Google Scholar

21. Also for a localized study, Lipkin, J. and B. S., ‘The Educational Status of the Beneficed Clergy of the Diocese of Hereford, 1289–1539’, Computers and the Humanities, 12 (1978), 113–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22. Vale, M. G. A., Piety, Charity, and Literacy among the Yorkshire Gentry, 1370–1480, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, 50 (1976); Moran, J. H., Education and Learning in the City of York, 1300–1560, Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, 55 (1979).Google Scholar

23. Victoria County History: Chester, Vol. III, ed., Harris, B. E. (London, 1980). The survey is by Thacker, A. T., pp. 196–97, the medieval schools are treated, passim, 237–52. But no such summary appeared in VCH, Shropshire, Vol. II (London, 1973).Google Scholar

24. Emden, A. B., Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A. D. 1500 (Oxford, 3 vols., 1957–59); Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to A.D. 1500 (Cambridge, 1963). In 1974 Emden published his Biographical Register of the University of Oxford, A.D. 1501 to 1540 (Oxford). On the University immediately after the medieval period, McConica, J. K., ‘The Prosopography of the Tudor University’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 3 (1973), 543–54.Google Scholar

25. Aston, T. H., ‘Oxford's Medieval Alumni’, Past and Present, 74 (1977), 340; Aston, T. H., Duncan, G. D., and Evans, T. A. R., ‘The Medieval Alumni of the University of Cambridge’, Past and Present, 86 (1980), 9–86; Cobban, A. B., ‘The Medieval Cambridge College: A Quantitative Study of Higher Degrees to c. 1500’, History of Education, 9 (1980), 1–12.Google Scholar

26. Courtenay, William J., ‘The Effect of the Black Death on English Higher Education’, Speculum, 55 (1980), 696714.Google Scholar

27. Watt, D. E. R., A Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Graduates to A. D. 1410 (Oxford, 1977). Watt's problems about definition and inclusion were even more complicated than those Emden had to wrestle withWatt's problems about definition and inclusion were even more complicated than those Emden had to wrestle with.Google Scholar

28. Burson, Malcolm, ‘Emden's Registers and the Prosopography of Medieval English Universities’, Medieval Prosopography, autumn 1982 (3, ii).Google Scholar

29. Storey, R. L., ‘The Foundation and the Medieval College, 1379–1530’, in New College, Oxford, 1379–1979, ed Buxton, J. and Williams, Penry (Oxford, 1979), 343; Cobben, A. B., ‘Origins: Robert Wodelarke and St. Catherine's’, in St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, 1473–1973, ed. Rich, E. E. (Leeds, 1973); Green, V. H., The Commonwealth of Lincoln College, 1427–1977 (Oxford, 1979), chapters i–iii cover the pre-Reformation period, with appendices on fellows, rectors, and early buildings. More along the line of the economic foundations on which colleges were built, Steer, Francis, A Catalogue Compiled of the Archives of New College (Chichester, 1974), and Butcher, Andrew F., ‘The Economy of Exeter College, 1400–1500’, Oxoniensia, 44 (1979), 38–54.Google Scholar

30. Hackett, M. B., The Original Statutes of Cambridge University (Cambridge, 1970), though Hackett may over estimate the “original” nature of the document. Also on origins, Lawrence, C. H., ‘The Origins of the Chancellorship at Oxford’, Oxoniensia, 41 (1976), 316–23: the office was first mentioned in 1214, and Geoffrey de Lucy is the first man identified with it, 1216. For the publication of sources on the medieval university, Pantin, W. A. and Mitchell, W. T., eds., Register of Congregation, 1448–1463, Oxford Historical Society, n.s., 22 (1972), with an epilogue by Pollard, Graham; Fletcher, J. M., ed., The Registrum Annalium Colegii Mertonensis, 1521–1567, OHS, n.s., 23 (1974, for 1971–72), to complete the material Salter, H. E. edited in 1923; Mitchell, W. T., ed., Registrum Cancellarii, 1498–1506, OHS, n.s., 27 (1980), mainly on legal affairs, with an English calendar of documents and 111 pages of transcription.Google Scholar

31. Bennett, J. A. W., Chaucer at Oxford and Cambridge (Toronto, 1974), For a different appraisal, Smalley, Beryl, ‘Oxford University Sermons, 1290–93’, in Medieval Life and Learning, 307–27: they were ‘establishment minded’.Google Scholar

32. Pantin, W. A., Oxford Life in Oxford Archives (Oxford, 1972). Along the more traditional line of approach, Green, V. H., A History of Oxford University (London, 1974); Morris, Jan, The Oxford Book of Oxford (Oxford, 1978), ch. i, of this anthology of snippets from contemporary sources and visitors; Carter, Harry, A History of the Oxford University Press (Oxford, Vol. I, 1975), ch. i on manuscripts books and the first two presses.Google Scholar

33. Lytle, Guy Fitch, ‘Patronage Patterns and Oxford Colleges, c. 1300-c. 1530’, in The University in Society, I: Oxford and Cambridge from the Fourteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century, ed., Stone, Lawrence (Princeton, 1974), 111149. There is a general essay by Ker, N. R., in The Universities in the Later Middle Ages, ed., Jsewijn, I. I. and Paquet, J. (Louvain and The Hague, 1978), Mediaevalia Lovaniensia, series I, studia vi.Google Scholar

34. Emden, A. B., ‘Oxford Academical Halls in the Later Middle Ages’, in Medieval Learning and Literature, pp. 353–63. For a learned and humorous approach to college problems, Squibb, G. D., Founders' Kin: Privilege and Pedigree (Oxford, 1972). This covers the conditions set by college founders regarding the obligation to admit their relatives. For a case study in patronage, Fletcher, J. M., ‘A Fifteenth century benefaction to Madgelen College Library’, Bodleian Library Record, 9 (1974), 169–72.Google Scholar

35. Cobban, A. B., ‘Decentralized Teaching in the Medieval English Universities’, History of Education, 5 (1976), 193206: deals with the evolution of teaching facilities in the secular colleges'.Google Scholar

36. A note of disappointment. In English Historical Documents, III, 1189–1327, ed. Rothwell, Harry (Oxford and New York, 1975), there are almost no materials pertinent to education (nor even to intellectual life): only pp. 687–91 and document 161. In marked contrast, Myers, A. R. accorded the subject much more attention: English Historical Documents, IV, 1327–1485 (London, 1969), pp. 811–922, his introduction on pp. 623–39, and bibliographical entries on pp. 645–47 and 650–52.Google Scholar

37. History of Education was first published in 1972; the History of Education Society Bulletin, first appeared in 1967.Google Scholar

38. Moran, , Education and Learning, p. 38.Google Scholar

39. Clanchy, , p. 7.Google Scholar

40. Cobban, A. B., ‘Medieval Student Power’, Past and Present, 53 (1971), 2866: the quote from pp. 65–66.Google Scholar