Early Beginnings:
The Middle Ages
Once upon a time, a long long time ago,
stories and poems were told around the fires
in cottages or sung in the great halls of
castles…
Oral Tradition
Before actual physical books came stories –
stories for all ages, told after a long hard
day in the fields, as the family gathered
around the fire in the dark. Stories served
as medieval television.
Cottage vs. Castle Stories
• Where: Cottages or
medieval fairs
• Who: Simple folks
• What: daily life –
farmers,
woodcutters; beast
tales about wolves,
foxes and hens
• Where: Castles and
great manor houses
• Who: Wandering
minstrels or bards
• What: heroic tales
about Beowulf or
King Arthur
Early Manuscripts
•
•
•
•
Picture Bibles
Lesson books
Only for wealthy or teachers in monastery
Valuable: houses/lands exchanged for one
volume!!
• Had 2 forms
– Dialogue between teacher/student (question
& answer)
– Rhymed couplets (easy memorization)
Important People
• Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury:
introduced question & answer approach
• Bede: translated/wrote 45 books for his
students at the Jarrow monastery in
England
• Anselm: Elucidarium
• Chaucer: Canterbury Tales
Important Books
• Elucidarium: book of general information for
students (encyclopedia)
• Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the Romans):
sourcebook of stories for clergy
– contained myths/fables/tales from places like
India
• Canterbury Tales: legendary stories/folktales
Printed Books
• Originated in China (175 A.D.)
– Also had wood block printing (8th century)
• Gutenberg: movable metal type (1450’s)
in Germany
• William Caxton: learned trade and brough
it to England (1476)
– Published 106 books
– Expensive
– Many owned books now!
Influence of Printing
• Textbooks alone
• Hornbooks
– 15th Century
– 2 x 5 inches
– Battledore
After Hornbooks
• ABC books
• Primers
– Book of hours for children
– Henry VIII
Lasting Contributions
• Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
• Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur
• Education not entertainment
TIMELINE of EVENTS & PUBLICATIONS
EVENTS:
175 AD – Stone rubbings in China
400 – 1400’s – Oral storytelling
600’s – Early lesson Books
700’s – China’s block printing
1100’s—Elucidarium developed by Anselm
1380-1420 – Western printing began in Holland
1400’s – Hornbooks
1450 – Gutenberg’s moveable metal type (press) in Germany
1476 – Caxton’s printing press in Westminster
1514 – alphabet added to a book of hours for children
1600’s—Aldhelm introduces question/answer approach
1600’s—Bede translates/writes 45 books
PUBLICATIONS:
Early 1300’s – The Gesta Romanorum (deeds of the Romans)
compiled
1387 – Canterbury Tales
1477 – A Book of Curtseye
1481 – The Historye of Reynart the Foxe
1484 – Aesop’s Fables
1485 - Le Morte d’Arthur
1584 - King Henry’s Primer
Assessment 1
Question:
List the different types of publications
Assessment 1
Answers:
written
wood block printing
movable metal type
Assessment 2
Question:
List people and countries that published
early literature
Assessment 2
Answers:
Gutenberg
William Caxton
Anslem
Aldhelm
Bede
Chaucer
Holland
Germany
Westminster
China
Assessment 3
Question:
List well-known books from the early
literature period discussed in class
Assessment 3
Answers:
Elucidarium
Canterbury Tales
Aesop’s Fables
Gutenberg Bible
Beowulf