Socialising the Child in Late Medieval England, c. 1400-1600

An investigation into a variety of texts providing guidance for teachers, parents, and children themselves. The question and procedures of integrating children into wider society during the medieval and early modern period are debated across a wide range of contemporary texts, in both print and manuscript form. This study takes as its focus the ways in which vernacular literature (including English courtesy poems, incunabula and sixteenth-century printed household books, grammar school statutes, and pedagogic books) provided a guide to socialising children. Theauthor examines how the transmission and reception of this literature, showing how patterns of thought changed during the period for parents, teachers, and young people alike; and places children and family reading networks into the context of debates on the history of childhood, and the history of the book. Merridee L. Bailey is a social and cultural historian of late medieval and early modern England. She is an Associate Member of the Facultyof History, University of Oxford. The question and procedures of integrating children into wider society during the medieval and early modern period are debated across a wide range of contemporary texts, in both print and manuscript form. This study takes as its focus the ways in which vernacular literature (including English courtesy poems, incunabula and sixteenth-century printed household books, grammar school statutes, and pedagogic books) provided a guide to socialising children. The author examines how the transmission and reception of this literature, showing how patterns of thought changed during the period for parents, teachers, and young people alike; and places children and family reading networks into the context of debates on the history of childhood, and the history of the book. Merridee L. Bailey is a lecturer at the Department of History, Australia National University The question and procedures of integrating children into wider society during the medieval and early modem period are debated across a wide range of contemporary texts, in both print and manuscript form. This study takes as its focus the ways in which vernacular literature (including English courtesy poems, incunabula and sixteenth-century printed household books, grammar school statutes, and pedagogic books) provided a guide to socialising children. The author examines the transmission and reception of this literature, showing how patterns of thought changed during the period for parents, teachers, and young people alike; and places children and family reading networks into the context of debates on the history of childhood, and the history of the book Frontcover 1 Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Abbreviations 9 Transcription conventions 10 Introduction 12 1. Courtesy Poems 22 2. Readers 54 3. Virtue and Vice 90 4. Sixteenth-Century Books 138 5. The School 170 Conclusion 205 Appendix A: English Vernacular Courtesy Poems 214 Appendix B: Incunabula 232 Appendix C: Sixteenth-Century Books 237 Appendix D: Educational Sources 246 Bibliography 254 Index 276 Backcover 286 Merridee L. Bailey. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 243-264) And Index.