The Scholemaster: First Edition, 1570; collated with the second Edition, 1572

by Roger Ascham

The Scholemaster - First Edition, 1570; collated with the second Edition, 1572 is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1870. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

Genres: Teaching

164 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1568

About the author

born circa 1515

English scholar Roger Ascham as Latin secretary to Edward VI, Mary I Tudor, and Elizabeth I advocated the use of the vernacular in literature.

Roger Ascham wrote his famous didactic prose promotional style and his theories of education. He acted as tutor of princess in Greek between 1548 and 1550 and served in the administrations.

From Askham near York, the name derived properly.
He lived in a village in the north riding near Northallerton as the third son of John Ascham, steward to Scrope, baron of Bolton. From the Conyers family, Margaret Ascham, his mother, supposedly came, according to speculation. Thomas Acham and John Ascham preceded Roger, and Anthony Ascham joined the family as the youngest son and brother. Edward Grant, better known headmaster of the royal college of Saint Peter at Westminster, his close friend, and the authority on his early life, collected and edited his letters and delivered an oral panegyric in 1576.

Reviews

[Ian]

Well, you can definitely tell this is a posthumous work: the material here is haphazardly organized, prone to random excursions, and the ending is abrupt. Nevertheless, this is a very worthy little classic on education. Ascham writes with a witty and friendly voice that makes you feel he is right beside you despite the separation of ages. Of course, in writings about education even moreso than normal, modern readers are prone to Whig readings, praising past writers on education only insofar as they anticipate what are presently considered progressive practices, so that everywhere if you see mention of Ascham his importance is invariably reduced to the fact that he advocated less beating of children in schools. He does, and that is good (incidentally, I am not so sure Ascham would think any better of our modern Prussian-inspired grading system), but this Whig reduction obscures the fact that Ascham was a writer of pedagogical genius as well. His system of double translation is one that should be employed much more often. His praise of Sturm's collection of Cicero's letters is spot on; it is a crime that those letters are not more commonly used as introductory readings after the grammar has been taught. His thoughts on paraphrase and imitation are excellent; it is tragic he never got to complete his plan for the work De Imitatione, which he outlines here. His pithy wisdom is quite memorable: "Ye know not, what hurt ye do to learning, that care not for wordes, but for matter, and ſo make a deuorſe betwixt the tong and the hart."

[Roman Clodia]

First published posthumously in 1570, Ascham's 'The Scholemaster' is a rambling (as many Elizabethan prose works were) treatise on the humanist curriculum and teaching methods, especially for Latin and Greek literature. He is especially interesting on issue of 'imitatio' (imitation) in literature and poetry, and its distinction from mimesis; also the difference between imitation of 'verba' (words) and 'res' (matter or content).

He himself is a disciple of Cicero and his eloquent Latin prose style. Ascham's comparative analysis of Cicero versus Demosthenes is therefore of interest, even if his great concern with Cicero's authorial intentions becomes problematic for us as post-Barthesians.

Ascham was Elizabeth I's Greek and Latin tutor, and the deviser of the famous double translation method where she had to translate a piece from Greek into Latin and then back into Greek. For anyone working on humanism, classical reception, or early modern education systems, this is an invaluable insight into the way Elizabethans themselves constructed education and the centrality of literature.

[Aaron Cummings]

An interesting piece of practical teaching wisdom from 17th century England. Anyone involved in so-called "classical education" ought to read this to see how it's really done.