Printing, Education and Humanism

Question 1

What was the primary audience of printed texts?

Answer 1

The primary audience of printed texts was upperclass men and boys

Question 2

What was the one thing women were permitted to read?

Answer 2

Upperclass women were permitted to read the bible in English, although at times this fluctuated in how it was enforced

Question 3

What can be said about the reading abilities of lower class women?

Answer 3

Lower class women were less likely to be able to read, including the bible, they could recite it in latin and vernacular but that’s it

Question 4

What influenced English printing culture?

Answer 4

English printing culture was influenced by Italian literature

Question 5

What was the geographical dispersion of printing?

Answer 5

Proto-urban cultures were more impacted by printing than rural societies were

Question 6

What occurred to the Tudor job market over the course of the sixteenth century?

Answer 6

Over the course of the sixteenth-century, education and literacy became prerequisites for jobs

Question 7

What was the relationship between printing and literacy rates?

Answer 7

As the literacy rates increased, print demand increased

Question 8

What can be said about women’s culture?

Answer 8

Women relied more heavily on oral culture than written culture

Question 9

What was the focus of Humanism?

Answer 9

Humanism focused on rhetoric and classical texts and languages

Question 10

What did education facilitate in the sixteenth century?

Answer 10

Sixteenth century education facilitated social mobility- it opened pathways to studying law and thus entering the council etc.

Question 11

What was religious reading?

Answer 11

Religious reading was the Protestant idea that reading was a way to achieve salvation

Question 12

How did Aristotle impact sixteenth century gender relations?

Answer 12

Aristotle impacted sixteenth-century gender relations by teaching that women were inferior and incapable of reason

Question 13

What was the role played by Tudor intellectual circles?

Answer 13

Tudor intellectual circles helped men use their education to achieve social mobility

Question 14

How did Humanism and Humanist education impact Tudor society?

Answer 14

Humanism and Humanist educations only impacted the nobility and the gentry really, although there was some trickle down

Question 15

What was the relationship between print and humanism?

Answer 15

As Humanism grew in reach, the printing industry expanded

Question 16

Was sixteenth century education liberating?

Answer 16

Although sixteenth century educations facilitated social mobility, it could isolate women by making them appear unnatural such as Lady Jane Grey

Question 17

What was the impact of Humanism on gender?

Answer 17

Humanism rationalised misogynistic perceptions and translated them into practical terms

Question 18

What is the general list of Thomas More’s Utopia (1551)?

Answer 18

Thomas More’s Utopia generally suggests that Humanism creates a seamless and beneficial society for all- as manners are never corrupted and people do not become entrapped by vices

Question 19

Outline the content of William Harrison’s Of Universities (1577)?

Answer 19

William Harrison’s Of Universities suggests that the rich monopolise higher education, and highlights the foundations of education to be logic and rhetoric, while the specialisms are seen as law ir divinity

Question 20

How was education of boys geographically handled?

Answer 20

Through grammar schools boys could receive proper educations, although for the absolute poorest later in the century charity schools became common

Question 21

How does John Knox describe women?

Answer 21

Women are explained by John Knox to be naturally weak, frail, impatient, feeble, foolish and cruel

Question 22

What do women lack, according the the First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558)?

Answer 22

Women according to John Knox ‘lack the spirit of counsel and regiment’

Question 23

Who challenged the historical interpretation of Elizabethan England as a golden age of educational opportunity?

Answer 23

D. Cressy challenged the historical interpretation of Elizabethan England as a golden age of educational opportunity?

Question 24

What has D. Cressy’s revisionist interpretation of late Tudor education meant for historical study?

Answer 24

D. Cressy’s revisionist interpretation of late Tudor education has meant that we can newly analyse social mobility below the gentry classes

Question 25

What does A. Friedman claim about the longevity of Humanist thought?

Answer 25

A. Friedman suggests that Humanist pedagogy had lasting impact on English education and intellectual culture

Question 26

What should be remembered about the advent of Humanism in England?

Answer 26

Humanist thought emerged in England at a time of domestic social, economic and political upheaval (i.e. Henry VIIs reign)

Question 27

What was stressed as imperative to Humanist thought?

Answer 27

Central to Humanist thought was rhetoric, grammar, structured arguments and clarity

Question 28

What must be remembered in studying Tudor education?

Answer 28

Simple literacy capabilities must not be treated the same in historical study as fully-fledged Humanist educations

Question 29

What were the two biggest barriers in the sixteenth century to receiving an education?

Answer 29

The two biggest barriers to receiving an education in the sixteenth century were ideological and economic factors

Question 30

Briefly outline the argument evident in Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier (1528):

Answer 30

Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier deemphasised the authority of women while stressing obligation to the prince

Question 31

When did contemporary opinion change regarding specialist educations?

Answer 31

Contemporary opinion of specialist educations changed in the late fifteenth century

Question 32

What profession fell out of fashion during the Tudor dynasty?

Answer 32

During the Tudor dynasty service in another’s great house stopped being seen as a profession in its own right and began to be seen as a social mobility stepping stone

Question 33

What was the focus of women’s education?

Answer 33

Women’s education in the sixteenth century focused upon whatever was necessary to be capable to run a house e.g. mental arithmetic

Question 34

How can women’s “humanist” education be described?

Answer 34

Women’s education focused on the practicals and deemphasised theoretical skills

Question 35

Outline Sir Thomas Elyot’s Book Named the Governor (1531):

Answer 35

Book Named the Governor suggested that boys should be removed from the company of women at the age of seven

Question 36

What were the three stages of a Humanist education?

Answer 36

The first stage was moral and grammar lessons from Classic stories, the second stage was logic and rhetoric from Humanist and Classical sources, the last was philosophy and history

Question 37

What was the function of Erasmus’s The Education of a Christian Prince (1516)?

Answer 37

The Education of a Christian Prince, dedicated to Charles, later HRE, is a Renaissance-style guide for how to be an effective and Godly ruler

Question 38

What was the only Humanist sanctioned interaction between the sexes?

Answer 38

Humanism encouraged the sexes to interact through dancing as it was supposed to teach morality

Question 39

What does C. Jordan argue about Humanism?

Answer 39

C. Jordan argues that humanism challenged biblical ideas of female inferiority with rationalised ideas, which although different, were just as misogynistic and in fact MORE restricting than traditional ideas

Question 40

What is an example which proves C. Jordan’s claims of restrictive misogyny?

Answer 40

The Queen of Zenobia in The Book Named the Governor by Thomas Elyot (1531)

Question 41

Who is a key contemporary who impacted the English humanism movement?

Answer 41

Juan Luis Vives was a contemporary pedagogy theorist

Question 42

What did Juan Luis Vives argue?

Answer 42

Juan Luis Vives argued that women were by nature unsuited to learning, and thought that their education should only be to improve their role in the domestic sphere

Question 43

What is an example of women receiving a humanist education?

Answer 43

Thomas More educated his daughters in the Humanist fashion

Question 44

What can be said about the change in ideas of marriage between medieval and early modern thought?

Answer 44

The early modern Christian idea of the industrious couple challenged the medieval chivalric code of romantic courtly love

Question 45

What is an example of the restrictions on women’s education?

Answer 45

Even Bess of Hardwick, one of the richest women in the late sixteenth century, knew nothing beyond household management

Question 46

What was expressed in Elizabethan courtesy literature?

Answer 46

Elizabethan courtesy literature placed emphasis on ladylike entertainment skills- and so was more liberated than earlier Tudor pedagogy

Question 47

What can be said about prevailing misogyny in Humanist thought?

Answer 47

The cold, industrious and limiting ideas of women’s education prevailed in texts such as Thomas Salters’ Mirror of Modesty (1579) alongside more liberating texts

Question 48

What must be remembered about all courtesy literature in the Elizabethan period?

Answer 48

All didactic works were still inherently misogynistic

Question 49

What was the expectation of wives in terms of education?

Answer 49

Wives in terms of Humanism were expected to set the moral tone

Question 50

What did A. Friedman claim about the emergence of fully-fledged education?

Answer 50

A. Friedman claimed that the developing importance of education in the sixteenth century produced ‘a new world of male authority’