(Pierre Swiggers & Raf Van Rooy)
Methods and masters: multilingual teaching in 16th-century Louvain
Our presentation will focus on the teaching of classical and vernacular languages at the University of Louvain (founded in 1425) during the 16th century. The Louvain University context is interesting because it testifies to the coexistence of a “vertical multilingual teaching” (i.e. teaching of the classical and “sacred” languages) and of a “horizontal multilingual teaching” (focusing on vernacular languages such as French, Spanish, and Italian). Only the classical languages were part of the official curriculum, but it seems that there was some demand for learning certain early modern vernacular languages (at times also Dutch) as well as for private lessons in the “sacred” tongues. Language teaching, strictly speaking, was confined to the artes faculty, except for Hebrew, which was the object of teaching in the Collegium Trilingue (founded in 1517), next to the more advanced study of Latin and Greek. Teaching instruments were made available either directly through the Louvain professors (e.g., Rescius) or through language teachers who at one time had studied in Louvain or had been active in Flanders (e.g., as collaborators to the Polyglot Bible). In our contribution we will focus on some important teachers as well as on didactic tools (language manuals, readers, etc.). Finally, we will try to reconstruct, to some extent, the teaching methods used, basing ourselves on more explicit testimonies (e.g., by Clenardus and Amerotius) or on the contents and organization of the teaching instruments.
Outline:
1. Introduction: the teaching of classical and vernacular languages in 16th-century Flanders
2. Louvain, a Renaissance center of language learning
3. The artes faculty and the Collegium Trilingue
4. Teaching instruments
5. Some popular language masters: Johannes Campensis, Hadrianus Amerotius, Rutgerus Rescius, Nicolaus Clenardus
6. A glance at methods for teaching grammar
Key words: Louvain - 16th century - university - Collegium Trilingue - handbooks - masters - methods - classical languages - vernacular languages