Education Materialised

Abstract

Teaching and learning in the pre-modern period often involved a personal relationship between teacher and student, and their direct interactions at various locations. The scholar, or teacher, was the attachment figure, less so the institution itself. In many regions and periods, this partly led to a distinctive mobility of both students and scholars. Textual evidence in manuscripts, such as certificates or classroom notes, enables a (partial) identification of teachers, and a (partial) reconstruction of teacher-student relations. Additional information on places and dates renders possible a geo-spatial mapping of certain educational settings, from which the social networks of education may emerge. Annotations in the manuscripts, as well as the materiality of the manuscript, e.g., its form, visual organisation, and script, may permit conclusions to be drawn on the applied didactics, and the actual use of manuscripts in educational contexts.