The European Contexts of Ramism

Description

Pierre de la Ramée or Petrus Ramus (1515-1572) has long been a controversial figure in educational reform and innovation, from the moment of his first public academic statements in the 1530s, to his reception among scholars in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. What is beyond dispute, however, is the vast reach of his influence throughout Europe. Ramus's ideas were disseminated through copious editions and translations of his own textbooks, and in wave after wave of adaptations and re-imaginings of his ideas that swept across the continent. This volume embarks on a European tour of Ramism, using a wide range of previously unpublished or untranslated archival evidence from throughout the continent to examine the dissemination of Ramus's works and his intellectual influence in geographic and in disciplinary terms. The ten chapters explore the spread of Ramism from his home country of France to Protestant strongholds in Germany, Holland, and Britain, and in the Catholic context of the Iberian peninsula. The book also examines Ramism in the less familiar territories (to most Anglophone readers) of Scandinavia and Hungary, and considers the preceding and contemporary Dutch and German educational reform movements from which Ramus borrowed to forge his own distinctive intellectual method. Notes on Contributors vii List of Illustrations ix Introduction / SARAH KNIGHT AND EMMA ANNETTE WILSON 1 Ramus and Humanist Pedagogy in the Language Arts / JUDITH RICE HENDERSON 15 Ramus and Agricola / MARC VAN DER POEL 67 The International Nature of Britannic Ramism / EMMA ANNETTE WILSON 109 Ramus and the Teaching of Mathematics / ISABELLE PANTIN 133 Teacher, Rival, Martyr: Ramus in French Literature and Thought / SARAH KNIGHT 153 'Reduced to Order' and 'Just for Show'? Ramus, Print, and Visual Aesthetics / RAPHAEL HALLETT 187 Ramism in Scandinavia / GUNNAR HARÐARSON 217 The Reception and Influence of Ramism in Iberia / ALFONSO MARTÍN-JIMÉNEZ 255 Hungarian and Transylvanian Ramism / GÁBOR KECSKEMÉTI 285 Select Bibliography 331 Index 339