''Orbis Pictus'', or ''Orbis Sensualium Pictus'' (''Visible World in Pictures''), is a

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbo ...

for children written by Czech educator

John Amos Comenius John Amos Comenius (; cs, Jan Amos Komenský; pl, Jan Amos Komeński; german: Johann Amos Comenius; Latinized: ''Ioannes Amos Comenius''; 28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is considere ...

and published in 1658. It was the first widely used children's textbook with pictures, published first in Latin and German and later republished in many European languages. The revolutionary book quickly spread around Europe and became the defining children's textbook for centuries.

The book is divided into chapters illustrated by copperplate prints, which are described in the accompanying text. In most editions, the text is given in both Latin and the child's native language. The book has 150 chapters and covers a wide range of subjects: * inanimate

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...

* botanics *

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

religion Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

humans Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

and their activities

History

Originally published in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

and German in 1658 in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

, the book soon spread to schools in Germany and other countries. The first

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

edition was published in 1659. The first quadrilingual edition (in Latin, German, Italian and French) was published in 1666. The first

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech ...

translation was published in the 1685 quadrilingual edition (together with Latin, German and Hungarian), by the

Breuer Breuer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Amit Breuer, Canadian-Israeli documentary filmmaker * Annabel Breuer (born 1992), German wheelchair fencer and wheelchair basketball player * Bessie Breuer (1893–1975), American jo ...

publishing house in

Levoča Levoča (; hu, Lőcse; rue, Левоча) is a town in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia with a population of 14,700. The town has a historic center with a well preserved town wall, a Gothic church with the highest wooden altar in the wo ...

. In the years 1670 to 1780, new editions were published in various languages, with upgraded both pictures and text content. ''Orbis Pictus'' had a long-lasting influence on children's education. It was a precursor of both audio-visual techniques and the

lexical Lexical may refer to: Linguistics * Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language * Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification * Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge * Lexic ...

approach in language learning. In 1930

Otto Neurath Otto Karl Wilhelm Neurath (; 10 December 1882 – 22 December 1945) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist. He was also the inventor of the ISOTYPE method of pictorial statistics and an innovator in m ...

claimed that images in ''Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft'' constituted a new ''Orbis Pictus''.

References

External links

Online selections from Orbis Pictus in Latin
* * At Internet Archive, the first American from the twelfth London edition, 1810. https://archive.org/details/orbissensualiump00come/page/n5/mode/2up * - translation by

Charles Hoole Charles Hoole (1610–1667) was an English cleric and educational writer. He produced a visually-improved English translation of the ''Orbis Pictus'' of Comenius, a year after its original publication in 1658. Life The son of Charles Hoole of Wak ...

, at Google Book Search
Orbis sensualium pictus trilinguis. Latin, German and Hungarian, 1708

''Orbis sensualium pictus trilinguis''
Leutschoviae : Typis Samuelis Brewer, Anno Salutis 1685. 484 s. - - available at ULB's Digital Library
''Orbis Pictus, in hungaricum et germanicum translatus''
Po'sonban: Weber, 19. stor. 172 s. - available at ULB's Digital Library
''Orbis pictus von Amos Comenius''
ürnberg .n. 1770. 263 s. - available at ULB's Digital Library {{Authority control Books by John Amos Comenius Children's encyclopedias 1658 books Illustrated books Latin encyclopedias Czech encyclopedias German encyclopedias Hungarian encyclopedias Italian-language encyclopedias French encyclopedias Multilingual texts 17th-century encyclopedias John Amos Comenius 17th-century Latin books

Contents

History

See also

References

External links