The Hartlib Circle was the correspondence network set up in Western and Central Europe by Samuel Hartlib , an intelligencer based in London, and his associates, in the period 1630 to 1660. Hartlib worked closely with John Dury , an itinerant figure who worked to bring Protestants together.
57-460: J. T. Young writes: At its nexus, it was an association of personal friends. Hartlib and Dury were the two key figures: Comenius , despite their best efforts, always remained a cause they were supporting rather than a fellow co-ordinator. Around them were Hübner , Haak , Pell , Moriaen , Rulise , Hotton and Appelius , later to be joined by Sadler , Culpeper , Worsley , Boyle and Clodius . But as soon as one looks any further than this from
114-474: A central Register of Addresses, Robinson argued, employers could find employees. In England, Robinson published several texts between 1643 and 1646 that were grounded in a secular, sceptical and Independent line, at a moment when the Presbyterian church threatened to impose its rigid and intolerant dogma. He advocated the "free trading of truth", and wrote that "no man can have a natural monopoly of truth". He
171-498: A doodle. During the 19th-century Czech National Revival , Czechs idealised Comenius as a symbol of the Czech nation . This image persists to the present day. The Czech Republic celebrates 28 March, the birthday of Comenius, as Teachers' Day . The University of Jan Amos Komenský was founded in Prague in 2001, offering bachelor's, master's and graduate degree programmes. Gate to Languages ,
228-521: A language in which false statements were inexpressible. In 1641, he responded to a request by the English parliament and joined a commission there charged with the reform of the system of public education. The English Civil War interfered with the latter project. According to Cotton Mather , Comenius was asked by Winthrop to be the President of Harvard University (this being more plausibly John Winthrop
285-580: A list of "advisers", and updated it. It included Jeremy Collier , Dury, Thomas Horne , Marchamont Nedham , John Pell , William Rand, Christian Ravius , Israel Tonge , and Moses Wall . The staff proposed for Durham College was influenced by the Circle's lobbying. John Hall was another associate who wrote on education. In the period 1648–50 many works on education appeared from Circle authors (Dury, Dymock, Hall, Cyprian Kinner , Petty, George Snell , and Worsley). A letter from Hartlib to John Milton prompted
342-484: A living and growing form of an encyclopedia, in which people could keep adding new information. The Office of address idea was promoted by Considerations tending to the happy Accomplishment of Englands Reformation in Church and State (1647), written by Hartlib and Dury, a pamphlet also including an ambitious tiered system of educational reform. There was a limited implementation, by Henry Robinson , in 1650. In 1660 Hartlib
399-678: A professor at the first Hungarian Protestant College; he wrote some of his most important works there. Comenius returned to Leszno. During the Deluge in 1655, he declared his support for the Protestant Swedish side, for which Polish Catholic partisans burned his house, his manuscripts , and the school's printing press in 1656. The manuscript of Pansophia was destroyed in the burning of his home in Leszno in 1657. From Leszno he took refuge in Amsterdam in
456-468: A project of lifelong education , taking place in the Czech Republic from October 2005 to June 2007 and aimed at language education of teachers, was named after his book Janua linguarum reserata (Gate to Languages Unlocked). Comenius is pictured on the 200 Czech koruna banknote . Asteroid 1861 Komenský , discovered by Luboš Kohoutek , is named in his honor. In Leszno , Poland , a local college
513-646: A request by the government of Sweden and traveled there to draw up a scheme for the management of the schools of that country, After his religious duties, Comenius's second great interest was in furthering the Baconian attempt at the organization of all human knowledge. He became one of the leaders in the encyclopædic or pansophic movement of the seventeenth century, and, in fact, was inclined to sacrifice his more practical educational interests and opportunities for these more imposing but somewhat visionary projects. In 1639, Comenius published his Pansophiæ Prodromus , and in
570-688: Is named after him. There is also square of his name nearby post Unity's of the Brethren church. In Poland, the Comenius Foundation is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the provision of equal opportunities to children under 10 years of age. In Sárospatak , Hungary , a teacher's college is named after him, which belongs to the University of Miskolc . Comenius' name has been given to primary schools in several German cities, including Bonn , Grafing , and Deggendorf . In Skopje , North Macedonia
627-492: The Book of Revelation , he promised the millennium in 1672 and guaranteed miraculous assistance to those who would undertake the destruction of the Pope and the house of Austria, even venturing to prophesy that Oliver Cromwell , Gustavus Adolphus , and George I Rákóczi , prince of Transylvania , would perform the task. He also wrote to Louis XIV of France, informing him that the empire of
SECTION 10
#1732852704687684-526: The Court of Justice of the European Union . The building houses many of the institution's translation services. The Italian film director Roberto Rossellini took Comenius, and especially his theory of "direct vision", as his model in the development of his didactic theories , which Rossellini hoped would usher the world into a utopian future. Comenius is a European Union school partnership program. In
741-728: The Czechoslovak government built a school after a catastrophic 1963 earthquake and named it after Comenius (Jan Amos Komenski in Macedonian ). In 1919 Comenius University was founded by an act of parliament in Bratislava , Czechoslovakia, now in Slovakia . It was the first university with courses in Slovak . The Comenius tower in Luxembourg was completed in 2008 as an addition to the headquarters of
798-1025: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , Transylvania , England , the Netherlands and Hungary . An offer to immigrate to the New England and take up the presidency of the newly founded Harvard University he turned down. John Amos Comenius was born in 1592 in the Margraviate of Moravia in the Bohemian Crown . His exact birthplace is uncertain and possibilities include Uherský Brod (as on his gravestone in Naarden ), Nivnice , and Komňa (from this village he took his surname, which means "a man from Komňa"), all of which are located in Uherské Hradiště District of today's Czech Republic . John
855-598: The ' Invisible College '. Scholarly attention has been paid to identifying this shadowy group. The social picture is not simplistic, since en masse Hartlib's contacts had fingers in every pie. Margery Purver concluded that the Invisible College coincided with the Hartlib-led lobbyists, those who were promoting to the Parliament the concept of an Office of Address. The effective lifetime of this idea has been pinned down to
912-761: The Bohemian Brethren and four years later became pastor and rector at Fulnek , one of its most flourishing churches. Throughout his life this pastoral activity was his most immediate concern. In consequence of the religious wars , he lost all his property and his writings in 1621. In 1627 he led the Brethren into exile when the Habsburg Counter-Reformation persecuted the Protestants in Bohemia. In 1628 he corresponded with Johann Valentin Andreae . He produced
969-589: The Comenian Society for the study and publication of his works was formed. The education department at Salem College in North Carolina has an annual Comenius Symposium dedicated in his honor; the subjects usually deal with modern issues in education. The Comenius Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charity which uses film and documentary production to further faith, learning, and love. Henry Robinson (writer) Henry Robinson (c. 1604 – c. 1664)
1026-511: The German academies of the period gave him a broad view of other methods and approaches, including those of Petrus Ramus , Bartholomäus Keckermann , and Jacobus Acontius . Further, the Hartlib Circle was tolerant of hermetic ideas; Hartlib himself had an interest in sigils and astrology . Boyle too attempted to straddle the opening divide between experimental chemistry and alchemy, by treating
1083-606: The Kloosterstraat, devoted to him. Next to the mausoleum is the Comenius Museum. For the greater part of the eighteenth century and early part of the nineteenth, there was little recognition of his relationship to the advance in educational thought and practice. However, the importance of the Comenian influence in education has been recognized since the middle of the nineteenth century. The practical educational influence of Comenius
1140-524: The Netherlands. He lived in the Huis met de Hoofden and taught his grandson Johann Theodor Jablonski as well as the young patricians Pieter de Graeff and Nicolaas Witsen . In 1659, Comenius produced a new edition of the 1618 Bohemian Brethren hymnal, Kancionál, to jest kniha žalmů a písní duchovních containing 606 texts and 406 tunes. In addition to revising the psalms and hymns, his revision greatly expanded
1197-454: The Saviour should dwell and rule. This teaching is also repeated in one of his last works, Unum Necessarium (Only One is Needed), where he shows various labyrinths and problems in the world and provides simple solutions to various situations. In this book he also admits that his former believing in prophecies and revelations of those days was his personal labyrinth where he got lost many times. He
SECTION 20
#17328527046871254-747: The United Kingdom, the University of Sheffield 's Western Bank Library holds the largest collection of Comenius manuscripts outside of the Czech Republic. He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Church in Germany on 16 November. In 1892, educators in many places celebrated the 300th anniversary of Comenius. Comenius Hall was built as the principal classroom and faculty office building on Moravian College 's campus in Pennsylvania, and
1311-770: The Younger than his father as junior Winthrop was in England) but in 1642, Comenius moved to Sweden instead to work with Queen Christina (reigned 1632–1654) and the chancellor Axel Oxenstierna (in office 1612–1654) on the task of reorganizing the Swedish schools. The same year he moved to Elbląg (Elbing) in Poland and in 1648 went to England with the aid of Samuel Hartlib , who came originally from Elbląg. In 1650 Zsuzsanna Lorántffy , widow of George I Rákóczi prince of Transylvania invited him to Sárospatak . Comenius remained there until 1654 as
1368-599: The area of freedom of publication were John Lilburne and John Saltmarsh , and John Goodwin . The production of pamphlets in 1644 arguing for toleration was part of the Independents' campaign against the rigid Presbyterians. Robinson was against religious coercion, and therefore against the setting-up of a new national church for England if the result was persecution. Toleration was apparently not to be extended to Roman Catholics . He wrote extensively on trade and economics, including advocacy for English trade policy during
1425-653: The book Janua linguarum reserata , or The Gate of Languages Unlocked , which brought him to prominence. However, as the Unity became an important target of the Counter Reformation politics, he was forced into exile even as his fame grew across Europe. Comenius took refuge in Leszno (Lissa) in Poland, where he led the gymnasium and, furthermore, was given charge of the Bohemian and Moravian churches. In 1638 Comenius responded to
1482-404: The centre, the lines of communication begin to branch and cross, threading their way into the entire intellectual community of Europe and America. It is a circle with a definable centre but an almost infinitely extendable periphery. Examples given of the "periphery" are John Winthrop and Balthazar Gerbier . Educational reform was topical and central to the pansophist programme. Hartlib compiled
1539-434: The child to introduce him to both the new language and the more remote world of objects; (4) giving the child a comprehensive knowledge of his environment, physical and social, as well as instruction in religious, moral, and classical subjects; (5) making this acquisition of a compendium of knowledge a pleasure rather than a task; and (6) making instruction universal "to all men and from all points of view". John Amos Comenius
1596-497: The connection between nature, religion, and knowledge, in which he stated that knowledge is born from nature and nature from God. Being lifelong proud of his origin from Moravia , he nevertheless for most of his life – mainly due to the difficult wartime circumstances in the homeland and fear from religious persecution – lived and worked as an exile in various regions of the Holy Roman Empire and other countries: Sweden ,
1653-404: The following year his English friend Hartlib published, without his consent, the plan of the pansophic work as outlined by Comenius. The pansophic ideas find partial expression in the series of textbooks he produced from time to time. In these, he attempts to organize the entire field of human knowledge so as to bring it, in outline, within the grasp of every child. Comenius also attempted to design
1710-450: The general theory of education. In this respect, he is the forerunner of Rousseau , Pestalozzi , Fröbel , etc., and is the first to formulate the idea of "education according to nature," which became consequential during the latter part of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth century. The influence of Comenius on education is comparable with that of his contemporaries, Bacon and Descartes , on science and philosophy. In fact, he
1767-576: The imprint of his stay in the Tuscan port city of Livorno . He was also much influenced by the Dutch example of tolerance and prosperity. A supporter of the Independent line in religion, against the orthodox Presbyterians , he was involved in controversy with William Prynne . In politics he with Henry Parker lent support in 1649 to Parliament in the debate over 'engagement' , an oath to be required affirming
Hartlib Circle - Misplaced Pages Continue
1824-824: The latter in a less esoteric way; he did distance himself to an extent from the Hartlib group on moving to Oxford around 1655. Both Boyle and William Petty became more attached to a third or fourth loose association, the group around John Wilkins , at this period, now referred to as the Oxford Philosophical Club . Wilkins was to be the founding Secretary of the Royal Society. John Amos Comenius John Amos Comenius ( / k ə ˈ m iː n i ə s / ; Czech : Jan Amos Komenský ; German : Johann Amos Comenius ; Polish : Jan Amos Komeński ; Latinized : Ioannes Amos Comenius ; 28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670)
1881-676: The legitimacy of the Parliamentary regime. In the same year he was appointed to government administrative positions, dealing with accounts and sale of crown lands, and in 1650 with farm rents and acting as secretary to the excise commissioners. In 1650 he set up as a business, though short-lived, an Office of Addresses and Encounters. It was in Threadneedle Street in London, and charged 6d. for answers to certain types of queries, concerning real estate and employment amongst other matters. There
1938-479: The middle of the seventeenth century. Comenius introduced a number of educational concepts and innovations including pictorial textbooks written in native languages instead of Latin, teaching based in gradual development from simple to more comprehensive concepts, lifelong learning with a focus on logical thinking over dull memorization, equal opportunity for impoverished children, education for women, and universal and practical instruction. He also believed heavily in
1995-455: The next century. It was also the first successful application of illustrations to the work of teaching youth (though not the first illustrated book for children, per se). The educational writings of Comenius comprise more than forty titles. These texts were all based on the same fundamental ideas: (1) learning foreign languages through the vernacular; (2) obtaining ideas through objects rather than words; (3) starting with objects most familiar to
2052-543: The number of hymns and added a new introduction. This edition was reissued several times, into the nineteenth century. His texts in Czech were notable poetic compositions, but he used tunes from other sources. He also edited the German hymnal Kirchen-, Haus- und Hertzens-Musica (Amsterdam, 1661), which had been published under the title Kirchengesänge since 1566. In other writings, Comenius addresses both instrumental and vocal music in many places, although he dedicated no treatise to
2109-639: The period 1647 to 1653, and as the second wave of speculation on the ideal society, after Comenius left England. In the later Interregnum the "Invisible College" might refer to a group meeting in Gresham College . According to Christopher Hill , however, the 1645 group (the Gresham College club that was convened from 1645 by Theodore Haak , certainly a Hartlibian) was distinct from the Comenian Invisible College. Lady Katherine Ranelagh , who
2166-460: The principle that every theory has to be functional in practical use, therefore it has to be didactic (i.e. morally instructive). In the course of his study he also became acquainted with the educational reforms of Ratichius and with the report of these reforms issued by the universities of Jena and Giessen . Comenius became rector of a school in Přerov. In 1616 he was ordained into the ministry of
2223-459: The topic. Sometimes he follows the medieval mathematical conception of music, but in other places he links music with grammar, rhetoric, and politics. Musical practice, both instrumental and vocal, played an important role in his system of education. He would die there, in Amsterdam, in 1670. For unclear reasons he was buried in Naarden , where visitors can see his grave in the mausoleum, located in
2280-535: The tract Of Education (1644), subtitled To Master Samuel Hartlib . But Milton's ideas were quite some way from those of the Comenians. Individuals involved with the Hartlib Circle played an important role in Sweden's scientific revolution, as they travelled to consult on educational and religious reform, as well as tutored Swedish students who were sent abroad. Robert Boyle referred a few times in his correspondence to
2337-462: The world should be his reward if he would overthrow the enemies of God. One of his daughters, Elisabeth, married Peter Figulus from Jablonné nad Orlicí . Their son, Daniel Ernst Jablonski (1660–1741), Comenius's grandson, later went to Berlin in 1693; there he became the highest official pastor at the court of King Frederick I of Prussia (reigned 1701–1713). There he became acquainted with Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf (1700–1760). Zinzendorf
Hartlib Circle - Misplaced Pages Continue
2394-408: Was Boyle's sister, had a London salon during the 1650s, much frequented by virtuosi associated with Hartlib. One of Hartlib's projects, a variant on Salomon's House that had more of a public face, was the "Office of Address" — he envisaged an office in every town where somebody might go to find things out. This might well be compatible with Baconian ideas, and a related public office scheme
2451-537: Was a Czech philosopher , pedagogue and theologian who is considered the father of modern education. He served as the last bishop of the Unity of the Brethren (direct predecessor of the Moravian Church ) before becoming a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education , a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica Magna . As an educator and theologian, he led schools and advised governments across Protestant Europe through
2508-557: Was a bishop of the Unity of the Brethren church that had its roots in the teaching of Czech reformer Jan Hus . One of his most famous theological works is the Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart . The book represents his thinking about the world being full of various useless things and complex labyrinths, and that the true peace of mind and soul can be found only in one's heart where Christ
2565-448: Was a free service for the poor. The creation of such an Office had been pushed for three years by Samuel Hartlib , who had lobbied for public funds for it. Robinson was an associate of Hartlib, and provided a limited implementation of a grand reformist scheme, which drew also on the French model of Théophraste Renaudot that had operated by then for 20 years. Through the simple provision of
2622-420: Was among the foremost successors to Comenius as a bishop (1737–1760) in the renewed Moravian Brethren 's Church. The Comenius Medal, a UNESCO award honouring outstanding achievements in the fields of education research and innovation, commemorates Comenius. Peter Drucker hailed Comenius as the inventor of textbooks and primers . On 28 March 2010, Google celebrated Jan Amos Komensky's 418th Birthday with
2679-535: Was an English merchant and writer. He is best known for a work on religious toleration , Liberty of Conscience from 1644. He was educated at St John's College, Oxford , and was a freeman of the Mercers' Company . He had travelled in continental Europe as a young man. He resided and worked as a merchant in Tuscany for a period of approximately five years between 1630 and 1635. Robinson’s economic and religious thought bore
2736-434: Was at work writing to John Evelyn , an important broker of the royal charter for the eventual Royal Society . He was, however, not promoting a purist Baconian model, but an "Antilia". This was the name chosen by Johann Valentin Andreae for a more hermetic and utopian fellowship. The proposal, which conformed to Comenian ideas as more compatible with pansophia or universal wisdom, was in effect decisively rejected. Hartlib
2793-431: Was greatly influenced by Boehme . In his Synopsis physicae ad lumen divinum reformatae , Comenius gives a physical theory of his own, said to be taken from the Book of Genesis . He was also famous for his prophecies and the support he gave to visionaries. In his Lux in tenebris he published the visions of Christopher Kotterus, Mikuláš Drabík (lat. Nicolaus Drabicius ) and Kristina Poniatowska . Attempting to interpret
2850-524: Was largely influenced by the works of these two men. This comparison is largely due to the fact that he first applied or attempted to apply in a systematic manner the principles of thought and investigation, newly formulated by those philosophers, to the organization of education in all its aspects. The summary of this attempt is given in the Didactica Magna , completed about 1631, though not published until several years later. The third aspect of influence
2907-467: Was mooted under James I (by Arthur Gorges and Walter Cope ). But the immediate inspiration was Théophraste Renaudot and his Paris bureau d'adresse . For example, at a practical level, Hartlib thought people could advertise job vacancies there — and prospective employees would be able to find work. At a more studious level, Hartlib wanted academics to pool their knowledge so that the Office could act as
SECTION 50
#17328527046872964-616: Was on the subject matter and method of education, exerted through a series of textbooks of an entirely new nature. The first-published of these was the Janua Linguarum Reserata (The Gate of Tongues Unlocked), issued in 1631. This was followed by a more elementary text, the Vestibulum , a more advanced one, the Atrium , and others. The Orbis Pictus , published in 1658, became one of the most renowned and widely circulated school books over
3021-547: Was one of a group of authors slightly ahead of John Milton in the arguments of Areopagitica against censorship. It has been said that there was essentially nothing in Milton's work that had not been anticipated by Robinson, William Walwyn , Roger Williams . According to recent research by David Adams, Milton’s Areopagitica was printed on a press owned by Robinson. The press also printed works advocating religious toleration by Welwyn and Williams. Other contemporaries writing in
3078-549: Was relying on a plan of Bengt Skytte , a son of Johan Skytte and knighted by Charles I, and the move was away from Bacon's clearer emphasis on reforming the natural sciences . Despite some critical voices, the Hartlib-Comenius trend was written out of the Royal Society from the beginning. Hartlib himself died shortly after the Society was set up. Hartlib was noted as a follower of Francis Bacon and Comenius, but his background in
3135-726: Was the youngest child and only son of Martin Komenský (died ca. 1602–4) and his wife Anna Chmelová. His grandfather, whose name was Jan (János) Szeges, was of Hungarian origin. He started to use the surname Komenský after leaving Komňa to live in Uherský Brod. Martin and Anna Komenský belonged to the Bohemian Brethren, a pre-Reformation Protestant denomination, and Comenius later became one of its leaders. His parents and two of his four sisters died in 1604 and young John went to live with his aunt in Strážnice . Owing to his impoverished circumstances he
3192-415: Was threefold. He was first a teacher and an organizer of schools, not only among his own people, but later in Sweden, and to a slight extent in Holland. In his Didactica Magna (Great Didactic), he outlined a system of schools that is the exact counterpart of the existing American system of kindergarten, elementary school, secondary school, college, and university. The second influence was in formulating
3249-550: Was unable to begin his formal education until later in life. He was 16 when he entered the Latin school in Přerov (he later returned to this school as a teacher 1614–1618). He continued his studies in the Herborn Academy (1611–1613) and the University of Heidelberg (1613–1614). In 1612 he read the Rosicrucian manifesto Fama Fraternitatis . Comenius was greatly influenced by the Irish Jesuit William Bathe as well as his teachers Johann Piscator , Heinrich Gutberleth , and particularly Heinrich Alsted . The Herborn school held
#686313