[Sca-cooks] literacy in the MA

[Stefan li Rous]

Anne said:
> However, the other story
> persists. It seems to hang on from the time when all copies were in
> Latin, because anyone could read had read Latin. Literacy began to
> spread, and speeded up with the printing press, and suddenly you had
> many people who read their own language, but not Latin... It did take
> the church a bit long to catch up with that social change. But reading
> was still not forbidden, just not made as easy as it might have been.

I don't believe this is strictly true. Many folks in the Middle Ages
could read their own language but not Latin. Also, many could read
(Latin or their native language) but not write it. It seems unusual
now when reading and writing are taught together, but even in the
last century their were folks who could read but not write.

I believe the count for those who were literate also gets confused
because to some "literate" meant able to read Latin, while to others
it meant to read any language.

For a bit more on this, take a look at this file in the EDUCATION
section of the Florilegium:
literacy-msg      (17K)  1/27/92    Literacy levels in the Middle Ages.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/EDUCATION/literacy-msg.html

And this one in the NICOLAA'S ARTICLES section:
per-literacy-art   (8K)  7/26/94    Would your persona have been literate?
http://www.florilegium.org/files/NICOLAA/per-literacy-art.html
--
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****