Think how boring it would be to live in a world where no children's books existed. But such a world did exist, and relatively recently. Not only children's books, but also playgrounds and even children's clothes did not exist in this world. Why? Because.
Welcome to a world without children - the creepy world of small adults. If you've ever seen medieval paintings, you've probably noticed that the children in them are kind of weird. For example, in the painting Peter Bruegel the Elder "Children's Games", painted in 1560, children look like adult dwarfs ... Nowadays, a large family - a great rarity, usually in a family of one or two children.
In the Middle Ages, having many children was the norm, some women even gave birth 20 times - but due to the lack of medicines and normal medicine, dirt, lack of healthy food and clean water, not all children survived.
Try to imagine that thirty people entered the first class and even less than ten lived to the last. In the Middle Ages this was the order of the day. Out of 20 children, at most two (and sometimes none) lived to the age of 18.
Nowadays, children are protected and cared for. A thousand years ago, no one would have even thought to surround a child with any special care - it was still unknown whether it would survive or not, so why bother with it? Children were dressed like adults, they ate and drank the same things as adults; peasant children were put to work at the age of 5-6, and were forced to work equally with everyone else, as long as they had enough strength.
The surviving court and church records preserve records that make one cringe:
- Elizabeth, age 5, was helping her mother in the kitchen, knocked over a pot of boiling water and died;
- James, age 5, was sent to the well to fetch water, fell into it and drowned;
- Edwin, age 6, was helping his father in the field and was killed by a horse.
The children of the nobility had a slightly easier life - instead of hard peasant work, they were expected to undergo equally hard and dangerous military training. Adulthood came very early - at the age of 12 a boy was already considered a full-fledged member of the community, that is, he was considered an adult, had full administrative and criminal responsibility, took part in wars, paid taxes and so on. Girls were married at the same age.
Nowadays, no one doubts that every child is a person, albeit a small one. In those days, children were considered by law to be the property of their parents (primarily the father) - on a par with pets. A father could practically throw away, sell or even kill his child with impunity.
It doesn't make sense, does it? There was a fine for killing someone else's child, but no penalty for killing one's own. The legacy of this cruel time, by the way, has survived in European languages. In both Russian and German, the word for "child", "das Kind", is the middle gender, it is "it", not "he" or "she".
You see, with such an attitude of society towards children, no one would ever think of sewing special clothes for children or building a children's entertainment center. And even writing children's books or compiling children's libraries.....
In those days, literacy was the privilege of priests and monks. Even kings and princes could not always read - why should they? The king of that time had to be able to win wars, subdue rebellions, and seize new lands; he had no time for reading.
However, everything in the world gradually changes - and the harsh world of the Middle Ages gradually became more civilized. A decisive role in this was played by the
Crusades: rough European knights discovered the world of the Arabian East - a world where education, culture and refined manners were valued no less than strength and bravery in battle.
Kings, counts and barons sat down at books and ordered to "teach different arts" to their children - that's when the very first children's books appeared in Europe, first handwritten and then printed. What do you think the first children's book was? Alphabet? Fairy tales? A Bible? No. Not fairy tales, not the alphabet, not even the Bible. By the way, the Bible in Europe was only in Latin, which not everyone knew.
In the late Middle Ages, behavior - what we call "good manners" - became highly valued in the upper classes. It was then that the saying arose that "what distinguishes a noble man from a commoner is not his clothes, but his education".
In those times, it was customary to send children from noble families at the age of 6-7 to serve a nobleman - the children had to run various errands, serve at the table, escort guests, take part in court ceremonies, and at the same time learn good manners. The first children's books were written for such little henchmen and maids of honor.
For example, a book called On Politeness was published around 1450. This book was used as a page at the court of Prince Edward (later King Edward IV) to teach Thomas Howard, the future Duke of Norfolk. An even earlier book is a children's poem published in 1430 called "The Boy Standing by the Table". There is a book from 1477 called "Lytyl John or the Book of courtesy", translated as "Little John, or the Book of courtesy". And a book called "Simon's Wisdom Lessons for Children" published in 1500.
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Unfortunately, all these books have reached us only in reprints of the XIX century, the originals have not survived - you bet, almost 600 years have passed since then! What are these books about? A modern reader would probably call them "Rules of Behavior", even though they are written in verse.
First of all, the child is instructed how to behave with the lord, i.e. the master of the castle: "Do not be verbose in speech, as the time demands, do not make an expression of face Neither happy nor sad, and equally between them in loss, and in mirth, and on every occasion. Be moderately meek, patient, and obedient. Excessive meekness does not adorn a gentleman. It is unseemly for a child to be vindictive, But it is proper to forgive offenses and not to fight."
Of course, a lot of attention was paid to proper behavior at the table: "Do not leave the bread you have taken a bite of, do not leave the soup loudly - this is avoided by any noble man. If your mouth is full of food, do not grasp your goblet. Don't dip your fingers in wine or beer. Do not stain the tablecloth in a hurry, and if meat is served, do not pick your knife in your teeth. The most delicious pieces - remember this forever - do not choose from the table all for yourself, share with your companions, behave well-mannered and do not pile a lot of food on your tray".
Children were instructed, under threat of severe punishment, to treat their belongings with care: "Preserve your book, your hat and your gloves, and all the things that belong to you.
If you don't do it, it's a bad thing, and you're punished with a birch on your bare bottom." (Symon's lesson of wysedome for chyldren).
Special attention was paid to relations with comrades: "A well-mannered person should not rudely accuse someone of something. Do not reproach your comrades for old offenses. Be polite with them, do not be the first to start a quarrel, for your own good to solve all matters in peace. In children's games fun is replaced by argument, But in children's quarrels there must be no cruelty. Now they play, and afterward they cry, and often in the same room."
The book taught that in his free time a child should do "decent things" - that is, read a book, play the lute or harp, sing, dance. "Rude" and "obscene" games, such as wrestling, running, climbing trees and throwing stones, were strictly forbidden: "My advice: if you have free time, Play only decent games, not those played by commoners. I give you advice, child, and if you do not listen to it, nothing will save you, believe me, from a treat with your pants down".
The most severe punishment in those times was not, however, flogging. Much more terrible was to be "dismissed from the court", when for bad manners and inability to behave a page was sent back to his parents. For a nobleman, even a small one, the greatest shame was if he was compared to a "rustic woman" who "can neither step nor speak".
It is not without reason that the Old English word "villain", i.e. "villan, peasant", later came to mean "scoundrel, villain": "only villans swear loudly", "only villans speak obscenities", "only villans blow their nose loudly and spit".
Boys who successfully passed the "court school" became squires at the age of 12-14, and later received a knighthood. Finally, they would return home and serve as models of politeness for their entourage; thus, over the course of several centuries, manners and good manners gradually came to encompass virtually the entire nobility, from kings and queens to poor country gentry.
Back to books, however. For a very long time,
narrative books like the ones we've described were the only genre for children. The world's first primer was published in 1530 in England, and it was called The BAC Bothe in Latyn and in Englysshe (The Alphabet Book in Latin and in English).
By the way, there were no pictures in this primer at all. The first primer in Russian was published in 1574 in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Poland), and in Moscow the first primer was printed only in 1634 by the scrivener Vasily Burtsev - but it was printed in two colors (a great luxury for that time), and it had several engraved illustrations.
In the same year, 1634, the Italian poet Giambattista Basile published the world's first collection of magical fairy tales, the Tale of Tales, or Pentameron. And in America, the first published children's book was the 1656 catechism (a book of religious teachings and instructions) Spiritual Milk for Children.