Church,” he says, “that boys be rightly instructed in grammar! . . . How many grievous errors I might relate that have wrought great havoc in the Church, and that have arisen solely from ignorance of grammar!” More than this, grammar is made an indispensable preliminary to knowledge of any kind. “A defective grounding in grammar leads to a most impudent misuse of other studies.”[1]
Melanchthon was not without competitors. We find Vives[2] (1523) recommending Catherine of Aragon to get Thomas Linacre’s Grammar for her daughter Mary; and elsewhere[3] he says that any one may be selected from among those of Perottus, Aldus, Nebrissensis, Mancinella, Sulpitus, Melanchthon, and Ninivita. The Grammar of the last mentioned, who is better known as Despauter,[4] was for a long time in vogue, both in France and in Germany. An abridged edition was brought out by Sebastian of Duisburg in 1534, and was used in Scotland as late as 1637.[5] It is greatly inferior to Melanchthon’s Grammar, and burdens the mind of the student with an inordinate quantity of mnemonic verses.[6] It is surprising to what an extent the notion prevailed that grammar should be made as complex as possible. Few scholars would care to name off-hand the seven genders in Latin, yet this was the number commonly
- ↑ Qui non recte Grammaticen didicerunt, postea cæteras disciplinas audacissime corrumpunt.
- ↑ Opera, vol. i. p. 5. Buchanan also recommended Linacre’s Grammar, and brought out a Latin translation of it, printed at Paris in 1533.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 10.
- ↑ His full name was Joannes Despauterius Ninivita. He flourished in Holland, 1460–1520.
- ↑ I have before me a copy entitled, ‘Joan. Despauterii Ninivitæ, Grammaticæ Institutiones, Lib. vii. Docte et concinne in compendium redacti, per Sebastianum Duisburgensem, multo quam antea castigatiores. Edinburgi. Sumptibus Hæredum Andreæ Hart. Julii 25. Anno 1637.’
- ↑ The following are good examples, taken from the rules for the 3rd declension:—
Tertia dat varios fines, dans is genitivo,
Græcorum patrius vel in os, vel in i vel in us fit.or
Em dat et im buris, pelvis cum clave securis
Et puppis, turris, restis: sic febris, æqualis,
Sic pestis, navis, tor quis conjunge bipennim.
