more.”[1] Happily for the Leipzig boys he overcame his contempt for school-book compilation, and has left us a book which, apart from its educational merits at the time, is now invaluable as a record of the student manners and morals of the sixteenth century.
Of a different character are the Colloquies of Schottenius, published in 1535.[2] Schottenius was a private schoolmaster at Cologne, and his dialogues, though written in poor Latin, are more natural than the somewhat stilted phraseology of Mosellanus. The subject-matter also is different. Mosellanus treats of the poor student at his wits’ end for food and lodging. The pupils of Schottenius are the sons of rich citizens of Cologne. They eat and drink, and talk about their food on all occasions, now and then lapsing into expressions of disgust at the spy who carries word to the master that they are not talking Latin, or at the flogging that they know will follow this breach of the rules.
The story of the Colloquies does not end here. Louvain supplies its quotum in the Dialogues of Barland.[3] These were partly composed for a gentleman of position who wished to renew his acquaintance with the Latin language, but were doubtless used in schools as well. Not being written expressly for boys, they deal with scenes outside school life, and in their pages innkeepers, canons, and merchants figure more largely than pedagogues.
In short, with the exception of England, there is scarcely a country in Europe but made some addition to the library of scholastic conversation. Even in the newly-conquered Mexico, the Colloquies established themselves as an adjunct of polite learning. Francis Cervantes Salazar, Professor of Rhetoric in the University of Mexico, published an edition of Vives’ Exercitationes in 1554, and added to them seven
- ↑ Pædologia. Preface; quoted by Massebieau, p. 83.
- ↑ ‘Colloquia moralia ex variis philosophorum dictis condita, per quæ stulta juventus sapere possit et eam prosequi prudentiam quam senibus contulit longævitas’ (Mass. p. 116).
- ↑ ‘Dialogi xlii. per Hadrianum Barlandium, ad profligandam e scholis barbariem utilissimi. Coloniæ apud Eucharium, anno 1530.’ (Mass.)
