History of ORBIS PICTUS

A language textbook

In Comenius’ time Latin was a language of international culture and a means opening the way to higher education. J. A. Comenius was looking for a way of learning that language more quickly so that more time might be left for objective education. Comenius’ teaching experience, his experience with the then text-books and their critical assessment led him to the conclusion that a useful textbook of a language could furnish a learner with the command of the language as well as the information concerning the real world. He therefore chose about 7 300 most important words and using them formed one thousand sentences which he compiled into one hundred lessons. That is why Ianua linguarum reserata appeared in Leszno in 1631, originally with a Latin text only. But Comenius conceived the mother tongue to be the mediating language. The Polish translation soon appeared and Comenius himself provided the Czech version under the title The open gate to languages.

Reprint of the title page of 1658

Although Ianua was considerably successful in the world, it was too exacting, thus too difficult for beginners. Therefore Comenius produced a textbook that was substantially more moderate and gave it a peculiar name Ianuae linguarum reserate vestibulum (The vestibule of the gate open to languages).

Comenius’ Orbis sensualium pictus can be considered an attainment of the top of work on his language textbooks. This most successful and best known work is a shortened text of Ianua and it was intended as a preparation for work with both Vestibulum and Ianua.

The commonly used name of this famous work, Orbis pictus, is an abbreviated title lacking in the author’s intention an important addition that it is the world of sensually comprehended or sensually perceived objects and phenomena that is to be presented. Comenius explained this intention clearly and expressly in his foreword to that work. “The main thing is for sensual objects to be rightly presented to the senses first in order that they may be made comprehensible... One can neither act nor speak wisely unless one understands rightly all that one is to do or speak about. Now, there is nothing in our understanding that has not been in our senses. Exercising our senses in correct perception of differences between things means laying the foundations for all wisdom, all wise discourse and all wise acts in life”. Comenius thus attempted to link every expression that man gains by learning with perception and understanding the object or phenomenon given by its denomination. He therefore stressed the part of hearing, sight, taste and touch in teaching languages and demanded that the pupil could show in both a picture and in reality what he had named and could also draw.

Orbis sensualium pictus is thus the most consistent application of Comenius didactic views to teaching languages. Orbis originality consists in the fact that each chapter is introduced by a picture relating to the theme that is dealt with, and the texts and illustrations of the individual objects and phenomena are interrelated with the help of numerical references. (...)

Orbis pictus as a reflection of Comenius’ philosophic views

Orbis sensualium pictus is not only the culmination of the didactic efforts of the author, it also represents an important part of his pansophic striving. It is thus also a reflection of his philosophical views. Comenius always strove for education to be full and coherent. Therefore he also conceived that language textbook as a sensually accessible encyclopedia and he even considered first naming it Encyclopedia sensualium or also lucidarium. The title of Orbis sensualium pictus was thus added later in order to be more comprehensible to the children thanks to its imagery. (...)

Comenius as a philosopher based his views on the God-given order and he was convinced that man had his place in that order.

Man’s mission in this world is his cooperation in the direction towards the highest end. Comenius laid stress on man’s activity, his creative ability of selfimprovement. Like none before him he realized that human labor and human creative activity were of a high value.

The way to the users of the work

Specimen of the Nuremberg edition of 1658

The way of Comenius’ work to the reader was in no way easy or swift. Comenius had his Latin text of the work ready as early as during his stay in Hungary in Sarospatak (1650–1654), where he had been invited by the Hungarian nobility to help with the educational reform. For the Hungarian printing houses there it was not easy to produce the pictures, and the Hungarian text parallel to the Latin text was not ready in time either. Comenius then sent the Leszno text to Michael Endter, a printer in Nuremberg. That happened before the well-known fire that destroyed all the other Comenius’ manuscripts. This is how Orbis pictus was saved. Endter fitted the Latin text with a German translation by Sigismond von Birken. Orbis sensualium pictus thus appeared for the first time in Nuremberg in two languages in 1650. Thanks to the success of the work its second edition appeared as soon as 1659 and a number of further editions followed, also in four languages with Italian and French translations, and in three languages with a Hungarian translation. In its Latin and German version Orbis pictus spread quickly as a textbook in the towns of Northern and Central Germany. Orbis sensualium pictus also found quickly its way to England and there it quickly became highly favoured. As early as 1659 Orbis pictus was edited in London with a very interesting preface by Charles Hoole, who welcomed it as the realization of his own thoughts. Other English translations are also well-known. The twelfth edition, which appeared thanks to William Jones, was printed in 1798 in New York. Orbis pictus became a much used and popular textbook in Denmark and Sweden. Its long life and effectiveness were also due to its being adopted and enlarged according to the actual needs. Its worldwide popularity culminated in the years 1670–1680.

The spread of Orbis pictus in Poland was mainly due to the town Wroclaw. Thanks to the care of Kaspar Müller it appeared first in the year 1667 in Latin, French, German and Polish translations. Many editions in three languages, including Polish, appeared later and there also existed an edition in two languages, in Latin and Polish. The editors in Hungary and Transylvania based their later activity on Endter’s Latin, German and Hungarian versions. The Orbis’ Czech text was based on the edition in four languages from the year 1685 printed by Samuel Brewer’s printing house in Levoča. In that well-known edition the Latin, German and Hungarian texts are followed by a fourth text, which is a mixture of not only Czech and Central Slovak linguistic elements, but also a number of Eastern Slovak elements similar to Polish, and even the Polish elements themselves. The peculiar character of this text representing the preparatory phase of literary Slovak can be due to the collective work on its genesis, the stay of one of the authors, most probably Daniel Horčička-Sinapius, in various lingual regions, and partly also due to the intervention by the typesetter etc. In that edition the Latin title of Orbis sensualium pictus was translated as The visible world. The engravings were made by Jonáš Bubenka. The work was then again edited in 1728, but with the text corrected in the direction towards scriptural Czech. That correction by Jiří Bahyl represents the first actual Czech text.

The first Russian translation of Orbis pictus appeared during the reign of Peter the Great. It was intended to serve the Moscow College but it remained in manuscript and is deposited in Peterburg library of the Academy of Sciences. The first well-preserved edition of Orbis pictus with a Russian text appeared in the year 1760 in five languages under the title of Видимый светъ, That was the first editorial act of the newly-founded Moscow University at M. V. Lomonosov’s instance.

The assertion of Orbis in Austria was impossible for a long time. It was P. Gracian Marx, a piaristic pedagogue, who finally deserved credit for the edition of the work in 1756 as well as for its usage as a grammar school textbook. The text contained 82 chapters of the original Nuremberg edition. A Czech version was also sanctioned, which appeared only once in the year 1779. Other versions were based on Marx’s selection. As far as the Czech language is concerned the importance rests with the edition by Jan Szombathy, teacher at the grammar school in Sarospatak, who added the Hungarian text to the Latin and German texts in the 1793 and 1806 editions, and also a Czech text in the 1820 edition. In Hungary and Transylvania Orbis’ tradition lasted as long as till the nineteenth century.

The representation for schools from 1870

Beside the ways medicated via Hungary and Vienna the particular importance rested with Orbis’ third way to Bohemia – from the Polish Wroclaw. There the publisher was in contact with the German Endters. When the Endters ceased to be interested in editing Orbis, they sold the engravings with the second set of printing blocks to printer Wilhelm Bog. Korn, who edited Orbis in Latin, French, German and Polish languages in 1805 and 1818. In the time of the National Revival the second edition got into the hands of Josef Chmel, a grammar school teacher in Hradec Králové. The idea of giving the Czech reader Comenius’ work gripped Chmel so that he himself produced a new Czech translation and persuaded Jan Hostivít Pospíšil, a publisher, to edit it. They bought the printing blocks from the Wroclaw based printer and thus a new edition in Latin, German, Czech, Polish and French was published in Hradec Králové in the year 1833. Thanks to the deliberate effort of both the editor and the publisher, who succeeded in winning a considerable number of subscribers, Orbis sensualium pictus spread finally even into a wider Czech reading public. In four months 5 300 copies were sold. The Pospíšils continued editing Orbis even later in Hradec Králové and in Prague although without the Po1ish translation.

Orbis’ vitality was immense. It even found its way to technical and commercial colleges as a Czech and German conversation textbook. Under the name of Orbis pictus the work was edited in Czech and German translations by František Patočka, a grammar school teacher in Tábor. The pictures were provided by Jan Koštěnec, a teacher at technical schools in Pardubice, and the whole work was edited by L. Kober in Prague in the year 1870. Patočka’s version was relatively very largely adapted, particularly as far as the parts on agricultural machines, railway, factory etc. are concerned. All this points to the practical and up-to-date usage of the handbook: “... in oder that the students may get knowledge in the branches of farming, industry, as well as to learn correctly the Czech names existing there, and secondly to learn those names in German on the basis of that knowledge.” Pictures are only where they are indispensable to understanding the text.

A specimen of Comenius’ manuscript

Orbis pictus is an interesting document of active contacts with South Slavonic culture. It was edited by J. Beneš in Český Brod as a new polyglot under the title of Свет у сликама in Serbian, Czech, German and French languages. The edition had no date and it had no Latin text. Its main purpose was explained by the translator into Serbian, Jovan M. Popovic, in his introductory letter. He explained that it was his aim for the Serbs to easily learn Czech and for the Czechs to learn Serbian. That was also why the work was edited with instructions on pronunciation and accentuation of the Czech language. The introduction is dated 1913. The edition that was ready as early as in 1914 was however confiscated during the First World War. Its reprint and delivery to Serbia were effected as late as after the war. This version of Orbis, which should have served the cognizance and practical mastering of two Slavonic languages, is an end of our using Orbis as a language textbook. The following editions are thus only monuments of culture or sources of scientific work.

In 1929 Orbis pictus appeared in Brno end the tenth volume of Jan Amos Comenius’ complete works. That was a critical edition prepared by Hertvík Jarník with a comprehensive study of the external history of the work.

Referring to Comenius’ intention of Orbis serving the primary schools as a reader and a textbook of elementary teaching the lovers of cultural monuments were expected to use Orbis’ single-lingual Czech edition from the year 1941. It was to have been an act of commemoration of and reverence for J. A. Comenius on the occasion of the 270th anniversary of his death, as well for the work of the Revivalists Josef Chmela and Jan Hostivít Pospíšil. The Czech text based on Chmela’s translation was prepared and partly modernized by František Oberpfalcer. It was edited with J. Hendrich’s introduction by František Borový in Prague.

Thanks to the graphical layout by F. Muzika as well as the successful usage of old blocks, which J. H. Pospíšil had bought in Wroclaw, the book thus resulted in a work respectably representing our national culture and strengthening the national self-confidence in the time of the occupation of the country.

Illustration from the Nuremberg edition 1658

The jubilee readers’ edition celebrating the 350th anniversary of Comenius’ death was relatively much spread in this country. It was edited by František Strnad in Prague, King’s Vineyards, as the eighth volumme of the library named Rosy Green with Latin, German and Czech texts and with the chapter on the Jewish religion excluded, under the editorial supervision by Antonín Dolanský.

The photolithographic four-lingual reprint of the Levoča edition from 1685 is the jubilee edition of the State Pedagogic Publishing House in Prague, which appeared in 1958 as the first, and in 1979 as the second unaltered edition. Its important part is the postscript by the expert Jiřina Popelová.

A two-lingual Latin and German Orbis sensualium pictus was edited by the publishing house of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in 1970 as the seventeenth part of the great scientific edition of the Works of Jan Amos Komenský (J.A. Comenii Opera omnia). That critical edition appeared thanks to Jaromír Červenka (the Latin text) and Stanislav Králík (the German text), who based their work on the Nuremberg editions from the years 1659 and 1662. The afterword was written by Marta Bečková. (...)

The newly adapted and enlarged edition by MACHART (2012), the publishing house, was complemented with Comenius’ Latin text from the Nuremberg edition, which had appeared in a critical edition in ACADEMIA, a publishing house, in 1970. Chapters were added characterizing the ideational bases of their author (God, the world, the senses, virtues and religions). The graphical design is completely new. The Latin text, as the basic text, follows separately, immediately below the corresponding pictures. The mutations of the text in the living languages are led by the tendency to correspond to the contemporary mode of expression.

Naděžda Kvítková