Abstract:

The textbook is defined by its use in educational environments: in schools of different levels, in tutorials at home, or in universities. Any change in these environments also had an effect on the educational material employed: the fate of religion, the curriculum of Latin schools, the politics of towns, or the death of one teacher were all important for what was taught and how texts were implemented in class. One of the most significant changes, however, took place outside the confines of the learning environment: the advent of the printing press in the second half of the fifteenth century had a massive influence on the production and use of textbooks in all disciplines. From about 1480, five striking innovations in teaching affected the production and use of philosophical textbooks in academic environments. All of them were supported by the advent of the printing press. First, teachers figured more and more as authors and commentators in their own right. Second, new forms of organization created new formats of textbooks. Third, reference books such as compendia and encyclopedias were not only written for every discipline, but they were also enhanced with illustrations. Fourth, students started to comment on and distribute their teachers' lectures, and some of these editions then featured as the next generation of textbooks. Finally, with mathematics and physics branching out into experimental fields from the second half of the sixteenth century, mathematical and mechanical tools and chemical devices were discussed in lectures, creating new sets of illustrated manuals as textbooks.

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