Orbis Sensualium Pictus

Johann Amos Comenius, 1592-1670.

Orbis Sensualium Pictus translated as "The Visible World" or "The World Around Us in Pictures" was the first European schoolbook based on the idea of visual education. Each page consists of a picture of some subject or object and, underneath, a bilingual Latin-English text which in simple terms explains the image. Originally published in German and Latin in Nuremberg in 1654, the book was available to both adults and children. Used as a picture book by young children and a Latin textbook by older students, Orbis Sensualium Pictus was reprinted until well into the nineteenth century.

 

 

"Science, or the knowledge of nature, consists of an internal perception, and needs the same essentials as the external percep- tion, namely the eye, an object, and light. If these be given, perception will follow. The eye of the inner perception is the mind or the understanding, the object is all that lies within or without our apprehension, while the light is the necessary attention."

"He, therefore, who wishes to show anything to another at night must provide light, and must polish the object so that it shines; and in the same way a master, if he wishes to illuminate with knowledge, a pupil shrouded in the darkness of ignorance, must first excite his attention, that he may drink-in information with a greedy mind."

shiralee saul 2002

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