Magister Paul Schneevogels Latinum Ydeoma pro paruulis editum (ca. 1483). Ein lateinisches Gesprächsbüchlein für Kinder

Kritische Edition des Erstdrucks mit späteren Zusätzen des Autors

Abstract

Oliver Humberg: Master Paulus Niavis Latinum Ydeoma pro paruulis editum (ca. 1483). A Latin Conversation Book for Children. Critical Edition of theeditio princeps, with Later Additions from the Author
In the early 1480s, Leipzig university graduate Paulus Niavis, who due to necessity earned his income as a schoolmaster in Saxony, wrote five latina ydeomata, collections of Latin dialogues which were designed to lead his students to a deeper understanding of the Latin language by relating its use to their own life outside of class. Therefore, his sample dialogues, arranged as ›everydayscenes,‹ have a high value as sources for the history of late medieval life. In this paper I have bibliographically described all 55 extant editions and reconstructed their stemma, which divides into three streams of local printing traditions, of which the last witness is a Vienna edition dated to 1514.The following edition constitutes the ›ideal‹ textbook based on the editioprinceps (Leipzig ca. 1484) together with later authorial additions, which are marked by smaller typefaces. Seven chapters follow a young pupil from waking,washing and dressing, to praying on the way to school, where he must apologize to his masters before he may address them with several requests. Later he talks with his peers at school and plays in the churchyard, exchanges mutual accusations and paltry excuses with his classmates, and finally disputes about various topics after school.

Keywords: Latin school books, Latin conversation, early prints, German humanism