Orbis Pictus

A late 18th-century reprint of Orbis Pictus, published in Pressburg (Bratislava).

Orbis Pictus, or Orbis Sensualium Pictus (The Visible World in Pictures) is a textbook for children written by Czech educator Comenius and published in 1658. It is something of a children's encyclopedia and is considered to be the first picture book intended for children.^[1]

Contents

The book is divided into chapters illustrated by woodcuts, which are described in the accompanying text. The book has 150 chapters and covers a wide range of subjects:

• inanimate nature
• botanics
• zoology
• religion
• humans and their activities

History

Plaque commemorating the publication of Orbis Pictus in Levoča

Originally published in Latin and German in 1658 in Nuremberg, the book soon spread to schools in Germany and other countries. The first English edition was published in 1659. The first quadrilingual edition (in Latin, German, Italian and French) was published in 1666. The first Czech translation was published in the 1685 quadrilingual edition (together with Latin, German and Hungarian), by the Breuer publishing house in Levoča. In the years 1670–1780, new editions were published in various languages, with upgraded both pictures and text content.

Orbis Pictus had a long-lasting influence on children's education. It was a precursor of both audio-visual techniques and the lexical approach in language learning.^[2]

See also

Children's literature portal

• Comenius

External links

• Online Orbis Pictus in Latin
• orbis sensualium pictus - translation by Charles Hoole Published 1777 online at Google Book Search
• Online Orbis Sensualium Pictus in Latin and English Audio

References

1. ^ Epstein, Connie C. (1991). The Art of Writing for Children. Archon Books. p. 2. ISBN 0-208-02297-X. 
2. ^ "Learning from Comenius - the pedagogical underpinnings of the Orbis Pictus". http://www.teflideas.com/2011/05/14/learning-comenius/.