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A Pedagogical Treatise of Marnix de Sainte-Aldegonde: The Ratio Instituendae Iuventutis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Robert M. E. De Rycke*
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee

Extract

William the Taciturn's right hand, Marnix, Sieur de Ste. Aldegonde, is best known for his religious satire La Ruche, which is the author's own translation of De Bienkorf, wherein Catholics are mercilessly satirized for their superstition and rapacity. Considerably less well known is his educational treatise for princelings, written in 1584, but published only in 1615 by Sixtus Arcerius, a lecturer at the University of Franeker in Friesland. There are only three known copies extant, one of which is at the University Library of Leyden, one in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and one in the Royal Library in Brussels. The work first became available to the public when Marnix's collected works were published in 1857–1860 by Van Meenen and Lacroix, whose translation in French is not always accurate, although it gives us enough of an idea what Marnix's intentions were.

Type
Notes and Documents
Copyright
Copyright © 1970 History of Education Quarterly 

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References

Notes

1. de Marnix, Philippe, Seigneur de Sainte-Aldegonde, Oeuvres (Bruxelles, 1857–1860), 8 volumes. The text of the Ratio is in volume 7, pp. 18–107.Google Scholar

2. ”Errant enim, meo quidem iudicio, non leviter, qui linguae latinae pueros usque eo mancipant, ut eis lingua materna, cuius in rebus gerendis maximus ac praecipuus est usus, penitus interdicant, eoque efficiant, ut dum aliena lingua diserti haberi student, in sua plane infantes ac prope etiam ridiculi fiant.”Google Scholar

3. ”… copiose, graviter, acute atque ornate, a latinis autem pleraque ieiune ac tenuiter, nonnulla barbare ac spinose, paucissima certe accurate ac plane sint tradita.”Google Scholar

4. ”Iudicium est in veri perspicientia, eius denique a falso discriminatione versatur, causas rerum videt, eas denique inter se nectit, ex praeteritis praesentia colligit, futura ex praesentibus prope indubitata coniectura prospicit, similitudines comparat, discrepantias diiudicat, composita secernit, seiuncta aequabili ac rata proportione connectit, abstrusa ratiocinando investigat, et quidquid denique humana prudentia consequi potest, id haec una mentis vis, quam iudicii ac ratiocinationis nomine intelligimus, pro modum complectitur. Ac proinde in rebus humanis principem locum obtinet, et in omni conciliorum ac prudentiae ratione, sola, quod aiunt, utramque paginam facit. Etenim sive tecum agas quid, sive cum alio quavis de re disseras, sive in senatu aliove quovis consessu, sententiam dicas, seu de re militari vel forensi, vel denique publica vel privata quippiam statuas, bono ac sincero iudicio vel imprimis certe opus est. Quodsi adhibueris, quarum rerum est tractatio, earumdem solers ac peritus sin minus rudis atque expers, ne dicam excors habeberis.”Google Scholar

5. ”Hoc enim praeter quod stylum mirifice format, simulque aurium iudicium acuit, ut gravem, plenam ac numerosam orationem a ieiuna atque inculta et aspera possint secernere: etiam ad rerum ac sententiarum ubertatem et ad parandum iudicii acumen quam plurimum conducit.”Google Scholar

6. ”Observabit itaque bonus moderator adolescentium singulorum indolem quam poterit exactissime, et pro eius ratione, seueritatis contentione, remissioneque utetur. Statuet autem imprimis quidquid lenitate et clementia consequi possit, id nulla esse acerbitate neque saevitia conquaerendum et quidquid verbis, cohortatione, laudeque ac vituperatione possit efficere, id neque virgis, neque ferulis aut plagis debere extorqueri.”Google Scholar