In fact, most of the evidence for literacy survives from the upper classes; uncovering the history of less privileged groups remains difficult. Medieval scholars commonly thought of childhood in three divisions: infantia birth to about 7 years , pueritia about 7 to 14 years , and adolescentia about 14 to 21 years.
Girls and boys began by learning the letters of the Latin alphabet and the sounds they made. Because reading was important to promote spiritual instruction, and had indeed been cited at least as far back as Jerome in the fourth century as a reason girls should be taught to read, some of the earliest texts learned were the Pater Noster , the Ave , and the Creed. Alphabets and these simple prayers could be written out on a variety of surfaces: boards, painted walls, wooden trays covered in ash or sand, ceramic or metal vessels, or hand-held tablets made of materials such as slate, horn, or board covered in parchment more on this below.
Beginning around in England, medieval parents had a model of teaching in St. Anne , the mother of the Virgin Mary. Depictions of her teaching Mary to read appeared in stained-glass windows, manuscript illuminations, wall paintings, and other artistic representations. Nicholas in Stanford-on-Avon , Northamptonshire, England. She holds the book open so the text is visible to the reader.
Her mother Anne points upward, in a gesture both teacherly and pointing heavenward, perhaps emphasizing the importance of reading for spiritual development. This beautifully-painted miniature from a Book of Hours shows Anne and a young Mary holding a book together. With her right hand, Anne isolates text for Mary to examine. Other surviving representations show Anne using a hornbook mentioned above to teach Mary to read. Though the hornbook was at least a medieval invention discussed recently by Erik Kwakkel and Trinity College, Cambridge, librarians , it survives only from early modern centuries, as in this example, created in London around The text is printed on sheepskin parchment and fixed to an oak paddle with a brass frame and iron nails; the handle is used for holding the hornbook.
The parchment is laminated over with a processed animal horn hence the name to protect the text. A text from the s, written by a layman, Walter of Bibbesworth, also reveals much about how boys and girls learned, especially languages, in a gentry household.
