O tekstach religijnych w XVI-wiecznych elementarzach polskich
On Religious Texts in 16th c. Polish Primers

Summary/Abstract: A characteristic feature of the early modern primers of all confessional shades was a combination of grammatical material with a fairly large selection of religious texts, which served a dual role: they contributed to religious consciousness formation of children and helped in acquisition of reading. A comparison of those selections allows to specify four models which dominated in the 16th century. The earliest one is the so-called liturgical model and the model of the medieval parish catechetical instruction („Ortografia <Ortography>” by Stanisław Zaborowski, 1514–1515; “Nauka ku czytaniu dziatkam [...] <A Study of Reading for Children [...]>” by a Poznań printer Piotr Sextilis, 1556). The Reformation led to the creation of two more models: ABC-books, which followed „Small Catechism“ of Martin Luther („Nauka krótka ku czytaniu pisma polskiego.” Kraków: Jan Januszowski, the second half of the 16th century) and primers arranged in the genre of “Spruchbücher” („Elementarz polsko-łaciński <A Polish-Latin Primer>.“ Kraków: Łazarz Andrysowic, ca. 1550; „Elementaria institutio Latini sermonis, et pietatis christianae.“ Kraków: Maciej Wirzbięta, 1575). In the 17th and 18th centuries numerically dominated textbooks imitated the model of the medieval parish catechetical instruction, which has been extended in catechisms in the form of questions and answers.

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