Studies in Education during the Age of the Renaissance, 1400-
1600. By W. H. Woodward. (Cambridge University Press. 4s. 6d. net.)—We cannot do more than indicate some of the more noticeable portions of Professor Woodward's book, one of the series which has the title of "Contributions to the History of Education." These we select, not so much for special merit, for the author is always well acquainted with his subject, as because they deal with less generally familiar parts of the subject. On pp. 139-54 is given a detailed description of Le College de Guyenne, supplemented by an accountin the latter part of the chapter of one of its great teachers, Maturin Cordier. In 1634 the city of Bordeaux applied to Andre Gouvea to undertake the management of the boys' school. This he did, and for many years the institu- tion prospered. It did not escape the trouble which perpetually haunts education,—religions controversy. Cordier, after two years of remarkably' fruitful work, had to leave it for Geneva. But it enjoyed a succession of able teachers and a liberal-minded lay administration. (linretnn was one of the teachers in '1550; and Montaigne was chairman of the Governors in 1580.) The education was, as may be supposed, almost wholly classical Latino sermon cognoscendo haec schola imprimis destinata est. There were ten forms, and the standard of prolkienoy is .not a, little astonishing. In the fifth form, midway in the school, for. instance, the boys read Terence and the " Epistolae ex Ponto " of Ovid. (Ovid and Horace were always read with "careful atten- tion to the canon of edification.") Greek was begun in the fourth ; but Greek seems not to have been adequately studied. The one non-classical subject was mathematics. School hours were 8--10, 12-1, 8-6. There was a long vacation of about six weeks, a few whole holidays, and some fifty half-holidays in the 09111.841 of the year. Latin was habitually spoken, though the vernacular was used in teaching beginners. The other chapter which we
single out is on Melancthon, " Preceptor of Germany." The arrangement of the book is chronological, but it might have been well to make an exception in the case of the "Education of Girls." a would have been convenient to have had the scattered notices put together.
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