Learning by Example

Comenius, Opera didactica omnia. Amsterdam: Christophorus Cunradus & Gabriel à Roy, 1657. Fol.

The Moravian education reformer and pansophist Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670) believed that a good education was the key to creating a society of enlightened, independently thinking citizens. Education should therefore be for girls as well as boys, regardless of class or background. Furthermore, education should not just be about cramming knowledge from books, but also about examining things for yourself and forming your own opinions.

This book contains Comenius’ collected works on education, the printing of which was sponsored by Laurens de Geer, as mentioned on the title page. Laurens was the son of the second owner of the House with the Heads, who offered Comenius, a refugee at that time, a place to stay at the house in 1656.