Reading Comenius Universally

Due to the current pandemic situation, a team of scientists from the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague came up with the idea of commemorating the thinker and scholar Jan Amos Comenius on the day of his death in a different way than usual. The staff of the Department of Comeniology and Intellectual History of the Early Modern Era of the Institute of Philosophy suggested to organize a publicly accessible online marathon reading on November 15. The idea of “Reading Comenius Universally” was to present fragments from the works of the Great Pedagogue.

Around 100 Comenius enthusiasts from five continents took part in the event. The selected excerpts from various works by Comenius were read out in a total of 18 languages. The Vice-Rector for Research and International Cooperation of our university, prof. Maciej Pietrzak PhD read the first chapter of "Informatorium scholae maternae" (Motherhood School, a program for the rational education of children in the first six years of life). Comenius wrote this work in Leszno in 1632. Unfortunately, one of the earliest Polish translations from 1633 has not survived. We owe a more recent translation from Czech language to the lutheran pastor Karol Banszel. This version from 1931 was republished in 2017 by our university publishing house in a beautiful editorial design.