Hornbook
Common in England, the Netherlands and many other European countries from the 16th to 19th centuries, hornbooks were educational material for children, consisting of a wooden board with a handle, with...
View ArticleHerbal
A herbal describes (and in several cases also depicts) plants with a focus on their medicinal qualities and application. It can therefore be considered a type of medical literature. The genre already...
View ArticleCookbook
Cookbooks are a type of how-to books that usually contain mostly recipes. In this respect, they overlap with books of secrets and certain medical books, not only in terms of the recipe format but...
View ArticleChildren’s book and schoolbook
The earliest books printed especially for children were schoolbooks, which from the fifteenth century onward provided many printers/publishers with a steady income. Children learned to read with...
View ArticleCatechism primer
The label catechism primer is used to define a wide range of materials aimed at teaching to read and contextually providing religious education. Usually in small formats (8vo, 12mo, 16mo), catechism...
View ArticleCatechism
The catechism is an exposition of Christian doctrine, or oftentimes rather an ideal of what the true doctrine should be. Such texts quickly became participants in the fierce political and religious...
View ArticleBroadsheet (broadside)
Broadsheets (or broadsides) is a portmanteau term referring to a form of prints consisting of only a single sheet, printed on one side only in the case of broadsides. Though not directly relatable to...
View ArticleBook of secrets
Books of secrets or recipe books are ‘treatises that professed to reveal the “secrets of nature” to anyone who could read’ (Eamon 1994, 3). They tended to contain recipes and instructions to make...
View ArticleAlmanac
Annually published books and sheets based on the calendar with the observations on the passage of time, the seasons, astronomical data and the interpretation of these data. The main use of the...
View ArticleAbecedarium
A booklet containing the alphabet, used as a tool for teaching young children how to read. Next to the alphabet itself, it might include a small catechism and/or a prayer, commonly the Lord’s Prayer...
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