Other languages

• Dutch: hanenboek
• French: croisette, croix de par Dieu
• German: Katechismusfibel, Katechismus-ABC-Buch
• Italian: santacroce, crocesanta, libretto del Gesù, salterio, salteriolo da puti
• Latvian: katķisma ābece
• Norwegian: katekismus-abc, katekisme-abc
• Polish: katechizm dla dzieci, elementarz z treściami katechizmovymi, elementarz z treściami religijnymi
• Spanish: doctrina, cartilla

Material form

Subject

Description

The modern label “catechism primer” is in a wider sense used by historians to define a broad range of materials for novice readers combining the teaching of reading and religious catechesis, the latter as rule in accordance with the doctrine and wording of a particular Christian denomination, be it Hussite, Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist), Anglican, Catholic or Orthodox. These materials reflect the fact that, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the two areas of teaching, as a rule, went hand in hand. And even though from the eighteenth century onwards followers of the Enlightenment considered catechetical texts no longer suitable for reading exercises, the catechism primer occasionally remained in use up to the late nineteenth century.

In an effort to capture the various degrees of weight assigned in catechism primers to catechesis on the one hand and the teaching of reading on the other, Juska-Bacher et al. (2023) distinguish between four types:

• the primer catechism (Finnish: aapiskatekismus; German: Fibelkatechismus, Erstlesekatechismus; Russian: bukvarnyj katechizis): a catechism or other collection of basic religious texts as designated in the book’s title, with some supplementary aid to support the acquisition of reading skills.
• the catechism primer in a narrow sense: a textbook for reading instruction in which the reading exercises consist either entirely or predominantly of catechetical texts, either with the title referring first to reading and then to religion or the title mentioning reading only or completely without a book title (as frequently applies to the rooster primer).
• the primer with predominantly secular and some catechetical elements: a textbook for reading instruction with most reading exercises comprising texts with secular content, alongside a minority of catechetical texts, and the book title usually without reference to religion.
• The primer with a catechism attached as an appendix: a textbook for reading instruction which offers a catechism or an extract thereof in the appendix, this part being clearly separated from the main part of the book, and the book title without reference to religion.

In England, France and Italy a common term used to label catechism primers was the local equivalent for psalter (psautier, salterio), based on the use of the book of Psalms as a learning tool in medieval monasteries. Other versions of the catechism primer include ‘The ABC with the catechism’ (English), ‘ABC ou instruction des christiens’, ‘croisette’, ‘croix de par Dieu’ and ‘syllabaire chrétien’ (French), ‘santacroce’, ‘crocesanta’ and ‘libretto del Gesù’ (Italian) and respective editions of ‘dottrina’ and ‘cartilla’ (Spanish). In general, with considerable differences between countries, the book title does not always indicate whether a primer can be classified as a catechism primer. This applies, for example, to the Danish ‘ABC-bog’, the German ‘Namenbüchlein’ and the aforementioned Spanish ‘cartilla’. In Germany and northern Europe the reading exercises in early modern catechism primers were often based on Luther’s Small Catechism, offering its chief parts (Lord’s Prayer, Creed, Ten Commandments, sacrament of Baptism, sacrament of the Eucharist) not in the ‘catechetical’ question-and-answer format, but in plain text, with syllables of polysyllabic words separated by a hyphen to support spelling. In Catholic versions printed in Central Europe, the reading exercises start with the trinitarian formula, followed by the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary, and the catechetical texts include the precepts of the church. 

Related terms

reading primer, rooster primer, Crisscross, catechism, children’s book and schoolbook

Sources

C. Appel, M. Fink-Jensen, (eds.), Religious Reading in the Lutheran North. Studies in Early Modern Scandinavian Book Culture (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011).

L. Carnelos, E. Marazzi, ‘Children and Cheap Print from a Transnational Perspective’, Quaerendo 51 (2021), 189-215.

G. Eschenbach, ‘Child-Directed Speech in Catechisms for the Religious Education of Children under the Age of Three in Early Modern Germany and the Dutch Republic’, Jaarboek voor Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis 29 (2022), 32-59, https://doi.org/10.5117/JNB2022.003.ESCH.

S. González-Sarasa Hernáez, Tipología editorial del impreso antiguo español, thesis Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2013), 446-452 (‘Cartilla’). https://eprints.ucm.es/id/eprint/24020/

B. Juska-Bacher, M. Grenby, T. Laine, W. Sroka (eds.), Learning to Read, Learning Religion: Catechism Primers in Europe from the 16th to the 19th Centuries (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2023). https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.14

M. Korzo, ‘Bukvarnye katechizisy: pol’skie, ukrainsko-belorusskie i moskovskie, XVI–XVIII v.’ Ukrainskaja i belorusskaja katechetičeskaja tradicija konca XVI–XVIII vv: stanovlenie, ėvoljutija i problema zaimstvovanij (Moskva: Kanon+, 2007), 477-555.

M. Korzo‚ ‘Polnische Fibelkatechismen des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts: religiöser Inhalt und deutsche Einflüsse.‘ S. Schütze, E. Matthes (eds), Religion und Bildungsmedien / Religion and Educational Media (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2018), 92-99.

P. Lucchi, ‘La Santacroce, il Salterio e il Babuino: libri per imparare a leggere nel primo secolo della stampa’, Quaderni storici 13 (1978), nr. 38, 593-630.

A. Messerli, R. Chartier (eds.), Lesen und Schreiben in Europa, 1500-1900: vergleichende Perspektiven (Basel: Schwabe & Co., 2000).

Newsletters of the Reading Primers Special Interest Group, Augsburg University, https://www.uni-augsburg.de/en/fakultaet/philsoz/fakultat/pedagogy/news/reading-primers-special-interest-group/

W. Sroka, ‘Learning to Read with Catechetical Texts – an Introduction’, in: E. Matthes, S. Schütze (eds.), Religion und Bildungsmedien / Religion and Educational Media (Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt, 2018), 77-83.