A text, usually in the form of verse, in which every line or every alternate line starts with a consecutive letter of the alphabet. Used as a tool for teaching young children how to read.

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.

Books of secrets or recipe books are ‘treatises that professed to reveal the “secrets of nature” to anyone who could read’ (Eamon 1994, 3).

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.

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 struggles between Catholics and Protestants over the correct interpretation of the faith.

The label catechism primer is used to define a wide range of materials aimed at teaching to read and contextually providing religious education.

Apart from schoolbooks, in most Northern European countries a distinct market for children’s literature meant for entertainment did not establish until the late 17th or 18th century, and in Southern Europe by the 19th century.

Cookbooks are a type of how-to books that usually contain mostly recipes. They could also contain instructions about required utensils, how to properly supply and maintain your kitchen, how to preserve ingredients, how to serve meals.

A herbal describes (and in several cases also depicts) plants with a focus on their medicinal qualities and application.

Hornbooks were educational material for children, consisting of a wooden board with a handle, with a single sheet of print on them.

Didactic texts that advised on practical how-to knowledge (e.g. recipes, husbandry, domestic labour), on devotional practices within the home, and/or on the appropriate conduct for husbands, wives, and other household members.

Early modern how-to books are a category for which no unified terminology is in use. They provided practical instruction, often combined with some more theoretical or general background knowledge, in fields as varied as medicine, carpentry, horticulture, navigation, mining, cooking, calligraphy, embroidery.

Medical text types overlapped and merged in many ways (e.g. theoretical explanations and practical remedies, preventive and curative medicine), and many kinds of compilations of medical knowledge appeared.

Various types of print related to Christmas and the new year circulated in the early modern period. 

Penny prints are cheap broadsides, printed on one side and illustrated with 8 to 48 woodcuts. Rhyming captions below the images either narrated the story or explained the (non-fictional) pictures.

Booklet in almanac form or part of an almanac containing (almost) exclusively predictions for the coming year, describing seasons, months, expected harvests, foreseeable diseases, wars, etc.

Regimens instructed people in the management of the six non-natural things from which health depends. These are: food and drink, sleep, exercise, the air one breathes, emotions (or ‘passions’) and evacuations (including hygiene).

The label “rooster primer” is used to refer to a reading primer with the image of the rooster on a prominent place of the booklet. Printed since the 1570s in Central Europe and soon after in Northern Europe, in some countries the history of this kind of primers extends into the present. Whereas the position…