This document provides a history of children's literature from ancient Greece and Rome through the Renaissance period. It discusses how in ancient Greece and Rome, children heard the same oral stories as adults, such as tales from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. During the Middle Ages, religious stories and tales of heroes like King Arthur were popular. The invention of the printing press in the Renaissance made books more widely available and led to the development of early textbooks and primers for children to learn basic skills like reading.

1. CHILD AND ADOLESCENT LITERATURE
HISTORY OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
CLASSICAL WORLD GREEK AND ROMANS
The following characteristics are depicted:
 Characterized by Oral storytelling
 Composed of Greek and Roman myths and epics
 Children heard and presumably, enjoyed the same stories as their parents,
whether they were the adventurous tales of cultural heroes
 Fables emerged during those times through Aesop. The theme and characters
appeal to children and the stories are often humorous and entertaining for kids of
all ages. These illustrate a particular moral and teach a lesson to children and
kids.
Greek’s Famous Author and Literary Works
Illiad and Odyssey (Homer)
Trojan War (From Homer’s Illiad)
Jason and the Golden Fleece
The adventure of Hercules
The Travels of Odysseus (From Homer’s Odyssey)
History of Children's Literature
under Classical World (Greek and Roman) 500 BCE – 400 CE
All literature began with the ancient art of storytelling. Our ancestors told stories to
entertain each other, to comfort each other, to instruct the young in the lessons of living, to pass
on their religious and cultural heritage. Storytelling is an integral part of every world culture. In
early times, Western civilization has its roots in the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, which
flourished between about 500 BCE and 400 CE, now known as the Classical period. Greece
in the fifth century BCE is in many ways the birthplace of Western culture and so that is where
our story begins. In this cradle of democracy and individualism, children grew up with the stories
of the Trojan War (from Homer's Iliad) and of the travels of Odysseus (from Homer's Odyssey)
and the stories of Jason and the Golden Fleece and the adventures of Hercules. They also
knew of the now-famous fables attributed to the slave Aesop, believed to be a teacher, writing to
instruct his students in cultural and personal values.
With the decline of Greek civilization, the Roman Empire rose to power, but the Romans
remained under the long shadow of Greeks, whom they greatly admired. The children of Rome
in the first century CE undoubtedly knew not only Homer's tales, but also Virgil's Aeneid, which
recounted the stories of Aeneas, the Trojan hero who was credited with founding the Roman

2. race. They also knew the wildly imaginative tales of Ovid's Metamorphoses, the tales of the
gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines of the classical world. The power of these ancient
stories remains with us, and modern writers and illustrators frequently turn to the Greek and
Roman myths for inspiration and retelling.
Our culture is filled with references to these Classical stories-we speak of Achilles' heels,
Herculean tasks, the Midas touch, Pandora's Box, and sour grapes (a reference to one of
Aesop's fables). Planets, galaxies and star clusters, days of the week, months of the year,
automobile tires, and tennis shoes-all bear names of classical gods and heroes. These stories
are both exciting and an important part of our cultural heritage-they should not be missed. A
great many of these stories live today and children continue to find them fascinating. The
retellings by the poet Padraic Colum (The Children's Homer and The Golden Fleece) are
excellent sources for children. Most recently, Jeanne Steig's A Gift from Zeus: Sixteen Favorite
Myths is a lively-sometimes racy-version for modern middle and high school audiences, and it is
illustrated by William Steig's earthy, even ribald, drawings. It is just the kind of rendition to bring
the stories to life for older readers. These myths are an essential part of culture and
indispensable to any well-rounded education.
MIDDLE AGES
The following characteristics are depicted:
 Religious tales / Biblical stories
 Set examples for children, for a didactic purpose
 Created a mixture of realism and fantasy
 Romantic tales / Legends
Famous Author and literary works
 In 600 A.D., the Old English period, monks and other learned men wrote “lesson
books” for children.
 Aldhelm (640 - 700 AD), Bishop of Sherborne, was probably the first man to write
lesson books for children.
a. Riddles and puzzles children had to be solved were written in Latin.
b. He set the pattern for all books of instruction from that time up to 1500
A.D. All books used question and answer form and were written in verse
 The Venerable Bede (763-735 A.D.) was a teacher at a monastery school.
a. His lessons showed more imagination; they were a spark of learning in the
Dark Ages.
b. They contained all the knowledge then known of natural science, natural
history, and the study of plants and flowers and stars.
 Egbert of York (766 A.D.) founded the famous school of York.
a. Collected the works of the previous monks and books by outstanding Greek
and Roman authors.

3. b. Wrote a variety of lesson books, still using question and answer (dialogue)
method.
c. Many books on grammar.
d. Tutored sons and daughter of the household at the court of Charlemagne (the
1st Holy Roman Emperor). It is also one of earliest records of co-education.
 Alfred the Great (849-399 A.D.), King of England who drove back the invasion of
the Danes.
a. He translated Latin Literature into Anglo-Saxon with the help of many
scholars.
b. Until 1350, children in monastery schools had to read and speak Latin in and
out of school.
c. He had the best literature of his time translated from Latin into old English so
it would be understandable to the
common man.
 Anselm (1033-1109 A.D.), the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote the first
encyclopedia for children.
a. First book published was The Bible.
 William Caxton was the creator of the 1st English printer in 1476.
a. His first publication was Aesop’s Fables.
b. The romantic tales of the legendary King Arthur and the knights of the round
table or of the great heroes Roland(from France)
c. The Cid (from Spain)
d. Beowulf (from the Norse)
e. Dragon Slayer (1976) (Retelling of the Old English Epic,Rosemary Sutcliff)
f. Arthur and his knights in The Light Beyond the Forest (1979)
g. The sword and the circle (1981)
h. Selma Hastings’s Sir Gawain and The Green Knight(1981)
i. Barbara Cooney’s picture book
j. Chanticleer and the fox (1958) –adapted from Chaucer
History of Children's Literature under Middle Ages 476 CE – 1400
Following the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 CE, European civilization entered a period
of decline. Much of the knowledge of the Classical world was lost during the early chaotic period
historians once referred to as the Dark Ages. We now call the period between the fall of Rome
and the rise of the Renaissance (in about the fourteenth century) the Middle Ages-literally
because they fell between the Classical and Renaissance periods. During the Middle Ages the
Roman Catholic Church dominated the social and political scene and was responsible for what
education there was. Throughout the Middle Ages, poverty was wide-spread and life for the
average person was very difficult-much harsher than it had been in the ancient Greek and
Roman worlds. Education was a luxury, and few people could read or write. Books were
extremely rare and expensive, for they had to be hand copied on costly parchment. A single
bible could take as long as three years to produce, and in many medieval libraries the books

4. were chained to the desks to discourage theft. As it was in the Classical world, the oral tradition
was the principal entertainment for most people. Local Story tellers and professional bards (the
famous wandering minstrels) recited stories and poems for eager audiences.
What stories did they recite? Biblical stories were among the most popular-both Old and
New Testament-and so were the stories of the lives of saints of the church. The lives of saints
were used to set examples for young people. In addition to religious tales, nonreligious-secular-
stories were also popular. The romantic tales of the legendary king Arthur and the Knights of the
Round Table or of the great heroes Roland (from France) or the Cid (from Spain) or even
Beowulf (from the Norse) surely thrilled many children and adults, for, as in the Classical period,
children and adults shared a common literature. The exciting battle scenes, powerful heroes,
and wondrous enchantments of these romances made them very popular-and many remain so
today.
Children's versions of these tales are easy to find. Rosemary Sutcliff's Dragon Slayer
(1976) is a retelling of the old English epic, Beowulf and she has also retold the legends of King
Arthur and his knights in 7he Light beyond the Forest (1979), The Sword and the Circle (1981),
and 7he Road to Camlann (1981). Some of the Arthurian stories have been transformed into
modem picture books, as in Selma Hastings's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1981). Barbara
Cooney's picture book, Chanticleer and the Fox (1958), adapted from Chaucer, is a retelling of
a favorite medieval trickster tale about Reynard the Fox. Many of the stories from this period are
exciting narratives that have become an indelible part of our society. Our entire reading
experience is enriched if we know the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the
flood, Jonah and the whale, and the tower of Babel-side by side with those of King Arthur and
Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere.
RENAISSANCE PERIOD
The following characteristics are depicted:
 Rise of Educational books
 Promoted mass education
 Helped to keep interest in traditional tales
 The printing press made it possible to make multiple copies of books
 The emphasis was on spiritual and intellectual development
 Emphasized giving lessons in proper behavior for boys
 Emergence of Chapbooks (small and cheaply made books containing fairy tale)
 Books were too expensive to be used by children, so the Hornbook was created
for them about 1550. It was the first “permanent” book.
Famous author and literary works
 Hornbook
a. It was a square piece of wood with a handle at one end (much like an old
time paddle or the shape of an old cutting board), which measured 2 3/4
inches of wood by 5 inches.

5. b. A printed page of vellum (made from skin of calf, lamb or kid) was pasted on
the board.
c. The page was protected by transparent piece of horn (a hard, smooth
material forming the outer cover of the horns of cattle and other related
animals).
d. The book was often bound by a metal rim and had a cord through hole in
handle and was fastened to a child’s belt/girdle. Another source said it was
worn about the neck.
e. The text contained the christcross, followed by the alphabet in lower and
upper case. Groups of syllables were written below the letters.
f. The next piece of text was the words “In the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”
g. The final text was “The Lord’s Prayer.” (Our Father, who art in heaven, etc.)
h. After the hornbook, rhymed alphabets and primers were published for
children.
i. The Royal Primer had a letter of alphabet, followed by a
familiar verse. Ex. A In Adam’s fall, we sinned all. This primer sold 5 million
copies during the hundred years it was used as a text book for younger
children.
j. This version was followed by the New England Primer, published in Boston in
1690. (Remember the Pilgrims arrived in 1620.)
 Orbis Sensualism Pictus by John Comenius (1658) - the 1st
children’s picture
book
 New England Primer (1690 -1886) - the most famous early school book
 Sir Thomas Elyot’s The Book Named the Governor(1531)
 John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs(1563)
 John Comenius's Orbis Sensttaliurn Picttts(1658)
 Roger Ascham’s The Scholemaster(1570)
 Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crtlsoe (1719)
 Jonathan Swift's Galliver's i'kuels (1726)
History of Children's Literature under Renaissance Period 1400 – 1700
Around 1400, a new era began in Europe. It was called the Renaissance, a term
meaning "rebirth," because people saw it as a rebirth of the ideals of ancient Greece and Rome-
their art, literature, philosophy, and especially their respect for learning. Of course, the changes
did not happen overnight, but the changes did come. The Crusades of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries had opened up trading routes to the Far East, which brought both wealth and new
ideas to Europe. Strong rulers rose up and established stable kingdoms with written laws.
Trade, industry, and learning advanced. In 1492, Columbus's voyage to the Americas resulted
in the founding of overseas empires, which brought great wealth to many European kingdoms
(sadly, at great expense to the native peoples). However, one development would overshadow
all others. Around 1450, a German named Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type

6. printing press-said by many to be the most significant invention of the last thousand years.
(Actually the Chinese originally developed the technology, but the Europeans put it to practical
use.) It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this event. The printing press made it possible
to make multiple copies of books in a fraction of the time it took to hand copy them. In just a few
decades, books became plentiful. Now it was possible to spread information quickly, and this
opened the door to mass education.
During the early Renaissance, most books specifically for children were textbooks or
educational books. Sir Thomas Elyot's The Book Named the Governor (1531) and Roger
Ascham's The Scholemaster (1570) are two examples of "books of courtesy," giving lessons in
proper behaviour for young gentlemen. (Women did not yet merit their own books.) The
Renaissance, like the Middle Ages, was a religious period and during this time the hatred
between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants resulted in much bloodshed. John Foxe's
Book of Martyrs (1563), an anti-Catholic work filled with grisly scenes of violent deaths for
religion's sake, was one of the most popular books among England's schoolchildren. On a
cheerier note, about one hundred years later, John Comenius's Orbis Sensualium Pictus (1658)
appeared. It is generally regarded as the first children's picture book and was intended as a
textbook for the teaching of Latin through pictures.