Sensory Discipline and Habit in Early Modern Education: The Italian Schools of Christian Doctrine

ABSTRACT

Increasingly across sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, schools paired training in behaviour with traditional instruction in reading and writing. Not only did the Council of Trent highlight the importance of training children in Christian comportment, but theological and philosophical tracts argued that the senses, rather than reason, governed human behaviour and so that habit guaranteed predictable actions. While connections among the senses, habit and behaviour became central to education by the early 1700s, these connections have remained little considered as historians have focused on teaching techniques and patronage history. This article explores such connections through the Italian Schools of Christian Doctrine, the network by which the Council of Trent instituted its training in Christian behaviour. It is argued that surveillance and strict choreography of student movement through school spaces became key techniques of instruction and thus that the history of early modern education converges with architectural and intellectual history.

KEYWORDS:

• Senses
• early modern education
• habit
• discipline
• Schools of Christian Doctrine

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Dario Tessicini for thought-provoking discussions on early drafts of this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. On the Schools of Christian Doctrine, see Turrini, “‘Riformare il mondo’”; Grendler, “Schools of Christian Doctrine”; Grendler, “Borromeo and the Schools”; Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy, 335–50; Carlsmith, Renaissance Education, 145–6. On the Ursulines, see Culpepper, “Our Particular Cloister.” On the Jesuits, see especially Carlsmith, “Struggling Toward Success”; Grendler, “Jesuit Schools.”

2. “nella pietà verso Dio ed i loro parenti,” Origine, progressi, 216–17. Cf. Carlsmith, Renaissance Education, 150.

3. Ariès, Centuries of Childhood, 128–9; Liebreich, “Piarist Education (II),” 60–2, 68–72; Comerford, Ordaining the Catholic Reformation, 52–3, 111–12.

4. Fior di virtù; Grendler, “What Zuanne Read,” 44–6.

5. Taddei, “Solidarietà, assistenza,” 352–3.

6. Alberti, Art of Building, 127–8; Serlio, Serlio on Architecture, 250.

7. For instance: Antoniano, Tre libri, 21v, 125v, 146r; Borromeo, Sacri ragionamenti, 1646, 453–5; Scanaroli, De visitatione, 42–4.

8. Cajani, “Surveillance and Redemption”; Skelton, “Sensory Vibrations.”

9. Lancaster, British System; Upton, “Lancasterian Schools”; Newman, “Shapes and Spaces.”

10. For instance, Ariès, Centuries of Childhood, 249–54; Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 167; Knox, “Disciplina. Le origine monastiche”; Niccoli, “Creanza e disciplina.”

11. For instance: Passerini, Storia degli stabilimenti; Black, “Humanism and Education”; Miner, “Change and Continuity”; Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy; Gazzini, “Confraternite e giovani”; Sonnelitter, “Charity School Movement.”

12. Studies of nineteenth- and twentieth-century school spaces include: Eklof, “Kindertempel or Shack?”; Upton, “Lancasterian Schools”; Henderson, “New Buildings.” A rare exception is Foxall, “Schooled by Wren.” However, this article primarily considers attributions and describes the building rather than offering analysis of student spatial experience.

13. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 135–69.

14. Origine, progressi, 215–17; Grendler, “Schools of Christian Doctrine,” 321; Turrini, “‘Riformare il mondo,’” 407.

15. Borromeo, Constitutioni et ordini, 120r; Constitutioni et regole, “Proemio”; Gradenico, Regole della Compagnia, 118.

16. No sources documenting school practices are currently known; further research is needed to determine whether such sources exist.

17. On Borromeo’s rulebook, see Carlsmith, Renaissance Education, 153–4.

18. Libretto per conoscere, A2v; Turrini, “‘Riformare il mondo,’” 468.

19. Alberti, Art of Building, 263.

20. On Borromeo’s reform of the Milanese Schools of Christian Doctrine, see Giussano, Vita di S. Carlo Borromeo, 548–53; Grendler, “Borromeo and the Schools.”

21. “Sopra ogni altra cosa vegga bene … che i putti imparino con la dottrina christiana il vivere christiano, che, è, il fine, per lo quale se viene à queste scuole,” Borromeo, Constitutioni et ordini, 21r.

22. “imprimeranno … nel cuore col buono essempio loro,” ibid., 33v-4r.

23. Borromeo did not specify where the silentieri, sottopriore and avisatore should stand: ibid., 40v-2r, 45r-v, 46v-7r.

24. Ibid., 21v, 34r-v, 36v, 40r.

25. “converrà che i scolari muttino sempre maestro con pochissimo frutto loro,” ibid., 21v.

26. “alla custodia de’ quali [i sensi], si deve mettere molta diligenza, percioche sono le finestre, per le quali spesso entra il peccato nell’anima,” Borromeo, “Interrogatorio di S. Carlo,” 40.

27. Boer, Conquest of the Soul, 112; Newhauser, “Introduction,” 9–10.

28. “uno sguardo può libberamente tornar altrui da disperazione à speranza … da speranza à disperazione,” Contile, Cinque sensi, 18v-19r. On Contile, see Quiviger, Sensory World, 130. On sixteenth-century anxiety concerning vision, see Boer, Conquest of the Soul, 112; Libina, “Divine Visions,” 235–6.

29. “habbi cura de gl’occhi non alzandogli facilmente, ne guardando fissamente quel che non è lecito desiderare,” Borromeo, Ricordi di … Cardinale di Santa Prassede, 10–11. For a similar discussion of sight by Borromeo in a 1583 sermon, see Boer, Conquest of the Soul, 113–15.

30. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 31–8. For a similar argument in a Christian context, see Aquinas, “Virtues. Summa theologiae.”

31. Antoniano, Tre libri, “Ai padri di famiglia salute nel signore”; Giussano, Vita di S. Carlo Borromeo, 60, 219; Origine, progressi, 55; Pelizzoni, “Federico Borromeo,” 660.

32. “assuefarsi à voler il bene, & aborrire il male sino dalla più tenera età,” “percioche la forza della consuetudine, è grandissima … & da lei nasce l’operare non solo senza dolore ma con facilità, & diletto,” Antoniano, Tre libri, 24r.

33. “pochi sono quelli, che … voglino combattere … et far un poco di violenza à se medesimo,” ibid., 23v.

34. On the Sacri ragionamenti, see Boer, Conquest of the Soul, 131–53. On the increasing reliance on the emotions to guide human behaviour, see Jones, “Federico Borromeo,” 270; Haraguchi, “Ignatian Spirituality,” 45–6.

35. “velocissimi sono i sentimenti, e tarda è la ragione, la quale o non ci regge … overo regna nelle menti nostre come … debolissima,” Borromeo, Sacri ragionamenti, 1646, 309.

36. “gli occhi indiscretamente si muovono spesse volte …]e vogliono haver’ … arbritrio,” Borromeo, Sacri ragionamenti, 1632, 431.

37. “con l’intelligenza di questi cenni … i più celati affetti de gli animi de’ mortali si manifestano,” Bonifacio, L’arte de’ cenni, 11. On the seventeenth-century popularity of gesture manuals, see Knox, “Ideas on Gesture.”

38. Priuli, Regole della Compagnia, 135–6. On the disputa, see Borromeo, Constitutioni et ordini, 46v-7v; Priuli, Regole della Compagnia, 109–18; Turrini, “‘Riformare il mondo,’” 432–4.

39. Borromeo, Constitutioni et ordini, 41r.

40. “toccarle leggiermente,” Priuli, Regole della Compagnia, 73.

41. Gradenico, Regole della Compagnia, 70–1, 85–6.

42. Grendler, “Schools of Christian Doctrine,” 323–4; Liebreich, “Piarist Education (I),” 231–2.

43. “impedirebbe … questa impresa,” Gradenico, Regole della Compagnia, 111.

44. “l’Intelletto illuminato dall’Habito de’ Principij naturali … dice una Conformità alla Regola Divina,” Tesauro, Filosofia morale, 557. On the context of La filosofia morale, see Kraye, “Conceptions of Moral Philosophy,” 1281–2.

45. Tully, “Governing Conduct,” 23, 55; James, “Reason, the Passions.”

46. Descartes, Passions of the Soul, 40, 44, 47–50.

47. Cabrini signed his dedicatory letter to Innocent XI “D. Agostino Cabrini,” most likely “Don Agostino Cabrini” – that is, a member of the secular clergy. Cabrini, Ordini … Scole, A3r. On Cabrini’s rulebook, see Grendler, Schools in Renaissance Italy, 340.

48. Cabrini, Ordini … Scole, A5r-v.

49. The disputa generale was usually held after Easter and on a day in November. On the disputa generale, see Borromeo, Constitutioni et ordini, 77v-8r; Priuli, Regole della Compagnia, 99–103; Turrini, “‘Riformare il mondo,’” 433–4. Both Treviso rulebooks state that a plan of each bench layout was included, but these plans do not survive in the copies that I consulted; further research is needed to determine whether other copies have the plans. Priuli, Regole della Compagnia, 134–7; Gradenico, Regole della Compagnia, 84–6.

50. Cabrini, Ordini … Scole, 14, 20.

51. “gli dimandi s’hanno messo in essecutione le cose, che altre volte gli hanno raccomandate, come se sonno stati alla messa,” Borromeo, Constitutioni et regole, 36v.

52. “Maestri … fanno ripettere le lettioni sino che si cominci la Scola con altre necessarie educationi, e documenti,” Cabrini, Ordini … Scole, 15.

53. For similar illustrations in a different context (a pilgrimage narrative), see da Poggibonsi, Viaggio da Venetia. On Viaggio da Venetia, see Moore, “Disappearance of an Author.”

54. It is unclear why the chequerboard pattern becomes a diamond pattern in the third illustration.

55. Parlett, History of Board Games, 250, 255–7.

56. Voelker, “Charles Borromeo’s Instructiones,” 38. On the Instructiones, see Sénécal, “Carlo Borromeo’s Instructiones”; Boer, Conquest of the Soul, 87–90.

57. Acta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis, 466–532.

58. Cabrini, Ordini … Scole, 38–9.

59. Ibid., 30.

60. Ibid., 38.

61. Ibid., 21.

62. For an example of a rulebook including teaching material, see Perbenedetti, Regole per le Scuole.

63. “La facultà d’intendere,” “discernere … la virtù, dal vitio,” Cabrini, Ordini … Scole, 169.

64. Aristotle, De anima, 173–83. On the hierarchy of the senses, see Summers, Judgement of Sense, 32–40; Jütte, History of the Senses, 69; Sanger and Walker, “Making Sense,” 3; Kambaskovic and Wolfe, “Senses in Philosophy and Science”; Kärkkäinen, “Senses in Philosophy,” 118–19. On medieval warnings about avoiding sensory temptation, see Newhauser, “Introduction,” 3–5; Woolgar, “Social Life,” 24–5.

65. “Essercitati con gran diligenza … d’ordinar gli tuoi occhi … che per il più stijno bassi, non si fermino curiosamente a veder cose mondane, vane, ò terrene,” Cabrini, Ordini … Scole, 178.

66. “Essercitati in odiar il gusto dell’udire cose dilettevoli. Dilettati in udire cose … contrarie di scherno, e d’ingiuria,” ibid., 179.

67. Ibid., A5r-v.