For those interested in the history of classical education, manuscripts, books, and knowledge transfer, the University of Pennsylvania Libraries and the Shoenberg Institute have a potentially relevant ongoing zoom series called Coffee with a Codex in which they regularly bring out rare manuscripts, codices, incunabula, etc. from their collection to show and discuss.

Keep in mind that the presentation is done by library curators who may not be subject matter experts on the books they present, but the topics are nearly all relevant to classical education. Most attendees are academics, historians, medievalists, or regularly doing research in the areas of information studies and will often have thoughts, ideas, or experience with classical education, and may be able to answer questions about historical practices in the chat. Presentations are generally informal, short, and meant for a generalist audience. Quite often digital scans of the materials they present are available for browsing online or downloading for further study.

See the full schedule for Coffee with a Codex three weeks ahead at https://schoenberginstitute.org/coffee-with-a-codex/

To give folks an idea of the presentations, recordings of Coffee With A Codex since January 2022 are available at their YouTube Playlist. (To my knowledge they don't archive copies of their chat transcripts where the participants are usually fairly active, but some of the chat does make it verbally into the recorded discussion.)

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Of particular interest this coming week is a presentation on a book which will touch on the recent conversation "Ancient Textbooks for Ancient Curriculums?" by u/psimystc with respect to the Carolingian educational program in the 9th-11th centuries.

https://libcal.library.upenn.edu/event/11148297

Details

Date: Thursday, September 7, 2023<br /> Time: 12:00pm - 12:30pm

Coffee with a Codex: Boethius and Aristotle <br /> On September 7, Curator Dot Porter will bring out LJS 101, a 9th and 11th century copy of Aristotle translated by Boethius, created as part of the Carolingian educational program. See the record: https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_9951865503503681

Free registration is required. https://libcal.library.upenn.edu/event/11148297

An informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak curators and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different manuscript and the expertise of one of our curators. Everyone is welcome to attend. Welcome back for 2023-2024!

Syndication link: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicalEducation/comments/16a1oyi/coffee_with_a_codex_at_penn_libraries_recurring/

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/courcon1.asp

Medieval Sourcebook: Robert de Courçon: Statutes for the University of Paris, 1215 The basic course was in the arts. Of the other faculties theology was best represented at Paris, law at Bologna, and medicine at Salerno. Robert de Courçon's statutes lay down the course in arts and enumerate the books to be studied. Students were expect to be able to teach as well as learn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratio_Studiorum

Hutchins attributes the loss of classical education to both internal decay and external confusion, but I would suggest that some of the shift was also the need for industrialization and expanded access.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8OTapyT-YM

Compared to classical education, modern education concentrates on teaching only "subject" areas and relying on one to osmose the methods for thinking, arguing, and properly expressing one's ideas as they proceed, if in fact they do at all.

Another classic Christian move, making education of not just earthly, but eternal importance.

This is a very rigid curriculum which tells us much about what Astell believes the human (or perhaps here just the woman, but I think it applies to humanity generally) to be. In particular, the wretchedness of a sinner, left unchecked, will lead to false ideas and bad beliefs and habits. "A true Christian" will need to have falsity and sin constantly called out and checked as she gradually learns to prefer what is really good, true, beautiful, etc.

These three stages are not the same as the Trivium, but they do seem to pair nicely, particularly if you understand the Trivium in a sort of developmental way as explained by Dorthy Sayers that is all the rage in classical education these days.

I do wonder what the reasoning was for this (I mean, besides the blatant "women and the lower class are too stupid to understand our Great Books and/or will lead lives that do not require a 'polite' education"). We've already read arguments that the "polite" education supposedly improved the virtues as well as the mind, right? Wouldn't all of society benefit if women and the lower class were virtuous, as much as possible?