Comenius, Johann Amos

ko-me'ni-us, Johann Amos (1592-1671), a Moravian educator. Comenius was born in a Moravian village and died at Amsterdam. He became a teacher in his native country, but was driven out by war and religious persecution. He went to Poland and was made bishop of the Moravian Brethren. At one time he contemplated coming to the New World to accept a position in Harvard University. He is remembered chiefly for his Orbis Pictus, or the pictorial world, a primary reading book. It is the first in which pictures were employed to assist children in learning to read. Of course the cuts now seem very rude, but to children of the Old World villages at that time, these were wonderful books. The Orbis Pictus, published in 1657, marks a distinct step in education. To be accurate, it was an abbreviation of a larger and more pretentious work, published in 1631. For some idea of the general style of the contents of the Orbis Pictus, see article on NEW ENGLAND PRIMER.