Language Versus Confession: Textbooks for Primary Schools before and after the Adoption of the Ratio educationis (1777)

Eva Kowalská

Pages	34–43
DOI	10.37520/amnpsc.2025.004
Keywords	Maria Theresa – Joseph II – Ratio educationis 1777 – primary schools – textbook production – vernacular languages – Czech language – Slovak dialect versus Biblical Czech – linguistic standardisation – confessional duality – Pavel Doležal – Kingdom of Hungary
Type of Article	Peer-reviewed
Citation	KOWALSKÁ, Eva. Language Versus Confession: Textbooks for Primary Schools before and after the Adoption of the Ratio educationis (1777). Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia litterarum. Prague: National Museum, 2025, 70(1-2), 34–43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37520/amnpsc.2025.004. ISSN 2570-6861 (Print), 2570-687X (Online). Also available from: https://www.nm.cz/en/periodicals/acta-musei-nationalis-pragae-historia-litterarum/70-1-2/language-versus-confession-textbooks-for-primary-schools-before-and-after-the-adoption-of-the-ratio-educationis-1777

Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia litterarum | 2025/70/1-2

The educational reforms introduced by Maria Theresa and Joseph II brought significant innovations to the production of textbooks, particularly for primary schools, where textbook collections were to be prepared in vernacular languages. In the case of uncodified languages, this marked the beginning of a long process of textbook development — both in terms of content and linguistic standardisation. For Slovak pupils in the Kingdom of Hungary, this led to a striking and ultimately consequential duality in textbook production, which reinforced an already existing dichotomy between ‘standardised’ languages in Catholic or Lutheran contexts: vernacular speech versus the accepted form of Czech (Biblical Czech). The study examines how this situation influenced the preparation and dissemination of educational texts that aspired, at least in part, to linguistic unification. However, the school administration did not initiate a clear effort to unify or codify the language, also with regard to the confessionally diverse population. As a result, textbooks became a medium for transmitting the form of Czech last standardised by Pavel Doležal (1746) within the Protestant milieu.

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