By Martin Steiner (Prague)
The literary heritage of John Amos Comenius expresses itself several fields of the spiritual activity of man and inspires us with astonishment by its mere extent. Comenius regarded himself to be a theologian—being in reality clergyman of the Bohemian Brethren Unity by profession. Whereas his theological views still wait for an adequate interpretation and judgement, his greatest contribution continues to be considered that to pedagogy.
Since the last two or three decades of the 20th century his endeavours in the field of philosophy and theory on the arrangement of the human society meet with increasing approval. Most probably his practical pedagogical activity was the first impulse for his work on the manuals of the natural sciences and his own interest together with cultural and social conditions brought him to the philology and to history. Within all these fields and branches circulate his own more than 200 works and writings handed down to succeeding generations, works and writings of the most different bulk, from occasional poems, school speeches, variegated dissertations, to vast tracts of many volumes. All of these concerns—naturally besides organisational matters following from his leading position in his church and besides purely personal affairs—are also dealt with in his rich correspondence.
Already during his lifetime Comenius gained the highest fame by his textbooks for language teaching which also reached the highest number of editions. Janua linguarum reserata (The Open Gate to Languages) and Orbis sensualium pictus (The Visible World in Pictures) were edited immediately after their publication in numerous revised editions and translations by other authors in a great number of European languages. The textbooks of Comenius spread from Poland, where they were written, in the country of the author’s then exile residence, at first over the German states to England and France and the territories of Hungarian cultural influence, later to the territories belonging the the Austrian Habsburg dynasty. Thanks to his efforts to make the study of languages easier for the pupils and also for the teachers, Comenius became famous all over Europe, even though his textbooks did not satisfy his own ambitions, because the teaching of languages for him had only the significance of an instrument, of a way to the quickest and easiest possible acces to the education in subjects, i.e. above all to philosophy and theology, to political science and to the natural sciences. In these subjects Comenius saw the real education, they were the aim of his efforts. And certainly he would have wished to win the highest personal prestige and social recognition in these fields.
As to the edition of his works, the following should be stated.
First of all, the easiest classification criterion is the language the original work has been written in or the language of the edition handed down to succeeding generations. As for us Comenius is concerned the language we have to deal with is mainly either Latin or Czech and in some few cases German. By a mere unfortunate coincidence one original Czech work exists only in its translation into Dutch. In all cases naturally it is the language of the time, i. e. the form these languages had in written manifestations in the 17th century.
Another classification offering itself is based on the content of the works in question, namely scientific disciplines. This classification, however, needs to be dealt with in more detail than simply in the manner of introductory enumeration of fields Comenius was concerned with. Thus for example his philosophical writings would need to be divided into his pan-sophic and pan-reformative works, his theological works to be divided into polemics with representatives of different currents of thought and writings on the Bohemian Brethren Unity. His pedagogical works can be classified into those the content of which is mainly theoretical and those of a practical point of view. The methodology of language teaching would have to go into separate sections, textbooks represent the interface of didactics and other fields. One would, of course, proceed to greater detail.
Hand in hand with the thematic division could proceed the classification with regard to the form of Comenius’ works. Though naturally prose prevails, his works written in verse are far from negligible. His verse works can be divided in principle into two categories: spiritual songs and verses in prosody both of spiritual (Psalms) and other contents (e. g. recasting of the so-called Cato’s Distichs and different occasional poems). Most of Comenius’ prosaic works are tracts, i. e. some kind of essays. One would separate some of his judgements on writings of other authors and his polemic works. As to other literary forms his literary heritage contains for example sermons, dialogues, plays, and fictitious letters.
Another key to the classification of Comenius’s literary heritage could be the measure of his authorship. In his epoch the juridical points of view of the copyright were quite naturally not as strict as they are now so that we consider the major part of his preserved writings to be his own work irrespective of the fact that the inspiration by a work of another author could have manifested itself in his adopting whole fragments of it. In the 17th century such was common place. In the set of Comenius’ works are also translations, summaries and editions of writings of other authors (including the Bible) and some works in which Comenius was only one of several participants (e.g. History on Heavy Adversities of the Bohemian Church). Among Comenius’ works exist also some titles of which his authorship is dubious. An independent group—from this point of view—form the so-called revelations, and epochal prophecies translated and published by himself to which he supplied his own accompanying texts as this was necessary.
For editorial (and as well certain research) purposes we should consider the way in which his works have been handed down over succeeding generations. From this point of view we need to distinguish writings in manuscript only or printed versions, regardless of the fact whether published in one version or in several versions or in manuscript versions. In manuscripts we need to distinguish between his own genuine manuscripts (autographs) and copies. These copies can be authorised. In some cases we can either know or deduct this from news and information or else this can be verified from corrections made with his own hand. The major part of Comenius’ heritage is from the time of his life so that in the most part of his works can be supposed is to involve his direct participation in the form reproduced by different prints and manuscripts. This participation of Comenius, however, may be doubtful if the only version we know is that handed down to succeeding generations after Comenius’ death.
Finally, his writings can be classified chronologically, i.e. according to the date of origin.
Problems related to the classification of his different works into individual volumes follow from both the vastness of his heritage and from the thematic variety of his works. Taken into account must be as well the future user of the edition, its destination. Scientific critical editions replace texts having the nature of sources but they cannot be always accessible to all. Beside the fact that such editions preserve texts of outstanding persons in their authentic form accomplishing thus their generally cultural mission they are destined above all for scientific work. In the case of a work which is enormously interdisciplinary such as Comenius’ its users will be experts of nearly all humanities and social sciences but of several natural sciences, too; and naturally the reseraches who deal with the history of science and knowledge. This is the reason why from all mentioned points of view the classification should be governed by the content as the primary point of view (together with the formal one, i.e. with the literary genre). However, the chronological aspect should not be entirely neglected. The measure of the authorship of a work may be applied in a few cases. Perhaps only where there are several versions of a work different languages is in the authors own wording should the language play a role.
Our critical edition of Johannis Amos Comenii Opera Omnia (John Amos Comenius’ Works) is classified following the mentioned principles into 26 thematic fields and concluding volumes of the whole edition. Within these thematic fields the classification is predominantly chronological. In some cases these thematic fields will consist of several volumes so that the supposed number of volumes is 60 with 500 to 600 pages each.
It is obvious that an extensive project like this needs time for its realization. Difficult enough is the mere scientific preparation which precedes the actual work of editing existing texts. In order that the edition can meet scientific demands, it is necessary to compile and examine all remaining manuscripts ot printed text versions that came into being during the author’ lifetime and also important later editions, especially critical and modern ones. And it will be necessary to point out the origin of the ideas. Thus the first outlines of the future definitive scientific commentary on the edition of the complete works of J. A. Comenius come into being. The comparison of the text versions offers a basis for the text apparatus, as well as for the decision on controversial text passages, be it pasages in defective condition or be it less intelligible wordings of the author. In the case of the extremely numerous writings having been published under the name of J. A. Comenius this ist absolutely necessary.
Now 15 published volumes of the edition Johannis Amos Comenii Opera omnia are available, one quarter of the size of the whole work. This is already more than the editors of the project of the Central Association of the Moravian Teachers’ Society published at the beginnig auf the 20th century in Brno.
In the volumes of the Johannis Comenii Opera omnia which have already been published you find philosophical and other writings from the beginnings of the public activity of Comenius, furthermore a great deal of the didactic works, the textbooks for learning languages and natural sciences, works with historical themes as well as early pansophic works, spiritual and secular poetry and meditative writings which reflect the historical revolutions at the time of Comenius. The most outstanding merit so far is the publication of the Clamores Eliae (volume 23), the extensive working notebook of Comenius in his own hand-writing, for this work is not a writing prepared by the author for being printed, but here we have preparatory texts for an intended work in different phases of styling (ranging from roughly sketched notes to longer literary passages which already had been worked on). Most of it had been written down in a script which was hard to read in great haste by the aged author who did not take pains to write more clearly because his notes were not thought to be the basis of a setting for the printer.
Eight further volumes are in different phases of preparation for being printed. These are volumes with didactic and historical writings (textbooks from the later years of the life of Comenius). The commented Amsterdam collection Opera didactica omnia willbe followed by De rerum humanarum emendatione consultatio catholica (General consultation on the improvement of human things). The first volumes of this work of Comenius are expected to be published towards the end of this decade. Six volumes will be needed for this work (together with the attached Pansopic Dictionary).
Translated from the German by Sigurd Hauff (Berlin), 2002