Biography of John Amos Comenius

John Amos Comenius is also known by Jan Amos Comenius, Johannes Amos Comenius, Jana Amose Komenskeho, and Jan Amos Komensky. He was born in 1592 and died in 1670. He advocated for working with nature, instead of against it. He published over 150 works in Czech, German, and Latin on topics such as cartography, human development, linguistics, pacifism, social justice, and spirituality. He is considered the father of modern education. He was also one of the first pedagogical theorists to apply Francis Bacon’s epistemology.

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1592 – He was born in Moravia.

1608 – He enters the Latin school in Prerov.

1611-1613 – He studies at the Herborn Academy.

1612- He reads the Rosicrucian manifesto ‘Fama Fraternitatis’.

1613-1614 – He studies at the University of Heidelberg.

1614-1618 – He teaches at the Latin school in Prerov.

1616 – He is ordained by the ministry of the Moravian Brethren.

1620 – He is made pastor and rector at Fulnek.

1621 – He loses all his property and writings due to war.

1628 – He corresponds with Johann Valentin Andreae.

1631 – His publication of ‘Janua Linguarum Reserata’ is published in England as ‘The Gates of Tongues Unlocked and Opened’. After he publishes this, he is soon invited to open a school in England, but never does due to war.

1638 – He travels to Sweden on request on the Swedish government and creates for them a scheme of school management for their country.

1641 – He travels to England on request of the English parliament, joins a commission, and reforms their scheme of public education.

1642 – He returns to Sweden to work with Queen Christina and chancellor Axel Oxenstierna in reforming Swedish schools.

1642 – He moves to Elbing, Poland.

1648 – He travels to England with the help of Samuel Hartlib.

1650 – He is invited by Zsuzsanna Lorántffy to organize a pansophic “school of play” in Transylvania.

1650-1654 – He is the professor at the first Hungarian Protestant College. Here is where he writes a portion of his most important works.

1654 – He returns to Leszno, Poland.

1655 – He descales his support for the Protestant Swedish side.

1656 – Many of his unpublished manuscripts are lost during the First Northern War. The Polish Catholic partisans burn his house and manuscripts, and the school’s printing press because Comenius supported the Protestant Swedish side.

1656 – He seeks refuge in Amsterdam. Here patrons publish his collected pedagogical works under the title ‘Opera didactica omnia’.

1657 – His ‘Pansophia’ manuscript was lost when his house in Leszno was burnt down.

1658 – His ‘Orbis Sensualium pictus’ is published in English.

1659 – His ‘Orbis Sensualium pictus’ is published as ‘Comenius’s Visible World’.

1659 – He produces a new edition of the 1618 Bohemian Brethren hymnal, ‘Kancionál, to jest kniha žalmu a písní duchovnich’ (Amsterdam).

1661 – He edits the German hymnal ‘Kirchen-, Haus- und Hertzens-Musica’ (Amsterdam).

1670 – He dies and is buried in Naarden.

1892 – The Comenian Society, which studies and publishes the works of Comenius, is formed.

1934 – His lost work of ‘De Rerum Humanorum Emendatione Consultatio Catholica’ is rediscovered.

1966 – His recovered lost work of ‘De Rerum Humanorum Emendatione Consultatio Catholica’ is printed in its entirety.

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References:

[1] – http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095626550

[2] – http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195399301/obo-9780195399301-0097.xml

[3] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Amos_Comenius

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