Literacy in Early Modern England

Background

Para1Prior to the rule of Queen Elizabeth I, reading and writing in England was a skill reserved for only the upper classes and ecclesiastical officials. During and following her reign, this privilege increasingly extended to more members of the middle classes and eventually even to small numbers of the poor. Many factors played a part in the spread of literacy in the period, including:
The widespread use of the printing press
The rise of Protestantism
The humanist movement
Endowments for education of the poor

The Printing Press

Para2The invention and use of a moveable type printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany in the 1490s played a dynamic role in the spread of information in the early modern period. Though the press itself was instrumental, the technology that mattered was the implementation of movable typeface. By improving and combining many current technologies, Gutenberg was able to print books more quickly and print more copies of them. These breakthroughs allowed for more information to be created and spread in much less time and at a lower cost. These accomplishments were pivotal for the development of literacy all over Europe.

Protestantism

Para3The use of moveable type became widespread just a few decades before the German priest Martin Luther sparked the most visible protests against the Catholic Church by objecting to many of its non-Biblical policies and practices. This movement became known as Protestantism and resulted in the fracturing of Western Christianity into two main branches, The Church of Rome (Catholicism) and Protestantism, which came to include the Lutheran Church, the Church of England, and other branches. Protestantism stressed the priesthood of all believers and so encouraged Christians to read the Bible in their own language, whereas Catholicism continued to use a Latin Bible. Desire to read the Bible increased instruction in literacy across the social spectrum.

Humanism

Para4Humanism was a form of education that blossomed in Italy around the year 1200. This movement soon spread into elite circles all across Europe and was a key factor in Queen Elizabeth’s own education in the early 16th century. The humanist movement emphasized the teachings of ancient philosophers, modern and ancient languages, literature, and ideas. The movement valued human achievementwas and was meant to inspire individual freedom of thought, although it worked to harmonize these ideas with Christianity. This contrasted with the medieval belief that individual thought was a sign of jealousy and even heresy. The humanist mode of thinking inspired a desire to spread education and literacy to more people.

Endowments for the Poor

Para5Prior to the implementation of endowments (scholarships), prospective pupils in formal education were limited to only those who could afford school tuition. As schools were given endowments by noblemen and wealthy merchants, it opened positions for students who would otherwise not be able to afford education. Local grammar schools would offer discounted positions to bright young boys who lived in the town. In addition to their rigorous studies, such pupils might have a requirement to complete additional chores at the school to help earn their award.
Para6The curriculum taught in early modern English grammar schools was not universally accepted. Some argued that the emphasis on humanist teachings, including curriculum drawn from Greek and Latin literature, discredited the importance of mathematics and English. They contended that this type of schooling left many students inept in skills they needed for occupations, such as reading and writing in English. This debate about the prupose of education persists today, with some advocating for broadening of students’ minds with the liberal arts and others advocating for career preparation.

Key Print Sources

Johnson, Genevieve Marie. The Invention of Reading and the Evolution of Text. Journal of Literacy and Technology, vol. 16, no. 1, 2015, pp. 107-28.
Potter, Ursula. To School or Not to School: Tudor Views on Education in Drama and Literature. Parergon, vol. 25, no. 1, 2008, pp. 103–121.

Key Online Sources

Best, Michael. Literacy. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/education/literacy.html. Accessed 13 Sep. 2018.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. Printing Press. Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Sep. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/technology/printing-press. Accessed 15 Sep. 2018.
Egger, Christine A. Literacy and Libraries in Sixteenth Century England. Library History Round Table News and Notes. Emporia State University, 22 August 2016. https://lhrt.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/literacy-and-libraries-in-sixteenth-century-england1.pdf. Accessed 12 Sep. 2018.
Grudin, Robert. Humanism. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/topic/humanism. Accessed 13 Sep. 2018.
Kreis, Steven. Renaissance Humanism. The History Guide Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History, 2016. https://www.historyguide.org/intellect/humanism.html. Accessed 12 Sep. 2018.

Prosopography

Jesse Crossett

Jesse Crossett was a student at Utah Valley University.

Kate McPherson

Kate McPherson is Professor of English and Honors Program Director at Utah Valley University (Orem, UT, USA). In 2015, she began working to redevelop Shakespeare’s Life and Times, created by Michael Best, into the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Her other publications include commentary on Pericles and The Comedy of Errors for the New Oxford Shakespeare (2016); the co-edited volumes Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England with James Mardock (Duquesne University Press, 2014) and Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, with Kathryn M. Moncrief and Sarah Enloe (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013). With Kathryn M. Moncrief, Kate has also two edited collections, Performing Pedagogy in Early Modern England: Gender, Instruction, and Performance (Ashgate, 2011) and Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2008). She has also published numerous articles on early modern maternity in scholarly journals. Kate participated in the 2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute, Shakespeare’s Blackfriars: The Study, the Stage, the Classroom, at the American Shakespeare Center. She also served as Play Seminar Director, a public humanities position, for the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2017 and 2018.

Leah Hamby

Leah Hamby is the primary encoder for the Early Modern England Encyclopedia. Aside from encoding, she also works as an editor for the project and contributed several articles of her own. She has been working on the EMEE since February 2023. As of February 2026, she is soon to graduate with honours from Utah Valley University with a major in history and a minor in creative writing. Her other work with the LEMDO program includes remediating William Kemp’s Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder for the Digital Renaissance Editions.

Michael Best

Michael Best is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, BC. He founded the Internet Shakespeare Editions in 1996, and was Coordinating Editor until 2017, contributing two editions to the ISE: King John and King Lear (the latter also available in print from Broadview Press). In print, he has published editions of works of Elizabethan magic and huswifery, a collection of letters from the Australian goldfields, and Shakespeare on the Art of Love (2008). He contributed regular columns for the Shakespeare Newsletter on Electronic Shakespeares, and has written many articles and chapters for both print and online books and journals, principally on questions raised by the new medium in the editing and publication of texts. He has delivered papers and plenary lectures on electronic media and the Internet Shakespeare Editions at conferences in Canada, the USA, the UK, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

University of Victoria (UVIC1)

https://www.uvic.ca/

Metadata

Authority title Literacy in Early Modern England
Type of text Critical
Publisher University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series Early Modern England Encyclopedia
Source
By Jesse Crossett and Kate McPherson, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions
Editorial declaration This document uses Canadian English spelling
Edition Released with Early Modern England Encyclopedia 1.0a
Sponsor(s)

Early Modern England Encyclopedia

Anthology Leads: Kate McPherson and Kate Moncrief.
Encoding description Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status published
Funder(s) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Mitacs Globalink Research Internship
Utah Valley University
License/availability
Unless otherwise noted, intellectual copyright in EMEE Anthology pages is held by Kate McPherson on behalf of the contributors. Copyright on the TEI-XML markup is held by the University of Victoria on behalf of the LEMDO Team. The content and TEI-XML markup in this file are licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. This file is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and /or data; (2) this availability statement must remain in the file; (3) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except for quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (4) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the authors, EMEE, and LEMDO. Neither the content nor the code in this file is licensed for training large language models (LLMs), ingestion into an LLM, or any use in any artificial intelligence applications; such uses are considered to be commercial uses and are strictly prohibited.