The Art of Teaching Noble Children in Castile from the 15th and 16th Centuries

Abstract

Between the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century, the interest of the learned men and kings of Castile grew for the education of the nobles, largely due to the exchange of influences with the humanists who came from Italy. Through some treatises containing virtuous examples, rules for the education of sons and daughters were established by Castile scholars. Our main objective is to examine these treaties in which dialogue is established between the father and the children. The treatises on the education of men are: Manera de criar a los hijos written by Rodeigo Sanchez de Arebalo and De liberis educandis written by Antonio Nebrija. In addition to the richness of their content, such treatises were chosen because of their wide diffusion in the Iberian Peninsula. Most of them presented themselves as a sort of art of life, which leads us to question how such new or resumed notions were recurring in the period and projected ideals of good conduct for men.