7 Posts in 7 Days (Latin Version) Antique Latin Textbooks

My love of old books and my nerdy fascination with Latin textbooks intersects in these two books.  My sister, Terri, going through boxes of stuff after our father died, found this falling part Latin book that apparently my great aunt Jenn used back in 1893.  She gave it me, being the good sister she is.

Aunt Jenn's name and date:  Jennie Anstead, Dec. 28, 1893.  Apparently, back in high school she was Jenny but my father never called her anything but Aunt Jenn.  

The book is in very poor condition. I found what must have been used as a bookmark in it.  It had discolored the pages it had been tucked between. The writing across the top there says Kensington Ave.

A sample of what the text inside looks like.  This is the page on learning common irregular verbs.

Here they are learning to read a little bit of Caesar.

The second book belonged to Aunt Jackie.  This one is called First Latin Lessons and it is by Scott and Horn, the same two names that appear on the Using Latin textbook my daughter used.  That one dated from the late 1950s I believe.  This one, below, has as its latest copyright, 1928.

This textbook from 1928 is in excellent condition.

I think the differences in the two texts are telling.  The older one is slimmer with no pictures.  I think printing and binding were expensive.  But in 1928, perhaps right before the big crash, money can be spent on things like colored plates of illustrations.  Also, this book has more than just the very basics.  It contains things like the nursery rhyme Little Jack Horner written in Latin, and little plays based on The Odyssey, to help the students practice their Latin.

The book has many of these charming plates, most in color but some in black and white.

The text also has photos and some black and white sketches.

Here we see Jackie's tiny, precise writing as she learned her interrogative pronouns.

A play about the cyclops from The Odyssey.

Compared to textbooks that are geared for public schools today, I find this one so much easier on the eyes.  Now the pages in a textbook are colored and broken up into blocks and very busy.  I think this one is a nice balance of text vs. illustrations and blocked off asides.  

And this concludes my 7 Posts for 7 Days.  I have so much more I could say, but I'll stop now.  Restraint here is probably a good thing!  But it has been fun indulging in this obscure little fascination of mine.