Abnehmende Bedeutung des Übergangs zwischen Kindes- und Jugendalter durch vermehrte Lateinschulbildung im Mittelalter?

Abstract

J. Hajnal set up the these that the Western European marriage pattern was characterized by a relatively late marriage in broad strata of the population below the elites. The adolescence, the long period between sexual maturity and marriage, was often spent in the service of a foreign household. I examined the view on children in popular, didactic texts aimed at urban laypeople, comparing sources from around 1300 with those from around 1500. Hajnal’s foregoing finding is primarily supported by the early sources. From adolescence on, the terms for young people changed from gender-unspecific “kint [child]” to “kneht” or “meit”. These youths are mostly mentioned as servants. By 1500, there were significantly more Latin schools than by 1300 and they did no longer serve the sole purpose of providing clerics. The examined sources from this period deal mainly with the socialization of boys to erudition; that of girls and unlearned boys, still the majority of adolescents, is mentioned only in passing. A different gender-specific socialization of “sun [son]” and “tochter [daughter]” appears to be a more important aspect than the break between childhood and adolescence in the life cycle.