Uma genealogia dos impressos para o ensino da escrita no Brasil no século XIX

Abstract

The aim of this article is to characterize and understand the different models and formats of textbooks or other printed material for teaching the basics of writing, used in the Province of Minas Gerais and in Brazil, from the early nineteenth century. Before the production of more authorial books to teach reading at school, we find mention of the use of literacy primers, ABC letters and first reading books. In the absence of well preserved materials, we searched for evidence of how they were presented and used, in primary sources (correspondence, reports, performance charts) produced in the Province of Minas Gerais since 1823. With these sources the use of tables, boards and letters was problematised. Another set of sources examined is composed of four Brazilian textbooks and a book translated into Portuguese, whose titles contained such denominations as first reading book, literacy primers and ABC letters. The research is based not only on studies related to the history of books and reading (Roger Chartier), which deal with the types of text, printed matter and their uses but also to studies on the history of literacy education in the same period. For a comparative analysis, French secondary sources help to understand the form and uses of tables, literacy primers and first reading books.