Editing Literacy (section)

=== Medieval and early modern eras ===
The rates and forms of literacy in the European Medieval period vary and are controversial: historian Elaine Treharne writes of "a complex era of strategic literacy, generic fluidity, and linguistic competencies beyond our own experiences."<ref >"However, the medieval period in its entirety yields far more when seen holistically, like the manuscripts and texts themselves, without our false categorizations of secular versus religious, French versus English, educated versus uneducated, written versus oral, central versus marginal. Our own hierarchies are in urgent need of reassessment if we are to understand a complex era of strategic literacy, generic fluidity, and linguistic competencies beyond our own experiences." {{cite journal |last1=Treharne |first1=Elaine |title=The vernaculars of medieval England, 1170-1350 |journal=The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Culture |date=24 March 2011 |pages=217–236 |doi=10.1017/CCOL9780521856898.011|isbn=978-0-521-85689-8 }}</ref> Historian Malcolm Parkes contrasts the different expertise of the professionally literate class, cultivated readers, and pragmatic readers.<ref>"At least by the twelfth century, a more complex hierarchy of literacies arose. Thus, the literacy of the professionally literate class sits at the pinnacle of a triangle, under which are the literacy of the "cultivated reader" or aristocratic non-professional and the still more limited literacy of the "pragmatic reader" who reads and writes in the course of conducting his trade." {{cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain |date=17 July 2017 |doi=10.1002/9781118396957.wbemlb561}}</ref> Historian Mark Hailwood suggests another two type of near-literacy in Early Modern England, of "abcederian literates" who could spell out words to read, and of people who knew the letters though not words, were particularly common in Southern English rural areas: 50% of husbandmen could either sign their name or provide an initial.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hailwood |first1=Mark |title=Rethinking Literacy in Rural England, 1550–1700 |journal=Past & Present |date=24 July 2023 |issue=260 |pages=38–70 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtac019}}</ref>

Post-Antiquity illiteracy was made worse by the lack of a suitable writing medium, as when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the import of [[papyrus]] to Europe ceased. Since papyrus perishes easily and does not last well in the wetter European climate, [[parchment]] was used, which was expensive and accessible only by the church and the wealthy. [[Paper]] was introduced into Europe via Spain in the 11th century and spread north slowly over the next four centuries. Literacy saw a resurgence as a result, and by the 15th century, paper was widespread.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=History of publishing → Medieval, Manuscripts, Scriptoria |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing/The-medieval-book |access-date=2023-12-22}}</ref>

Estimates of literacy rates vary by time, class, location, sex and reliability: "Unfortunately, there is no statistical information that allows generalizations to be made in terms of numerical proportions or percentages, either for rates of literacy among the medieval population or for annual book production."<ref name=clanchy/> 

However, here are some indicative estimates. Rates are often extrapolated from the number of people who can sign their name on official documents. First, rough estimates by economic historian Robert Allen, based on the urban/rural split of the population:<ref name=allen>{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Robert C. |title=Progress and Poverty in Early Modern Europe |journal=The Economic History Review |date=2003 |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=403–443 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2003.00257.x |jstor=3698570 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3698570 |issn=0013-0117}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+ European adult literacy 
|-
! Nation !! 1500 (%) !! 1800 (%)
|-
| England || 6 || 53
|-
| Netherlands || 10|| 68
|-
| Belgium || 10||49
|-
| Germany || 6 || 35
|-
| France || 7 || 37
|-
| Austria/Hungary || 6 || 21
|-
| Poland || 6 || 21
|-
| Italy || 9 || 22
|-
| Spain || 9 || 20
|}
However:
* In the late 1200s, there were 1,500 notaries in Milan, over 1% of the population, for drawing up contracts.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Britnell |first1=Richard |chapter=Bureaucracy and Literacy |title=A Companion to the Medieval World |date=26 March 2009 |pages=413–434 |doi=10.1002/9781444324198.ch20|isbn=978-1-4051-0922-2 }}</ref>{{rp|421}}
* "By 1300, 'everyone knew someone who could read', and there were books in every church and every village."<ref name=clanchy>{{cite book |last1=Clanchy |first1=Michael |chapter=Parchment and Paper: Manuscript Culture 1100–1500 |title=A Companion to the History of the Book |date=16 September 2019 |pages=219–233 |doi=10.1002/9781119018193.ch15}}</ref>
* By 1500, in England, "probably more than half the population could read, though not necessarily also write."<ref name=clanchy/> [[Thomas More]] in 1533 claimed that up to 60% of the population could read English, a figure supported by some studies of London but not by others. One study estimates that in the city of York in 1500, about 25% of upper and middle class people were literate.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Moran |first1=J. Hoeppner |title=Literacy and Education In Northern England, 1350-1550: A Methodological Inquiry |journal=Northern History |date=June 1981 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.1179/nhi.1981.17.1.1}}</ref>  This contrasts with Stevens' estimates of male literacy of 10% by the start of the century (with almost no female literacy)), 20% by the end, and 45% by the end of the 1600s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stephens |first1=W. B. |title=Literacy in England, Scotland, and Wales, 1500-1900 |journal=History of Education Quarterly |date=1990 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=545–571 |doi=10.2307/368946 |jstor=368946 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/368946 |issn=0018-2680}}</ref> 
* In Venice in 1587, 33% of men were estimated as literate.<ref name=allen/>

Inspired by the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], [[Sweden]] implemented programs in 1723 aimed at making the population fully literate.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Vincent |first=David |editor-first1=John L. |editor-first2=Eileen H. |editor-last1=Rury |editor-last2=Tamura |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Education |year=2019 |chapter=The Modern History of Literacy |chapter-url=https://oro.open.ac.uk/69072/3/69072.pdf |access-date=December 21, 2023 |at=7 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199340033.013.30 |isbn=978-0-199-34003-3 }}</ref> Other countries implemented similar measures at this time. These included Denmark in 1739, Poland in 1783, and France in 1794/5.<ref name=":1" />

Literacy was well established in early 18th century England, when books geared towards children became far more common. Near the end of the century, as many as 50 were printed every year in major cities around England.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The origins of children's literature |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-childrens-literature |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=British Library |archive-date=1 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301053319/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-childrens-literature |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In [[Edo-period]] Japan, literacy in the three major cities has been estimated at 70% for men, 40% for females, but 1% in the country areas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tsujimoto |first1=Masashi |title=Maturing of a Literate Society--Literacy and Education in the Edo Peried (17th-19th century) |journal=Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry |date=2000 |url=http://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/290366}}</ref>