The Tudor writer Roger Ascham (c.1514 1568) was royal tutor to Princess Elizabeth. Ascham is best known for his works Toxophilus (1545) and The Scholemaster (1570) which were edited, together with his Report of the Affairs and State of Germany (1570), by the renowned literary scholar William Aldis Wright (1831 1914) and published in 1904 as part of the Cambridge English Classics series. Toxophilus, a Ciceronian dialogue between Philologus (the lover of study) and Toxophilus (the lover of the bow), articulates the importance of physical training to a gentleman's education. The Scholemaster,...

Sir Richard Phillips (1767 1840) was a London-born author and publisher of educational textbooks who used a vast array of pseudonyms, including that of Reverend C. C. Clarke. Phillips' marketing techniques - the systematic borrowing of famous (living or deceased) authors' names for his textbooks, along with the multiplication of easy to produce related educational products - were key to his success. No doubt meant as an accessible encyclopaedia, this 40th edition of 1834 - attributed to Phillips himself - is a surprisingly vast and heterogeneous survey, which compiles natural and man-made...

Throughout his career as a theologian, deacon, priest and cardinal, John Henry Newman (1801 1890) remained a committed believer in the value of education. A graduate of Trinity College, Oxford, his own academic experiences shaped his friendships, politics and faith. His Discourses (1852), delivered initially as a series of lectures when he was rector of the newly-established Catholic University of Ireland, inspired a generation of young and talented Catholic scholars. Providing an intelligent but accessible analysis of the relationship between theology and other academic disciplines, the...