288 pages / 6.00 x 9.00 inches / no illustrations
Education History | History / France | Religion / History
In Three Centuries of Girls’ Education, Mary Anne O’Neil offers both an examination and the first English translation of Les Règlemens des religieuses Ursulines de la Congrégation de Paris. Published in 1705, Regulations is the first pedagogical system explicitly designed for the education of girls. It is also one of the few surviving documents describing the day-to-day operations of early Ursuline schools.
O’Neil traces the history of the document from the writings of the Italian foundress of the Ursulines, to the establishment of the religious order in Paris in 1612, to the changes in the organization of Ursuline schools in nineteenth-century France, and, finally, to Mother Marie de St. Jean Martin’s spirited defense of the traditional French Ursuline method after World War II. In the eighteenth century, New Orleans Ursulines used the Regulations as a guide to establish their schools and teaching methods. Overall, O’Neil’s history and translation recover a vital source for historians of the early modern era but will also interest scholars in the fields of education history and female religious life.
Mary Anne O’Neil is professor emerita of French at Whitman College and author of La France et la francophonie: Conversations with Native Speakers and From Babel to Pentecost: The Poetry of Pierre Emmanuel.
“Mary Anne O’Neil’s study of Les Règlemens des religieuses Ursulines, a foundational document in French pedagogy, will be of great value for cultural and intellectual historians as well as educators.”—Catharine Savage Brosman, Tulane University
“O’Neil’s book gives educators, historians, and Francophiles an opportunity to discover the Ursuline nuns’ ‘motherly’ teaching method that encourages girls to develop their intellectual gifts as they prepare to become wives, mothers, and contributing members of society.”—Dolliann Hurtig, Louisiana Tech University
“In this cogent and elegantly written study, Mary Anne O’Neil expertly situates these guidelines in their original context and chronicles their evolution over a period of more than three centuries. Crowning the volume is O’Neil’s highly readable translation of the 1705 edition of the Regulations. Touching on everything from preparation for First Communion to organization of the lunchroom, this crisp English rendering of the Regulations gives us precious insight into the lives of the girls and women who were part of the Ursuline convent schools.”—John R. Iverson, Whitman College
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