From this time onwards we begin to get fuller particulars of the school curriculum. Hence it is only necessary for us to quote representative examples.
I. Ipswich.
Some particulars of the curriculum of a grammar school may be gleaned from an extract from an entry in the Ipswich Court Book of 1476-7. It runs:—
“The grammar master shall henceforth have the jurisdiction and governaunce of all scholars within the liberty and precinct of this town, except only petties called “Apeseyes” and song, taking for his salary from each grammar scholar, psalter scholar, and primer scholar, according to the tariff fixed by the Bishop of Norwich, viz. for each grammarian 10d., psalterian 8d., and primerian 6d. a quarter.”[729]
This extract brings out four grades of instruction.
1. The petties or infants, consisting of those who learnt the A B C.[730]
2. Those who were studying a primer.[731]
3. Those learning the Psalms.
4. Those studying Donatus and Priscian.