J. A. Comenius – the man of yearning

The novelty of Comenius’ textbook “Orbis Sensualium Pictus” (1658) has traditionally been seen in the employment of object teaching in foreign language instruction. The author, however, gives equal or even prior importance to the application of object teaching in education of students, and to prove her claim she makes a thorough analysis of "Orbis pictus": She describes its origin, discovers its arrangement system, evaluates its philosophical, pedagogical, psychological and didactic qualities, she finds varied functions of pictures in the book, examines the form of texts, and traces the projection of Comenius’ personality in his work. In coclusion the author judges "Orbis pictus" by the criteria of the presentday foreign language instruction. She finds the unchanged value of its education goals, seeking for humanism, which makes "Orbis pictus" still living.