Bengt Gottfried Forselius (ca 1660, Harju-Madise, Harju County, Estonia (then part of Sweden) – 16 November 1688, Baltic Sea) was a founder of public education in Estonia, author of the first Estonian language ABC-book, and creator of a spelling system which made the teaching and learning of Estonian easier. Forselius and Johan Hornung were mainly responsible for making a start at reforming the Estonian literary language in the late 17th century. Some German constructions were abandoned, and a strict spelling system was adopted which still relied on German orthography. Events Expulsion of the Carib indigenous people from Martinique by French occupying forces. ... Harju County or Harjumaa (Estonian Harju maakond or Harjumaa) is a County or maakond of Estonia on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland. ... The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, from 53 deg. ... The Estonian language (eesti keel) is spoken by about 1. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... The orthography of a language is the set of rules of how to write correctly in the writing system of a language. ...

Forselius was a Swede born in Estonia. His father was a Swede from Finland, thus the family was familiar with Finnic languages. Forselius spoke good Estonian as well as Swedish and German. He received his first education at the Tallinn (Reval) Gymnasium and then graduated with a law degree from the University of Wittenberg in Germany. Geographical distribution of Finno-Ugric (Finno-Permic in blue, Ugric in green). ... County Harju County Mayor Tõnis Palts Area 159. ... The Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg is located in the German cities of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt and Wittenberg. ...

In 1684, after returning to Estonia, Forselius founded the first teachers’ college, to teach Estonian schoolteachers and parish clerks, in Piiskopimõisa (Bishop’s Manor) near Tartu (Dorpat). The course there lasted for two years, with emphasis on fluent reading, religion instruction, German, arithmetic and bookbinding. Forselius introduced a new method of teaching whereby, instead of remaining passive, during lessons one student read aloud while the others followed. In 1686, an ABC-book devised by him was introduced into use in Estonian schools. Events France under Louis XIV makes Truce of Ratisbon separately with the Empire and Spain. ... The term college (Latin collegium) is most often used today to denote an educational institution. ... County Tartu County Mayor Laine Jänes Area 38. ... Events The League of Augsburg is founded. ...

Many local Baltic German aristocrats at the time disliked Forselius’ idea of encouraging peasants to aspire to education and complained that pupils of the schools were taken by the Swedish army or that school fees were expensive. Forselius countered this by taking two of his best pupils, Ignati Jaak and Pakri Hansu Jüri, from the parish of Kambja to Stockholm, where their abilities impressed King Charles XI of Sweden. The Baltic Germans (German: Deutsch-Balten, Deutschbalten, sometimes incorrectly Baltendeutsche), were ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea which forms today the countries of Estonia and Latvia. ... Kambja seems to be one of the most promising neighbourhoods to live in Tartu County - with its ten-minute drive to Tartu it is already a place for a quiet rest for many who spend their working hours in the rushing town of Tartu. ... The Old town in Stockholm from the air Stockholm â–¶(?) is the capital of Sweden, located on the east coast at the entrance of lake Mälaren. ... Charles XI (Karl XI) (November 24, 1655 – April 5, 1697) was King of Sweden from 1660 until his death. ...

By the late 17th century, there is evidence that up to 70% of the adult population of Estonia were literate, as compared to 30% - 40% in contemporary Great Britain. Forselius had founded 41 peasant schools by the time he died in 1688. He was drowned during a storm on his return from Stockholm where he had just been appointed inspector of Livonian peasant schools with the power to create as many as he saw fit. Literacy is the ability to use text to communicate across space and time. ... Livonia (Latvian: Livonija; Estonian: Liivimaa; German: Livland; Polish: Inflanty; Russian: Лифляндия or Liflandiya) once was the land of the Finnic Livonians, but came in the Middle Ages to designate a much broader territory controlled by the Livonian Order on the eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea in present-day Latvia and...