Limited Skill. Literacy, the ability to read and write, was a skill limited largely to clerical elites in Medieval Europe. These elites read and wrote Latin, the language of the church and the universities. The late medieval growth of cities and towns included a dramatic increase in the number of merchants, traders, and artisans. These townspeople maintained businesses that required the ability to write basic correspondence and maintain account books. By 1300 most European merchants were literate, and by 1500 many of their wives could also read and write. The growing numbers of functionally literate urbanites sought educational opportunities for their children as well. Townspeople broke the clerical monopoly on learning and created schools.

Schools. Italy, with four cities of populations about or more than one hundred thousand, led the way in education of urban boys and girls. Northern...