The Adages of Erasmus

Although it is abridged and selected from the vast collection of Erasmus' adages, the selections given are quite nice. Some rather long, but most are short.

Perfect for teaching the Middle Ages.

Just what I was looking for!

For an unknown reason this volume which is essential is missing in many public and university libraries, where it belongs.

This book is everything I expected when I bought it after reading reviews. I am very happy with this purchase.

excellent work

This book is his selected works.But the explanation is very everything down to the minutest details.Expensive a little.

It is hard to believe that a compilation of over 4,000 adages from Greek and Latin could ever be a bestseller, but that is what happened five hundred years ago when Erasmus started publishing his editions of adages. Erasmus is more famous for _Praise of Folly_ (1511) which is still funny and represents a pinnacle of sly wit and subversive erudition. His compilation of adages, however, was his most popular work in his own time. You can still find the full edition all of them, in six volumes, but now there is a one volume selection, _The Adages of Erasmus_ (University of Toronto Press), selected by William Barker. As an introduction to renaissance thinking and to an astonishingly well-read and retentive mind, this edition of the _Adages_ is excellent, but it is also a reminder to us moderns of how deeply the roots of learning go back into the past.The _Adages_ became influential just as adages themselves are to our way of thinking. Proof that this particular collection continues to influence us comes most pointedly from a couple of mistakes that Erasmus made. In his discussion of "He calls figs figs, a spade a spade," Erasmus took the Greek "skaptein" meaning "to dig" as the source of "scapha;" he thought it was a spade, but it actually is a small dugout boat, or skiff. The meaning of theproverb is unchanged; Erasmus explains, "It suits a man who speaks the truth in a simple and countrified style, who tells of things as they are, and does not wrap them up in ornamental verbiage." But ever since Erasmus, no one has said "to call a skiff a skiff." Time and again, this collection points out very familiar ideas which were first voiced thousands of years ago; Erasmus discusses "To leave no stone unturned," "Know thyself," "The cart before the horse," and many more which, except for translation, are entirely the same as they were for the ancients. To read the _Adages_ is to find comfort in this sort of scholarly stability. In addition, there are a good many expressions here, some crude, which didn't make it to modern times, but perhaps should have. Erasmus, admitting "the line is too obscene to give much pleasure to the translator," reflects on "In canis podicem inspicere," from Aristophanes: "I told him to go and look into a dog's anus."Many of the adages here show a citation and a very brief explanation, but those who wish weightier matter will enjoy reading the digressions. Sometimes Erasmus apologizes for going far from his source proverb, but by such means he gives us his ideas on the proper upbringing of princes, his own work in scholarly explication, or the futility of war. It is clear that he delights in pointing out to his contemporaries the continuation of learning from the ancients and the need to adopt the lessons to his own times. This large and attractive summary of his thought in _Adages_ is just right for those who wish to take the lessons into our own.

EXCELLENT BOOK THE U OF T AUTHOR WRITES WELL. JUST " GETS hiP" AND TALKS ABOUT HIMSELF TOO. IF YOU ARE FOND OF LITERATURE THIS IS A MUST READ!