Erasmus, Adages, Adagia, proverbs, Zenobius, Mignault, Andreas Schottus, Michael Apostolius



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13. The Adagia of Erasmus: versions and sources

THE FIRST EDITORIAL SUCCESS OF ERASMUS was the Adagia, published first in Paris in 1500. That first Collectanea adagiorum was only a small display of what he would accomplish later, spurred by the desire to collect, as Aulus Gellius did in his Attican nights, his miscellaneous reading notes. At that time Erasmus was in his thirties, at a crucial moment of his life, still developing, but already with a strong personalty and ambitions that would characterize him later. The Adagia, with their continuous amplifications, corrections and reeditions became the most monumental and at the same time most influential collection of proverbs in Europe. They accompanied Erasmus throughout his mature period, and were spread throughout the world in various reprinted, reorganized, abbreviated, commented, translated or mutilated versions.

This is a basic work for an understanding of the culture of the sixteenth century. Its author opened a window on the ancient world, by utilizing those sayings – Classical proverbs, idioms and metaphors – that evoke it in a uniquely vivid way. His intent was to approach the Classics by means of the mediocriter litterati. offering as well, through the very same adages, effective aides de mémoire, so that one might comfortably retain knowledge about the ancient world. Since, Erasmus insisted, emphasizing the oracular element of the adages, "in the proverbs of the ancient world is all its wisdom enshrined".

The edition of 1508 – Venice, Aldus Manutius – apart from being considerably enlarged, also included interesting reflections on the adages themselves, as well as on Classical knowledge and language. The adage, from this point forward, was conceived as an essence of meaning, which needs the process of explanation to be understood in its totality. An apparently trivial sentence can hold a treasure of wisdom. In 1515 the third edition was published in Basel, by Frobenius, with a new reflection on the moral and social application of these sentences, which in certain cases extends to the domain of politics and economics. From that time on every new edition of Frobenius included more and more additional adages; their number was only fixed with the edition of 1536. After the death of Erasmus, the 1558 Geneva edition by Henricus Stephanus contributed important commentaries that must be taken into consideration.

In our digital edition we include the complete text of the authoritative Opera omnia of Leiden (1703) with all its complementary material, adding the prefaces of all the previous editions and all the footnotes accompanying the text in this edition. These notes are partly from the editor of the Opera omnia, Jean Leclerc, and partly from the above-mentioned edition of Henricus Stephanus. Besides, we include the most important contemporary versions and paraphrases, such as the alterated and expurgated "Tridentine" edition, commissioned to Paolo Manuzio by the Papal Index Committee, which from 1575 on was the only version permitted to Catholics. We also provide the commentaries by Claude Mignault, as well as the rather loose translations by Richard Taverner, Johannes Decius and others.

In the second edition, in preparation, we also fully annotate the sources of Erasmus' quotations, and include the best contemporary editions of the source works utilized by Erasmus, such as the proverb collections of Zenobius or Apostolius.

Edition: 2006 — ISBN: 978-963-87196-4-5

 

 

Titles included:

• Erasmus, Adagia, de Opera omnia, Leiden 1703, edited and commented by Jean Leclerc
• Adagia, edited by Paulus Manutius, Roma 1575
• Spalatinus, Georgius, Man muß entweder ein konig oder aber ein narr geborn werden, s.l. 1520 (first German translation of the adage 1.3.1, Aut regem aut fatuum nasci oportere)
• Taverner, Richard, Proverbes or adagies… gathered out of the Chiliades by Erasmus, London 1539, y la segunda edición ampliada de 1545 (first English translation of the Adagia)
• Decius Baronius, Johannes, Adagiorum Graecolatinoungaricorum Chiliades, Bártfa 1598

Added in the second edition
(in preparation):

• Erasmus, Silenos de Alcibíades, Valencia: Jorge Costilla, 1529; and Antwerp: Martin Nucio, 1555 (editio optima)
• Mignault, Claude, Commentaries to the Adagia in the edition of Cologne 1612
• Zenobius, Epitomê tôn Tarrhaiou kai Didymou paroimiôn, with the Latin translation of Gilbert Cousin, Basilea: Henricus Petri 1562
• Schottus, Andrea, S. J., Adagia sive proverbia graecorum ex Zenobio seu Zenodoto, Diogeniano et Suidae collectaneis. Partim edita nunc primum partim latine reddita, scholiisque parallelis illustrata, Antwerp: Plantin 1612
• Michael Apostolius, Paroemiae, cum Petri Pantini versione, eiusque et doctorum notis, Leiden: Elzevir 1619
 

This little-known portrait of Erasmus, published in the Imagines virorum litteris illustrium (Strasbourg 1590) of Nicolaus Reusner, depicts him leaning against the statue of "Terminus", which he had chosen as his personal impresa. He himself explained the reasons for his choice in an essay that we publish here from Vol. X of his Opera omnia.
 

Desiderii Erasmi epistola apologetica de Termini sui inscriptione "Concedo nulli"

Des. Erasmus ornatissimo viro Alfonso Valdesio, Caesareae majestatis Secretario, S. D.

QVOD mihi pro tuo ingenio modestissime significas, idem ex aliorum litteris dilucide cognovi, exstitisse qui Terminum annuli mei sigillum in calumniam vocent, vociferantes intolerabilis arrogantiae esse, quod adjectum est symbolum, Concedo nulli. Quid est, si hic non est fatalis quidam morbus calumniandi omnia? Ridetur Momus, qui sandalium Veneris reprehenderit, at isti Momum ipsum superant, qui in annulo quod arrodant invenerint. Momos dicerem, sed Momus nihil carpit, nisi quod prius attente perspexerit. Isti φιλαίτιοι vel sycophantae potius, clausis oculis carpunt, quod nec vident, nec intelligunt. Tanta est morbi vis. Atque interim sibi videntur Ecclesiae columnae, cum nihil aliud quam traducant suam stoliditatem, cum pari malitia conjunctam, jam notiores Orbi quam expedit. Somniant ab Erasmo dici, Concedo nulli. Atqui si mea scripta legerent, viderent vix quenquam esse tam mediocrem ut illi me praeferam, citius concedens omnibus quam nulli. Jam qui me propius ex convictu familiari noverunt, quidvis vitii tribuent potius quam arrogantiam: meque fatebuntur propiorem esse illi Socratico, hoc unum scio, me nihil scire, quam huic, concedo nulli. Sed fingant animum tam insolentem esse mihi, ut memet omnibus anteponam, etiam-ne tam stultum existimant, ut id symbolo profitear? Si quid haberent Christianae mentis, interpretarentur ea verba, aut non esse mea, aut aliam habere sententiam. Vident illic sculptam imaginem, inferne saxum, superne juvenem capillis volitantibus. An haec habet aliquid Erasmi? Id si parum est, vident in ipso saxo expressum, Terminus, in quam dictionem si desinas, versus erit jambicus dimeter acatalectus, Concedo nulli terminus: Sin hinc incipias, erit dimeter trochaicus acatalectus, Terminus concedo nulli. Quid si pinxissem leonem, & addidissem symboli loco, Fuge, ni mavis discerpi, num haec verba mihi tribuerent pro leone? At nihilo sanius est, quod nunc faciunt: nam similior leoni sum, quam saxo, ni fallor. Dicent, non animadvertimus esse carmen, nec novimus Terminum. An igitur posthac crimen erit scripsisse carmen, quoniam illi metricam rationem non didicerunt? Certe cum scirent in hujusmodi symbolis captari etiam obscuritatis aliquid, quod conjecturas intuentium exerceat, si non noverant Terminum, quanquam hoc ex Augustini & Ambrosii libris poterant discere, sciscitari debebant à talium rerum peritis. Olim fines agrorum signo quopiam discernebantur. Id erat saxum è terra prominens, quod ἀκίνητον esse jubebant Priscorum leges, quarum haec vox est apud Platonem, Quae non posuisti, ne tollas. Addita est superstitio, quo magis deterreretur imperita multitudo, à tollendi audacia, dum credit in saxo violari Deum, quem Romani Terminum vocant, cui fanum ac festum etiam dicatum, Terminalia. Hic Terminus, ut est in Romanis Annalibus, solus Jovi noluit concedere, quod cum caeterorum omnium sacellorum exaugurationes admitterent aves, in solo Termini fano non addixere. Refert T. Livius Libro ab Urbe condita I. ac rursus Lib. VI. narrat, quod cum augurato liberaretur Capitolium, Juventas Terminusque moveri se passi non sunt. Id omen magno omnium gaudio exceptum est, quod existimarent portendi perpetuitatem imperii. Juventus ad belulm utilis, & Terminus fixus est. Hîc forte clamabunt, quid tibi cum fabuloso Deo? Obvenit, non adscitus est. Alexander, Archiepiscopus titulo S. ANDREAE, cum à patre Jacobo, Scotiae Rege, Senis in patriam revocaretur, mihi Romam evocato, velut gratus & amicus discipulus, annulos aliquot dono dedit, habitae inter nos consuetudinis μνημόσυνον. In his erat, qui in gemma sculptum habebat Terminum. Nam hoc prius ignotum indicavit Italus quidam, rerum antiquarum curiosus. Arripui omen, & interpretatus sum admoneri me, non procul abesse vitae terminum: nam id temporis agebam annum circiter quadragesimum. Haec cogitatio ne posset excidere, litteris hoc signum imprimere coepi. Addidi carmen, ut ante dictum est. Itaque ex profano Deo feci mihi symbolum, adhortans ad vitae correctionem: Mors enim vere Terminus est, qui nulli cedere novit. Atqui in fusili imagine adscriptum est Graece, ὅρα τέλος μακροῦ βίου, id est, Specta finem longae vitae, Latine, Mors ultima linea rerum. Poteras, inquient, insculpere defuncti cranium. Forsitan accepturus eram, si obvenisset: sed hoc arrisit, primum quia fortuito contigit, deinde quod geminam haberet gratiam, alteram ex allusione ad priscam ac celebrem historiam, alteram ex obscuritate, quae symbolis est peculiaris. Habes Apologiam de Termino, seu verius de lana caprina. Atque utinam isti tandem calumniis suis terminum ponerent. Lubens enim cum illis paciscar, ut mutem symbolum meum si illi mutent morbum suum. Ita sane rectius consuluerint auctoritati suae, quam clamant per bonarum litterarum studiosos labefactari. Ego profecto tantum absum à cupiditate laedendi existimationem istorum, ut vehementer doleam, quod ipsi sese tam stolidis sycophantiis Orbi propinent deridendos, nec erubescant toties cum ludibrio confutati. Dominus te servet incolumem & corpore & animo, amice in Christo carissime. Datum Basileae, 1. Augusti, Anno 1528.

 

 

Impresa 66 of Guillaume Paradin on the same subject:
 

ed. Lyon 1557: Le Die Terminus des Rommeins, qui mesmes ne ceda à Iupiter, estoit la Deuise d’Erasme, sur laquelle un Cordelier nommé Caruayalus, lui improperoit & obiectoit, que ce faisoit il par grande arrogance: comme ne voulant (en sauoir) ceder à personne aucunement. Combien toutefois qu’elle se puisse entendre de la Mort, terme dernier & final de tous, que personne ne peut outrepasser. Response aussi que fit Erasme audit Carnayalus.

ed. London 1591: Erasmus Roterodamus vsed for his simbole the image of Terminus the God of the Romanes, which neuer gaue place to Iupiter himselfe, for the which thing Caruayalus a Franciscan frier found fault with him. Laying it to his charge, and obiecting it as a thing done too arrogantly of Erasmus, for that he thereby signified that he woulde yeelde to no man on earth in anie point of learning: although that sentence indeede may be vnderstoode of death which is the last or vttermost bond or limite of all things, which no man is able, or by anie meanes may escape, or flie from. with the which answere Caruayalus was satisfied and contented.

 

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