Studies in the Contents and Sources of Erasmus' Adagia: With Particular Reference to the First Edition, 1500, and the Edition of 1526 ...

163 Pages·10.079 MB·English

by  Theodore Charles Appelt

TZbe Ulntpersit]? of Chicago
S T U D I E S I N T H E C O N T E N T S A N D
S O U R C E S O F E R A S M U S ’
A D A G I O
WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE FIRST
EDITION, 1500, AND THE EDITION OF 1526
A DISSERTATION S U B M I T T E D TO T H E
FACULTY OF T H E DIVISION OF T H E
HUMANITIES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE
DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
department or germanic languages and literatures
1942
B y
THEODORE CHARLES APPELT
Private Edition, Distributed by
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARIES
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
1942

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author of this study is glad to acknowledge his in­
debtedness to Dr. Archer Taylor, of the University of California,
formerly of the University of Chicago, for suggesting the subject
and for invaluable counsel and aid; to Dr. John G. Kunstmann for
his ready advice and expert guidance of the work and for the cri­
tical reading of the manuscript; to Dr. Helena M. Gamer for many
helpful recommendations.
Ceterum; Soli Deo gloria I
ii
*
I
TABLE OP CONTENTS
Pago
LIST OP TABLES.....................................................ill
INTRODUCTION...................................................... 1
PART ONE:
THE CONTENTS OP THE APAGIA
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ....................... . . . . 5
Chapter
I. THE APAGIA A CONTRIBUTION TO HUMANISTIC LEARNING _____ 9
II. THE DIDACTIC, MORALISTIC CONTENTS OP THE PROVERBS. . 41
III. ERASMUS» OBSERVATIONS ON SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND
CULTURAL CONDITIONS OP HIS T I M E .......................48
IV. E R A S M I A N A ................................................. 65
PART TWO:
SOURCES THE APAGIA
V. THE COLLECTANEA...........................................68
VI. THE C H I L I A D E S ............................................144
APPENDIX: EDITIONS AND REPRINTS OP THE ADAGIA AVAILABLE
IN THE UNITED STATES......... “ ! T“..................147
BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................... 153
111
I
I
LIST OP TABLES
Table Page
1. Frequency of Identity of Writers Mentioned In Commen­
taries on the Same Proverbs In the Collectanea and
the Llbellus......................... 70
.
2 Proverbs Identical in the Llbellus and the Collectanea 73
3. Authors Mentioned In the Collectanea with the Correspond­
ing Numbers of the ProvorBs in the ChiIiadee (1526) and
References to Greek Sources.............................. 78
4 * Verification of Proverbs from Horace ................... 120
5. Verification of Proverbs from Terence..................... 122
.
6 Verification of Proverbs from Gellius..................... 124
7. Year and Place of Publication of Incunabula of Authors
Mentioned In the Collectanea............. - 128
.
8 Sources of Proverbs In the Collectanea Which Erasmus
Does Not Indicate as of Greek Origin and for Which He
Does Not Give Proveniences................................. 139
9. Frequency Table of Writers Mentioned In the Chiliades 144
I
INTRODUCTION
The Importance of the Adagia of Erasmus of Rotterdam is
generally recognized by writers dealing with sixteenth-century
humanism and by students of literary criticism and education.
Wolfgang Stammler emphasizes the significance of this work as a
|manifestation of the Interest on the part of Erasmus and of his
age in the saws and sayings of the common folk {das Volkstflmliche)
To G. Bebermeyer It is outstanding as a departure from pre-human-
fiatic proverb collections Inasmuch as It was to serve as a guide
I to the acquisition of a classical Latin style and to supersede
I similar collections written In the impure Latin style of the scho-
o
| lastics. William G. Crane brings out the wide use made of this
Ibook as one of the "most favored sources of material for the am-
Iplification and ornamentation of students* themes," and as "a
I thesaurus from which English collections of sententious materials
^ were drawn." G. Ellinger emphasizes Its didactic, moralistic
$ 4 5 6 7
if value. Gustav Wolf, Friedrich Seller, and John J. Mangan
|point out its importance as a model for other collections of pro-
I ^Wolfgang Stammler, Von der Mystik zus Barock (Stuttgart,
I 1927), p . 38.
t
o
G. Bebermeyer, "Sprichwort," Reallexikon der deutschen
ILIteraturgeschichte, ed. Paul Marker and Wolfgang Stammler, XIX
| TB^lIn/'TSSS^ISffST), 284.
| 3WIlliam G. Crane, Wit and Rhetoric in the Renaissance
(New York: Columbia University Press, l(j37 J, pp. ad r.
40. Ellinger, "Humanismus," Reallexikon der deutschen
LIteraturgeschichte, ed. Paul Marker and Wolfgang Stammler, X
TBTrl'In, T§2'5-1925), 555.
^Gustav Wolf, Quellenkunde der deutschen Reformations-
gesohichte {Gotha, 1915), I, 354. :
Friedrich Seller, Deutsche Sprlchw8rterkunde, Vol. IV,
Part III of Handbuch des deutschen tJnterrichts, ed. Adolf Matthias
I (Mfbichen, 19fe2) , pp. lo5 £.
i 7
I John J. Mangan, Life, Character, and. Influence of
| Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (New York, 1927), m 126 F.
verbs. Margaret Mann refers to Calvings works as proof that he,
like many scholars of his time, made use of the Adagia.1 Accord-
O
ing to Loesche, Luther considered it an immortal work. Marcel
Batalllon informs us that when the library of the Archbishop
r
Carranza was inventoried by the Inquisition, a copy of the Adagia
<1
was found among Carranza's books. He also points out that America
Castro has found evidence in his studies of Cervantes that Cervant !
very probably consulted this proverb collection quite often, or
at least heard it read by his teacher, Lopez de Hajos.^ Prom the f
works of George Chapman, Schoell lists a large number of adages *
and allusions to adages which Chapman in all probability took
5
from the Adagia. Morris P. Tilley discovered in Lyly’s Euphues ,
and Pettie's Petite Palace 167 proverbs appearing also in the i
works of Erasmus, and, quite probably, taken from them. Fifty- *
five of these are contained in the Slmllia, 112 in the Adagia.
I have found five mere in Tilley's list which may have had their
provenience in the Adagia. The significance of this Erasmian
^Margaret Mann, "Erasme et les debuts de la reforme
franoalse (1517-36),” Bibliotheque LItteWire de la Renaissance,
Nouvelle Serie, XXII (1934), l72. ~
Georg Loesche, Analecta Lutherans et Melanthonla (Gotha,
1892), p. 69,* No. 43: *rD £!d . ifartinus Lutherus] probabat copiam
et adagia; reliqua, inquit, peribunt."
Marcel Batalllon, Brasme. et l'Espagne; Reoherohes but
l'histoire spirltuelle du XV1° siecie (Paris, 1$37), p. 581, n. 3.i
_ 842.
5 / .«■
Franck L* Schoell, Etude3 aur 1yhtnnanlsme oontinenfcal en gl
Angleterre la fin de la renallssance (Paris, 1926), pp. 45-61. |
6Morris Palmer Tilley, Elizabethan Proverb Lore in Lyly's
'Euphues' and in Pettie's 'Petite Pallace' ^ibh Parallels from
Shakespeare {"dniversify^of Michigan Publications, Language and
Literature,” II [New York, 1926]}. Those I have found are the I
following. Tilley's No. 288: "Gold Is tried by the touch stone" |
(Adagia, ed. 1500, p. 18--Aurum lapide: auro mens hominum explo­
re tur) ; No. 395: "Live and learn (Adagia, ed! 1500, p. 131-—
Consenesco quotldle addlscens aliquod); No. 468: "Take occasion
by the forelock" (Adagia! ed! 1500, p. 94 — -Occasionem arripere);
No. 651: "Try your friend before you trust him" (Adagia, ed.
1526, No. 1014.— Nemini fldas nl3i cum quo prlus modum sails ab-
sumpserls); No. <593: "Be is not wise who Is not wise for himself’1!
(Adagia^ed. 1500, p. 65— Ne qulcquam sapit qui slbi nihil saplt)