Erasmus's Adages And Their Afterlives

Adagia: Desiderius Erasmus's collection of Greek and Latin proverbs began in Paris in 1500 with about 800 entries and grew to more than 4,000 by 1536, becoming a sixteenth century bestseller that quietly seeded phrases into nearly every European language.

Pandora's Box: Hesiod described a storage jar, but Erasmus rendered it as a box in his Adages, and the mistranslation has outlived every correction for five centuries.

Sileni Alcibiadis: Erasmus turned this adage into a mini essay about ugly Silenus figurines that opened to reveal golden gods inside, using them to compare Socrates, Christ and honest people whose outsides hide their worth.

Dulce Bellum Inexpertis: Erasmus expanded 'War is sweet to those who have not tried it' into one of the most powerful antiwar essays of the Renaissance, published in 1515 and still anthologized today.

Scarabaeus Aquilam Quaerit: Erasmus used the Aesop fable of a dung beetle that destroys an eagle's eggs to warn that even the weakest enemy can ruin the mightiest ruler, in an adage that bluntly mocked kings and popes.

Festina Lente: 'Make haste slowly' was a favorite saying of Emperor Augustus, and Erasmus's essay on it was tied to the dolphin and anchor emblem that the Venetian printer Aldus Manutius stamped on his books.

Spartam Nactus Es: Erasmus loved 'You have inherited Sparta, now do your best for her,' a line about making the most of the role fate hands you, and he tied it directly to the duties of princes.

Amicorum Communia Omnia: The very first adage in Erasmus's collection says 'Among friends all things are common,' a saying credited to Pythagoras that he used as the front door of the whole book.

Lesbia Regula: A flexible leaden ruler used by builders on the island of Lesbos bent to fit curved stones, and Erasmus preserved it as the image of a rule that adapts to circumstances instead of breaking.

Noctuas Athenas: 'Owls to Athens' was the ancient version of carrying coals to Newcastle, because Athenian coins carried an owl and the bird was everywhere in the city.

Lupum Auribus Teneo: 'I hold a wolf by the ears,' a line from the Roman playwright Terence, describes a situation you cannot safely hold on to or let go of, and Erasmus preserved it for later writers.

Scylla And Charybdis: Erasmus kept the Greek saying about fleeing one sea monster only to fall into another, an early form of 'between a rock and a hard place.'

Asinus Ad Lyram: The 'ass at the lyre' was Erasmus's image for someone hopelessly unsuited to a task, and he often aimed it at pompous scholars and clergy.

Ex Africa Semper Aliquid Novi: 'Out of Africa always something new' came from Pliny the Elder and Aristotle, and Erasmus carried it into the Renaissance, where it still turns up in book titles.

Oleum Et Operam Perdere: Erasmus collected the Roman complaint about wasting lamp oil and effort, a picture of work done by night that came to nothing.

Sus Minervam: 'A pig teaches Minerva' mocks anyone lecturing an expert, and Erasmus filled the margins with such jabs at pretenders to wisdom.

Francois Rabelais: The French satirist opened Gargantua by borrowing Erasmus's Sileni of Alcibiades, telling readers to look past the silly cover of his book for the wisdom inside.

William Shakespeare: Erasmus's Adages and his writing manual were staples of Tudor grammar schools, which is why scholars trace many of Shakespeare's proverbs and turns of phrase back to that schoolroom diet.

Richard Taverner: His 1539 Proverbs or Adages, gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus, was one of the first English selections of the work and helped plant Greek and Latin sayings in English speech.

Index Librorum Prohibitorum: In 1559 the Catholic Church banned all of Erasmus's works, which meant the author of the most borrowed sayings in Europe could not legally be read in many places.

Johann Froben: The Basel printer published the greatly expanded 1515 edition of the Adages and gave Erasmus a base in his house, turning the book into a major European publishing event.

Aldus Manutius: Erasmus spent time at the Venetian press in 1507 and 1508, and the Aldine edition that came out of that visit added hundreds of adages and made him famous across Europe.

De Copia: Erasmus's writing manual famously offered 150 ways to say 'Your letter pleased me greatly,' training generations of students to treat language as a toolbox of rich variations.

Collectanea Adagiorum: The 1500 first edition held only 818 proverbs, and it launched a project that Erasmus kept revising for thirty six years until his death.

Praise Of Folly: Erasmus wrote it at Thomas More's house in 1509, and the Latin title Moriae Encomium puns on More's name, proving that his love of wordplay extended well beyond proverbs.