''Adagia'' (singular ''adagium'') is the title of an annotated collection of

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and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. A proverbial phrase or a proverbial ...

s, compiled during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

by Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus. Erasmus' collection of proverbs is "one of the most monumental ... ever assembled" (Speroni, 1964, p. 1). The first edition, titled ''Collectanea Adagiorum'', was published in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

in 1500, in a slim

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

of around eight hundred entries. By 1508, after his stay in Italy, Erasmus had expanded the collection (now called ''Adagiorum chiliades tres'' or "Three thousands of proverbs") to over 3,000 items, many accompanied by richly annotated commentaries, some of which were brief essays on political and moral topics. The work continued to expand right up to the author's death in 1536 (to a final total of 4,151 entries), confirming the fruit of Erasmus' vast reading in ancient literature.

Commonplace examples from ''Adagia''

Some of the adages have become commonplace in many European languages. Equivalents in English include:

Context

The work reflects a typical

attitude toward classical texts: to wit, that they were fit for appropriation and amplification, as expressions of a timeless wisdom first uncovered by the classical authors. It is also an expression of the contemporary

humanism Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "human ...

; the ''Adagia'' could only have happened via the developing intellectual environment in which careful attention to a broader range of classical texts produced a much fuller picture of the literature of antiquity than had been possible, or desired, in medieval Europe. In a period in which ''sententiæ'' were often marked by special fonts and footnotes in printed texts, and in which the ability to use classical wisdom to bolster modern arguments was a critical part of scholarly and even political discourse, it is not surprising that Erasmus' ''Adagia'' was among the most popular volumes of the century. Source: Erasmus, Desiderius. ''Adages'' in ''Collected Works of Erasmus''. Trans. R.A.B Mynors et al. Volumes 31–36. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982–2006. (A complete annotated translation into English. There is a one-volume selection: Erasmus, Desiderius. ''Adages''. Ed. William Barker. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.)

References

* Eden, Kathy. ''Friends Hold All Things in Common: Tradition, Intellectual Property and the 'Adages' of Erasmus''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. * Greene, Thomas. ''The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982. * Hunter, G.K. "The Marking of Sententiæ in Elizabethan Printed Plays, Poems, and Romances." ''The Library'' 5th series 6 (1951): 171–188. * McConica, James K. ''Past Masters: Erasmus''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. * Phillips, Margaret Mann. ''The Adages of Erasmus''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964. * * Speroni, Charles. (1964). ''Wit and wisdom of the Italian Renaissance''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964.

External links

* ''Erasmi Roterodami Adagiorum Chiliades Tres''. Venice, 1508
Digital Edition
* ''Erasmi Roterodami Germaniae decoris Adagiorum chiliades tres''. Basel, 1513
Digital Edition

''Adagia'', complete Latin text online
Base text used for the 2011 Belles Lettres translation in French.

Searchable text from the nine-part volume II of the ASD ''Opera omnia'', with full annotations and commentary. The actual volumes are available as scans fro
Open Access

''Adagia'', complete Latin text
Scan of volume II of the Leiden ''Opera omnia'' of 1703-6.

From the 1703 Leiden ''Opera omnia'', Leiden University.
Proverbs taken chiefly from the ''Adagia'' (1814)
explained and freely downloadable through the Internet Archive. * Suringar, W. H. D.

(Utrecht 1873): An extraordinary and formerly hard-to-find compilation that identifies Erasmus' proverbs in many 16th-century vernacular proverb collections. {{Authority control Adages 1500 books Books by Desiderius Erasmus 15th-century Latin books