The adages of Erasmus

PalmDesideri Erasmus, better known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, has a special appreciation for proverbs, as demonstrated by the fact that he amused himself by collecting and deciphering the meaning of 4,151 learned and popular sayings, the famous Adagis (1500-1515) derived from Greco-Latin sayings and maxims. The selection is preceded by the Prolegomena, a treatise on proverbs in which he offers his own definition. He also discusses their origin and provenance, their properties and characteristics, their relationship with other genres, their values, and their educational and wisdom usefulness. Treaty It has a final section in which it makes some recommendations on its proper textual use.

Erasmus defines an adage as "a famous saying distinguished by its wit and originality" and specifies that it is not an aphorism. He says it incorporates some novelty that "makes it different from common speech," and it is frequently used. Its originality depends on content, form and style, rhetorical figures (metaphor, allegory, hyperbole), the chosen language, ambiguity, expressive originality, and humor. It is valued for its wit, antiquity, and wisdom. It also fulfills three other characteristics: brevity, the use of proverbs and metaphors, and, sometimes, a mysterious and enigmatic character, which links it to oracles.

Erasmus recommends that authors who want to introduce adages in their texts follow the rules of Aristotle and Fabius Quintilian: with care and moderation, in the most appropriate place and avoiding overabundance, to maintain grace and brilliance.

Adages survive through popular language, the oracles of the gods, the sayings of Greek sages engraved on temple porticos, and the legends depicted in the plays of tragedians and comics. They acquired great prestige and authority in antiquity, thanks to their use by philosophers such as Aristotle and his disciples Theophrastus and Clearchus of Soloi; the Stoics Chrysippus and Cleanthes; and Zenodophus of Ephesus, first director of the Library of Alexandria. The compilers Athenaeus of Naucratis, Zenobi, and Diogenianus of Heraclea also contributed to the dissemination and prestige of proverbs.

Reference sources

The philosophers cited are some of Erasmus's sources of consultation, along with the catalogue of legal texts from the 6th century, known as the Digest, and the medieval encyclopedia, the Suda. According to Erasmian Margaret Phillips, the ten authors most cited by the Dutch humanist in the adages are Cicero, Homer, Plutarch, Aristophanes, Horace, Plautus, Plato, authors of the Suda, Athenaeus of Naucratis, and Lucian.

Erasmus believes that knowledge of adages remains useful primarily for philosophy and philosophers because they have the force of truth and help lend credibility to theories. He also believes they are useful for persuasion because of their great popular authority. He believes they contribute to the beautification of speech because they adapt to all stylistic devices. And finally, he believes they are not only useful, but essential for facilitating a better understanding of classical authors. In fact, Erasmus uses them in his rhetoric classes.

Erasmus follows a pattern when commenting on each adage. He begins by offering the statement of the proverb in Latin or Greek, performing a philological analysis, citing the sources where it appears and their meaning, incorporating some ancient or modern anecdotes, and closing the commentary with a conclusion.

Erasmus integrates more than 300 adages from the first compilation into his masterpiece, theIn Praise of Folly (1509). Erasmus alternates moral, humorous and ironic, superficial and profound, long and short, serious and funny adages that can be classified thematically into adages about fools and madness, and others about friendship, self-love, age, equality, wisdom, national power, politics and war.

A small sample of 26 adages taken from thePraise have been translated into Catalan by Jaume Medina, in an edition entitled The Adagis (Libros del Índice, 2014), illustrated by Manuel Clavero. Among the most representative proverbs, there are two that deal with fools and madness. The first states the obvious, that "a fool talks nonsense," while the second alludes to "going crazy with fools," which means adapting to everything. Another adage refers to friendship, "a friend is more necessary than fire and water," and pretends that one cannot live without friends. An adage attributed to Plato and Aristotle says that "those who are alike like each other," just as "an old man deserves an old woman." The adage "I lost my oil and my job" applies to those who waste time and money. Distrust of politicians is present in the selection of the proverb: "Politics is not for educated people," but for ignorant people. There is a quote directed at mediocre people who praise each other, which says that "mules scratch each other." However, for Erasmus, luck is decisive, since "great undertakings are already a great thing to have attempted," and idioms or expressions are equally adages. That's why the edition includes "by land and by sea" and "the bow and the stern."

There is another anthology in Catalan of 406 adages, titled I can't not talk (Ela Geminada, 2018), which has the unique feature of reproducing them without Erasmian commentary, but citing the source, and with the clear intention of inviting the reader to make their own interpretation with the help of an analytical index.

Erasmus is very critical of the customs of the people. Thus, in his commentary on the adage "for lazy people it's always a holiday," he complains about the willingness of Christians to take advantage of religious festivals to go with prostitutes, gamble, and get into quarrels, instead of following pious and decent conduct. The solution he proposes is to abandon the customs that degrade and improve the behavior of the population.

Reforming Heresies

The religious and political powers of the time repeatedly censured Erasmus's adages as reformist heresies due to the criticism they received and proposed their destruction. It is scandalous that he equates Christ with a Silenus, that he opposes Christian militarism and the holy war against the Turks, that he exposes the tyranny of monarchs and criticizes the hypocritical behavior of the ecclesiastical establishment, which is oriented toward making money and increasing its assets by charging for saying mass and other services, and of the performance of mass and other services.

According to the humanist, princes are often immoderate and immoral, cruel and savage in the exercise of their absolute power, "true enemies of the public good and petty thieves" who spread their bad government "through every vein of the body" politic. Despite this destructive tendency of the state, Erasmus believes that education is the means for rulers to act peacefully, with justice and moderation, and in defense of the common good. This hope is expressed in the adage borrowed from Plato, according to which "tyrants become wise if they deal with wise men." Erasmus insists that good rulers should be morally and philosophically formed in his commentary on an adage in which Aristophanes ironically denounces that too often "governing the state is not something for a man of culture." In continuity with his defense of education, Erasmus relies on the wisdom of humanistic studies and classical culture, since "without these studies, the life of human beings is not properly human life but the life of an animal."