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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Erasmian Wit and Proverbial Wisdom: An Illustrated Moral Compendium for Francois I: Facsimile of a Dismembered Manuscript with Introduction and Descri

Erasmian Wit and Proverbial Wisdom: An Illustrated Moral Compendium for Francois I: Facsimile of a Dismembered Manuscript with Introduction and Descri

Massing, Jean Michel

Hardcover

Series: Studies of the Warburg Institute, Book 43

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ISBN10: 085481096X
ISBN13: 9780854810963
Publisher: Warburg Inst
Published: Oct 1 1995
Pages: 212
Language: English

Erasmus of Rotterdam's Adages were first published in Venice in 1500. The Greek and Roman proverbs which he recorded and explained in this book met the Renaissance taste for ancient ethical precepts which could be used as a guide to living in the modern world. In many later editions, the maxims were vastly increased in number and Erasmus's commentaries often lengthened into moral essays. This manuscript provides an early example of the influence, direct and indirect, exerted by Erasmus. In this set of texts, word and image enhance each other in a way that prefigures the emblematic form which was to become so influential throughout Europe. The manuscript was intended for the character training of the future King Francois I. Its texts were chosen by the young prince's tutor, Francois Demoulins, who combined them with pictures some time between 1512 and Francois's accession to the throne in 1515. Demoulins drew heavily on the 1508 edition of Erasmus's Adages, selecting those precepts which were most obviously applicable to court life and its pitfalls. He also included a number of sayings attributed to Pythagoras. For these Pythagorean precepts some explanation can be found, in Erasmus's commentaries on the Adages. Massing's study places the manuscript in its historical, literary and artistic context, as well as emphasizing its significance for the development of the moral emblem. His commentary on each page further explores the sources and relationships of both texts and pictures. A selection of comparative illustrations are also added.

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