Erasmus the Vandal: Fragmenting the Past

• In Event: Erasmus

Abstract

There is no more important figure in the Renaissance reconstruction of Classical antiquity than Erasmus. Yet, even as he painstakingly brings to light the glories of the past, he also actively vandalizes that same past. Erasmus simultaneously reassembles the fragmented textual remains of antiquity and further fragments those remains, scattering and even reburying some of them to ensure that they make sense--not necessarily their own sense, but rather that of Erasmus himself. This talk will examine the means and ends of this process in the Ciceronianus and selected adages and colloquies.

Author

• David M. Posner, Loyola University Chicago