Rare Book Buyer.com – We Buy Old and Rare Books, Libraries, and Entire Estates. Immediate Payment

[Desiderius Erasmus;] Epitome adagiorvm D. Erasmi Roterodami : in locos digesta commvnes : singulari fide recognita, & multis aucta locis, in quibus antea manca videbatur : huic adiecta proximè, pars altera auctorum sane multorum, qui prouerbia post Erasmum ediderunt. Parisiis : Apud Ægidium Beys, sub signo Lilij albi, via Iacobæa, 1583.   8 vo., 579 pgs + index; evidently this was expanded with a supplemental volume entitled Adagiorvm Omnivm Qvæ A Ivnio, Cæterisqve, Post Erasmi Chiliadas, in lucem prodierunt, Epitome. Cui acce[ss]ere recens Proverbiorvm Collectanea, nunquam antehac edita … Pars Altera; not present here; text block very partially detached, loss to first blank, rubbing to t.p., some staining,  pages 381-4 with partial upper loss,  partial loss to last blank,  some dampstaining, minor inner marginal worming, 289 -329 with thin line upper text wormhole with minor loss; retains original string ties.  [SOLD]

The Adagium is an annotated collection of Greek and Latin adages, compiled during the Renaissance by Erasmus, the famous Dutch humanist. According to Speroni (1964, p. 1), Adagia is one of “the most monumental collections of […] adagia ever assembled”.  The Adages formed a core part of Renaissance education and had a profound impact on literary style and development.  It is, perhaps next to Shakespeare and the King James Bible, the text that provided the greatest number of commonplace sayings in the English language.

Many of the adages have become commonplace in our everyday language, and we owe our use of them to Erasmus. Among these are: ‘make haste slowly’, ‘one step at a time,’ ‘to be in the same boat’ etc…