help in reading Erasmus, Moriae Encomium

Latin after CDLXXVI
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hlawson38
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help in reading Erasmus, Moriae Encomium

Post by hlawson38 »

Robert M. Adams, Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly and Other Writings: A Norton Critical Edition.

I'm finding this book helpful in decoding the Greek expressions in Moriae Encomium, and also as a reference to Erasmus's many references to Greek and Roman literature. Adams provides his own modern translation, as well as footnotes to the allusions likely to be unknown to the nonspecialist reader. Although Adams does not explicitly gloss the Greek expressions, you can make them out pretty well by comparing your Latin text with his English. This won't do for scholarly work, but that's not what I'm doing. ;-)

Because the book is meant for student reading in literature classes, used copies are available on Amazon at prices to suit the thrifty. In fact, this is a general principle: used college textbooks are often available cheap on Amazon.
Hugh Lawson

Timothée
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Re: help in reading Erasmus, Moriae Encomium

Post by Timothée »

On a side note, I think these Erasmus threads (do keep them coming) would fit better into the Neo-Latin forum, as it now exists.

hlawson38
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Re: help in reading Erasmus, Moriae Encomium

Post by hlawson38 »

Timothée wrote:On a side note, I think these Erasmus threads (do keep them coming) would fit better into the Neo-Latin forum, as it now exists.
Thanks, Timothée; I wasn't sure about this.
Hugh Lawson

anphph
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Re: help in reading Erasmus, Moriae Encomium

Post by anphph »

Besides the celebrated Praise of Folly, Robert M. Adams has included the political "Complaint of Peace," the brutal antipapal satire "Julius Excluded from Heaven," two versions of Erasmus's important preface to the Latin translation of the New Testament, and a selection both serious and comic of his Colloquies and his letters.

RandyGibbons
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Re: help in reading Erasmus, Moriae Encomium

Post by RandyGibbons »

Dear hlawson38,

Since Amazon doesn't provide a preview or a review, could you please confirm what I guess, that Adam's edition is a translation (and commentary) only, without the Latin text?

(I've been inspired by your 'Folly' posts to try my hand at the original. Being a fool, I've ordered the far far more expensive ASD critical edition, but it hasn't arrived yet so I can't comment on it. Thanks very much for these posts.)

Randy Gibbons

hlawson38
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Re: help in reading Erasmus, Moriae Encomium

Post by hlawson38 »

RandyGibbons wrote:Dear hlawson38,

Since Amazon doesn't provide a preview or a review, could you please confirm what I guess, that Adam's edition is a translation (and commentary) only, without the Latin text?

(I've been inspired by your 'Folly' posts to try my hand at the original. Being a fool, I've ordered the far far more expensive ASD critical edition, but it hasn't arrived yet so I can't comment on it. Thanks very much for these posts.)

Randy Gibbons
Hello Randy, Sorry about the delay; you are correct: Adams gives what in my judgment is a good English translation, literary rather than literal, but he gives no Latin. The Latin version I'm using looks very much like a print-on-demand copy of the latinlibrary online text.

I'm finding Adams helpful in these ways. First, in Adams I can find translations of the Greek phrases in Erasmus. Second, I go wrong frequently because my own reading is too literal--Adams lets me know when I have failed to detect an idiomatic or metaphorical usage. Third, Adams gives notes explaining the "cultural literacy" allusions in Erasmas, who takes for granted a thorough grounding in classical culture.
Hugh Lawson

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