_ Source: _Volume 38, Issue 1, pp 5 - 24 Fully aware of an antipathy to comparisons that looks back not only to ancient philosophy and law but to the early modern schoolroom, Erasmus nevertheless puts his full prestige behind the strategy so foundational to the rhetorical theory of Plato, Cicero, Quintilian and Aphthonius. This essay examines the key role of comparison in the form of _similitudo_, _parabola_ or _collatio_, and _imago_ in Erasmus’ educational reform as represented by his _De (...) copia_, _De ratione studii_, and _De conscribendis epistolis_, as well as in his own literary production, especially his _Adages_. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 38, Issue 1, pp 64 - 108 The discovery and subsequent edition of the only known sixteenth-century Spanish translation of _The Praise of Folly_ put into question the notion that Erasmus was almost exclusively received as a doctrinal author in sixteenth-century Spain. To bolster this argument, these pages examine the 1536 Spanish translation of Alberto Pio’s _Tres et viginti libri locos lucubrationum variarum D. Erasmi Roterodami_. Though this translation was not unknown to scholars, none realized that book (...) IV, part 1 included a partial translation, paraphrase, and commentary of the _Praise of Folly_. Once recognized, this translation allows us more accurately to date the _Moria de Erasmo_ and in turn demands an explanation of why Pio’s lengthy text was translated into Spanish. Moreover, this material helps to explain what texts the Spanish censors had in mind when referring to the “Moria of Erasmus in romance, Latin, and any other language.”. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 38, Issue 1, pp 55 - 63 The paper gives an account of the relation between the Croatian humanist Franciscus Tranquillus Andronicus Parthenius and Desiderius Erasmus. The main source is Erasmus’ letter to Tranquillus of 28 June 1519; another document is Erasmus’ _Convivium poeticum_, first printed in 1523, in which a character named Parthenius appears. An analysis of Erasmus’ letter and of the context in which it was written reveals that Tranquillus’ visit to Louvain happened at a (...) very inconvenient time for Erasmus, especially because he had to carefully deal with the conservative theologians, who were trying to extinguish the recently established Collegium Trilingue in Louvain. As for the identity of Parthenius in the _Convivium poeticum_, a new hint is given for his identification with Tranquillus. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 38, Issue 1, pp 25 - 54 Scholars have assumed but not proven that Erasmus was a Church reformer. They have located his impetus for Church reform in his editions of the New Testament. A consideration of the orientation of reform aids in analysing Erasmus’ _Annotations on the New Testament_. A programmatic return to ancient sources facilitated a philological reform of the text of the New Testament. Furthermore, Erasmus’ recourse to Scripture exposed contemporary aberrations from appropriate Christian (...) conduct. In the case of divorce for the sake of remarriage, Erasmus looked forwards for change more than backwards. Exposing faults and suggesting a change to Church laws on marriage did not constitute the structural reorganization that qualified Erasmus as a Church reformer. (shrink)