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{{Short description|Collection of Greek and Latin proverbs, compiled by Erasmus of Rotterdam}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:Erasmus Adagia, Aldine 1508 (Basel Univ Lib).jpg|thumb|upright|Title page of the 1508 edition, printed by [[Aldus Manutius]], Venice]]
[[Image:Holbein-erasmus.jpg|thumbnail|upright|Portrait of Erasmus by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]], 1523]]
'''''Adagia''''' (singular ''adagium'') is the title of an annotated collection of [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Latin]] [[proverb]]s, compiled during the [[Renaissance]] by Dutch [[Humanism|humanist]] [[Erasmus|Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus]].  Erasmus' repository<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Baratta |first1=Luca |title='A Scorneful Image of this Present World': Translating and Mistranslating Erasmus's Words in Henrician England |journal=Critical Survey |date=1 September 2022 |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=100–122 |doi=10.3167/cs.2022.340307}}</ref>{{rp|102}} of proverbs is "one of the most monumental ... ever assembled" (Speroni, 1964, p.&nbsp;1).

The first edition, titled ''Collectanea Adagiorum'', was published in [[Paris]] in 1500, in a slim [[quarto]] of around eight hundred entries.  By 1508, after his stay in Italy, Erasmus had expanded the collection (now called ''Adagiorum chiliades tres'' or "Three thousands of proverbs") to over 3,000 items, many accompanied by richly annotated commentaries, some of which were brief essays on political and moral topics.  The work continued to expand right up to the author's death in 1536 (to a final total of 4,151 entries), confirming the fruit of Erasmus' vast reading in ancient literature.

==Commonplace examples from ''Adagia''==
Some of the adages have become commonplace in many European languages. Equivalents in English include:

{{columns-list|<!--Arranged alphabetically, ignoring "a", "an", and "the"-->
* As though in a mirror
* Between a stone and a shrine (Between a rock and a hard place)
* [[The blind leading the blind]]
* The bowels of the earth
* [[Cart before the horse|The cart before the horse]]
* Complete the circle
* [[Crocodile tears]]
* [[The Dog in the Manger|Dog in the manger]]
* The dog is worthy of his dinner
* [[The Eagle and the Beetle|A dung beetle hunting an eagle]]
* Even a child can see it
* [[God helps those who help themselves]]
* Golden handcuffs
* The grass is greener over the fence
* Hanging by a thread
* Happy in one's own skin
* Hatched from the same egg
* He blows his own trumpet
* His heart was in his boots
* I gave as bad as I got (I gave as good as I got)
* In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king
* Kill two birds with one stone
* Let the cobbler stick to his last (Stick to your knitting)
* Like father, like son
* Like teaching an old man a new language (Can't teach an old dog new tricks)
* A living corpse
* Many hands make light work
* Many [[parasang]]s ahead (Miles ahead)
* [[Festina lente|More haste, less speed]]
* A necessary evil
* [[Necessity is the mother of invention]]
* Neither fish nor flesh
* Neither with bad things nor without them (Women: can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em)
* No sooner said than done
* Not worth a snap of the fingers
* Nowhere near the mark
* One man's meat is another man's poison
* One step at a time
* [[One swallow doesn't make a summer]]
* One to one
* Out of tune
* A point in time
* Prevention is better than cure
* A rare bird
* [[A rolling stone gathers no moss]]
* [[Rome wasn't built in a day]]
* Ship-shape
* A snail's pace
* [[There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip]]
* Think before you start
* Time reveals all things
* Time tempers grief (Time heals all wounds)
* To be in the same boat
* To break the ice
* [[To call a spade a spade]]
* To cut to the quick
* To dangle the bait
* To die of laughing
* To grind one's teeth
* To have an iron in the fire
* To have one foot in Charon's boat (To have one foot in the grave)
* To lead one by the nose
* To leave no stone unturned
* To lift a finger
* To look a gift horse in the mouth
* To show one's heels
* To sleep on it
* To squeeze water out of a stone
* To swallow the hook
* To throw cold water on
* To walk the tightrope
* To walk on tiptoe
* To weigh anchor
* Up to both ears (Up to his eyeballs)
* We cannot all do everything
* What's done cannot be undone
* Where there's life, there's hope
* With a fair wind
* You have touched the issue with a needle-point (To have nailed it)
}}

Seventy of the Adages were from Aesop's fables.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Schaff|first1=Philip|title=History of the Christian Church, Volume VII. Modern Christianity. The German Reformation - Christian Classics Ethereal Library|date=1858–1890|url=https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc7/hcc7.ii.iv.xii.html?queryID=26857203&resultID=162373}}</ref>

== Context ==

[[File:Erasmus Adagia title page 1537 edition censored by Jesuits.jpg|thumb|upright|''Adagia'' title page 1537 edition (V. Ravani e soci, Venice), author's name struck out by Jesuits. [[Biblioteca di Brera]] ]]
[[File:Erasmus Adagia1537 edition page 296 Sileni Alcibiadis heavily censored by Jesuits.jpg|thumb|''Adagia'' 1537 edition page 296, ''Sileni Alcibiadis'', heavily censored by Jesuits]]

The work reflects a typical [[Renaissance]] attitude toward classical texts: to wit, that they were fit for appropriation and amplification, as expressions of a timeless wisdom first uncovered by the classical authors. It is also an expression of the contemporary [[Renaissance humanism|humanism]]; the ''Adagia'' could only have happened via the developing intellectual environment in which careful attention to a broader range of classical texts produced a much fuller picture of the literature of antiquity than had been possible, or desired{{citation needed|reason=Generalization. Needs reliable source.|date=April 2015}}, in medieval Europe.  In a period in which [[sententiae|''sententiæ'']] were often marked by special fonts and footnotes in printed texts, and in which the ability to use classical wisdom to bolster modern arguments was a critical part of scholarly and even political discourse, it is not surprising that Erasmus' ''Adagia'' was among the most popular volumes of the century.

Erasmus originally intended to include Biblical adages, parables and imagery, however this was too ambitious; he later addressed these with his New Testament ''Annotations'' and ''Paraphrases''.

Source: Erasmus, Desiderius. ''Adages'' in ''Collected Works of Erasmus''. Trans. R.A.B Mynors et al. Volumes 31–36. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982–2006.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Erasmus |first=Desiderius |author-link=Erasmus |title=Collected Works of Erasmus |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |year=1982–2006 |editor-last=Mynors |editor-first=R. A. B. |editor-link=R. A. B. Mynors |volume=31–36 |location=Toronto |editor-last2=Grant |editor-first2=John N. |display-editors=1 |url=https://utorontopress.com/search-results/?series=collected-works-of-erasmus |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114231948/https://utorontopress.com/search-results/?series=collected-works-of-erasmus |url-status=live |archive-date=2024-01-14}}</ref> (A complete annotated translation into English. There is a one-volume selection: Erasmus, Desiderius. ''Adages''. Ed. William Barker. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Erasmus |first=Desiderius |author-link=Erasmus |title=The Adages of Erasmus |date=2001 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-7740-0 |editor-last=Barker |editor-first=William H. |location=Toronto |url=https://utorontopress.com/9780802077400/the-adages-of-erasmus/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208130548/https://utorontopress.com/9780802077400/the-adages-of-erasmus/ |url-status=live |archive-date=2023-02-08}}</ref>)

===Between friends all is common===
The place of honour as first entry of the ''Adagia'' is ({{langx|la|amicorum communia omnia}}.) Erasmus' commentary goes beyond friendship to discussion of the attitude towards property and communal ownership by classical Greek philosophers and Christ. Not surprising for someone under a religious vow of poverty and common ownership, Erasmus comes down on the side of friendly  sharing of life and property.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Willinsky |first1=John |title=Make Haste Slowly: Aldus and Erasmus, Printers and Scholars |url=https://aldine.lib.sfu.ca/willinsky-make-haste-slowly |website=aldine.lib.sfu.ca}}</ref>

=== ''Sileni Alcibiadis'' (The ''Sileni of Alcibiadis'') ===

{{See |Erasmus#Sileni Alcibiadis (1515)}}

An unprepossessing exterior may hide a beautiful interior (and ''vice versa''.) The incarnation of Christ is the highest example.

=== Bidden or unbidden, God is always there ===
Erasmus traces this back through the Romans ({{langx|la|Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit}}) to a Spartan saying.  [[Carl Jung]] reputedly had this enscribed on his study door.<ref>{{cite web |title=Why Catholic Philosophy? |url=https://www.stbernards.edu/blog/why-catholic-philosophy |website=St. Bernard's |language=en-us}}</ref>

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==

* Eden, Kathy. ''Friends Hold All Things in Common: Tradition, Intellectual Property and the 'Adages' of Erasmus''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
* Greene, Thomas. ''The Light in Troy: Imitation and Discovery in Renaissance Poetry''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
* Hunter, G.K. "The Marking of Sententiæ in Elizabethan Printed Plays, Poems, and Romances." ''The Library'' 5th series 6 (1951): 171–188.
* [[James Kelsey McConica|McConica, James K.]] ''Past Masters: Erasmus''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
* Phillips, Margaret Mann. ''The Adages of Erasmus''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964.
*{{cite book |title=Érasme de Rotterdam: Les Adages |editor-first=Jean-Christophe |editor-last=Saladin |location=Paris |year=2011 |publisher=Les Belles Lettres |isbn=978-2-251-34605-2 |language=fr |ref=none}}
* Speroni, Charles. (1964). ''Wit and wisdom of the Italian Renaissance''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964.

==External links==
* ''Erasmi Roterodami Adagiorum Chiliades Tres''. Venice, 1508  [https://dx.doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-44672 Digital Edition]
* ''Erasmi Roterodami Germaniae decoris Adagiorum chiliades tres''. Basel, 1513  [https://dx.doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-44670 Digital Edition]
* ''Adagia'', complete Latin text online at {{cite web |url= https://adagia.resources.huygens.knaw.nl/ |title= ''Proverbiorum chilias prima'' |url-status=live |website= Huygens Instituut |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210105062227/http://jvpoll.home.xs4all.nl/back/Web/erasmusa.htm |archive-date= 2021-01-05}} Searchable text from the nine-part volume II of the ASD ''Opera omnia'', with full annotations and commentary. The actual volumes are available as scans from [http://www.oapen.org/ Open Access].
* ''Adagia'', complete Latin text online at {{cite web |url= http://ihrim.huma-num.fr/nmh/Erasmus/index.html |title= Adages d'Erasme |url-status=live |website = Le Groupe Renaissance et Âge classique (GRAC) |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221027071227/http://ihrim.huma-num.fr/nmh/Erasmus/index.html |archive-date= 2022-10-27}} Base text used for the 2011 Belles Lettres translation in French. Also downloadable as PDFs from {{cite web |url= http://sites.univ-lyon2.fr/lesmondeshumanistes/category/adages-erasme/ |title= Les Adages d'Erasme |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110619002744/http://sites.univ-lyon2.fr/lesmondeshumanistes/category/adages-erasme/ |archive-date= 2011-06-19}}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=rZJd0x6VPqIC ''Adagia'', complete Latin text] Scan of volume II of the Leiden ''Opera omnia'' of 1703-6.
* List of the proverbs in Latin: {{cite web |url= http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/Dutch/Latijn/ErasmusAdagia.html |title= Titels van de ''Adagia'' |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231026110525/https://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/Dutch/Latijn/ErasmusAdagia.html |archive-date= 2023-10-26 |access-date=2024-03-31}} From the 1703 Leiden ''Opera omnia'', [[Leiden University]].
* [https://archive.org/details/proverbschieflyt00blaniala Proverbs taken chiefly from the ''Adagia'' (1814)] explained and freely downloadable through the [[Internet Archive]].
* Suringar, W. H. D., [https://books.google.com/books?id=k-JDAAAAYAAJ ''Erasmus over nederlandsche spreekworden''] (Utrecht 1873): An extraordinary and formerly hard-to-find compilation that identifies Erasmus' proverbs in many 16th-century vernacular proverb collections.

{{Desiderius Erasmus}}
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[[Category:Adages]]
[[Category:1500 books]]
[[Category:Books by Desiderius Erasmus]]
[[Category:15th-century books in Latin]]