Description
Book SynopsisThese volumes are the first in a series containing works by Erasmus 'that concern literature and education': interests which to him were scarcely separable. The aim of Erasmian education was a civilized life, expressed in Christian piety and the fulfilment of public and private duties and embellished by learning and literature. Towards these ends the soundest training for youth was what Erasmus often called bonne litterae, 'good letters,' a literary and rhetorical training based on Greek and Latin authors. For centuries the classical curriculum was the core of liberal education, and Erasmus was long regarded as its exemplar. Though never a university teacher except briefly at Cambridge (1311-14), he was a 'teacher of teachers' through his treatises on pedagogy and rhetoric and his many works of scholarship. The four works presented here in annotated translations are characteristic expressions of his dedication to learning and his confidence in the values of classical literatu
