Diálogo Ciceroniano

by Erasmus

O holandês Erasmo (1466-1536), espírito independente, liberal e cosmopolita, figura prestigiada junto das autoridades políticas, religiosas e académicas do seu tempo, foi um dos expoentes intelectuais do Renascimento. Deve-se-lhe, entre outras obras, a primeira edição crítica moderna em latim do Novo Testamento, logo retraduzida noutras línguas, e uma famosa sátira filosófica da sua época, o Elogio da loucura (1509). O presente diálogo Ciceronianus (1528), cedo influente nas controvérsias literárias, retóricas e estéticas da Europa do séc. XVI, é também satírico. Com efeito, nos escritos da época predominava, não só o latim (língua dos textos do próprio Erasmo), mas um estilo normativo mimético da prosa de Cícero, o grande escritor e filósofo romano, modelo por excelência do latim literário. Escrever bem era escrever, no estilo e até na linguagem, «puro Cícero». Erasmo, admirador mas não imitador do mestre romano, satiriza aqui essa idolatria literária, esse purismo ciceroniano que, segundo ele, fossiliza, em vez de vivificar, a língua. E contrapropõe, à imitação de um único modelo, a de vários, aquilo a que chama uma «imitação composta».

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian.

Erasmus was a classical scholar and wrote in a pure Latin style. Among humanists he enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists", and has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists". Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament, which raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He also wrote On Free Will, The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works.

Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation, but while he was critical of the abuses within the Catholic Church and called for reform, he kept his distance from Luther and Melanchthon and continued to recognise the authority of the pope, emphasizing a middle way with a deep respect for traditional faith, piety and grace, rejecting Luther's emphasis on faith alone. Erasmus remained a member of the Roman Catholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the Church and its clerics' abuses from within. He also held to the Catholic doctrine of free will, which some Reformers rejected in favor of the doctrine of predestination. His middle road approach disappointed and even angered scholars in both camps.

Erasmus died suddenly in Basel in 1536 while preparing to return to Brabant, and was buried in the Basel Minster, the former cathedral of the city. A bronze statue of him was erected in his city of birth in 1622, replacing an earlier work in stone.

Reviews

[Angelina]

Just no.

It took 130 pages to make a single point: Being like Cicero doesn't mean only using the exact words and phrases Cicero used, it means thinking and responding to situations appropriately like Cicero did.

Even more succinctly: Don't talk like Cicero, behave like Cicero.

7 words would have sufficed; 130 pages felt like overkill.

[Conrad]

Erasmus wrote Ciceronianus in dialogue form as a critique of his peers' slavish adherence to Cicero's oratorical style in Latin, but - as dull as that sounds - this ends up being very bawdy and very funny.

[Madeline]

It gets a little repetitive when naming lots of individuals and asking the sickly Ciceronian Nosophonus whether he considers them Ciceronian enough, but it's rather amusing to see Erasmus and his contemporaries lampooned (and so, in a roundabout way, praised) for not having an elegant enough style. The core of the message about moderation and *how* exactly to imitate an admirable style is excellent, however. Erasmus's approach to style is through decorum and appropriateness to one's time and place (and, most strikingly for him, one's religion).