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    Erasmus on Literature
    His Ratio or ‘System' of 1518/1519

    Mark Vessey (Edited by), Robert D. Sider (Translated with commentary by), Anthony Grafton (Foreword by)

    9781487522100

    Paperback / softback, published 22 April 2021

    378 pages, 4 b&w illustrations
    22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.51 kg

    "Fans of Praise of Folly and the Colloquies ought to open Erasmus on Literature to see what and how Erasmus wanted them to read. Scholars of theology will scrutinize the edition carefully, as Erasmus’s contemporaries did. Seminaries in need of a book that teaches exegesis more thoroughly than Augustine now have one, ready for immediate use."

    - Willis Goth Regier, University of Illinois (Renaissance and Reformation) "The need for an accessible version of this work has now been filled by this lucid translation which…These parerga make this volume useful to students and advanced researchers alike." - Ralph Keen, University of Illinois (Erasmus Studies)

    None of the works included among Erasmus’ ‘Literary and Educational Writings’ in the Collected Works of Erasmus captures his most adventurous thinking about how texts signify in – and thereby make or remake – worlds of thought, feeling, and action. The one that comes closest to doing so, the Ratio verae theologiae (‘A System of True Theology’), was first published separately in 1518 and 1519, then appeared in the preliminaries to the New Testament in Erasmus’ (revised) 1519 edition.

    This handy Ratio or compendious ‘System’ gave advice on how to interpret complex texts and develop persuasive arguments based upon them. Its lessons were applied to the canonical Scriptures as source, and to everyday Christian theology as target discourse. They unfold in response to the special difficulties and incitements of the biblical text in Latin and Greek, within a framework provided by classical grammar and rhetoric, adjusted to the examples of the Church Fathers as exemplary interpreters of the Bible. At every turn, the Ratio reveals the instincts and intuitions of an exceptional theorist and practitioner of the cognitive, social, and political arts of written language. This student edition, the first of its kind in any language, is based on the translation and notes by Robert D. Sider in the Collected Works of Erasmus Volume 41. It is designed to make it easier to estimate the long-term value of this particular work and of Erasmus’ works more generally, and to allow for a multidisciplinary understanding of the lives of human beings as symbol-using creatures in worlds constructed partly by texts.

    Foreword by Anthony Grafton

    Illustrations
    Notes on Contributors
    Abbreviations and Works Frequently Cited
    Abbreviations of Biblical Books Used in Explanatory Notes

    Editor’s Introduction
    Chronology of Erasmus’ Life and Works
    Approaches to Erasmus’ Ratio or ‘System’ of 1518–1519

    The Ratio in Erasmus’ Life and Work to 1519
    Mark Vessey

    Erasmus, Sacred Literature, and Literary Theory
    Brian Cummings

    Biblical Poetics in Scholasticism and the Ratio
    Christopher Ocker

    The Ratio and Annotations of Erasmus as Theory and Practice of Biblical Interpretation
    Riemer Faber

    The Parable of Sincere and Sophistical Discourse in the Ratio
    Kathy Eden

    Scheme of Contents of the Ratio verae theologiae
    Note on the Text

    The Ratio verae theologiae
    Preface: Purpose of the Ratio
    Elements of a Method for the Study of Scripture
    The Unity in Variety of the Gospel
    ‘The Wonderful Circle and Harmony of the Entire Drama of Christ’
    The Figurative Character of the Language of Sacred Literature
    Elements of a Method for the Study of Scripture (Concluded)

    Explanatory Notes
    Conspectus of Church Fathers Cited in the Ratio
    Bibliography
    Concordance of Editions of the Ratio
    Index
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