Dancing around the well : the circulation of commonplaces in Renaissance humanism

Bibliographic Information

Dancing around the well : the circulation of commonplaces in Renaissance humanism

by Eric M. MacPhail

(Brill's studies in intellectual history, v. 232)

Brill, c2014

  • : hardback

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [153]-162) and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This study examines the transmission and transformation of commonplace wisdom in Renaissance humanism by tracing a series of filiations between classical sayings, anecdotes, and exampes and Renaissance poems, essays, and fictions. The circulation of commonplaces can be understood either as a process of reanimation and revitalization, where frozen sayings thaw out and come to life, or conversely as a process of immobilization and incrustation that petrifies tradition. The paradigmatic figure for this process is the proverbial dance around the well, which expresses both the danger and the compulsion of borrowed speech.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations Introduction: Dancing Around the Well 1. In the Beginning there was Chaos 2. A Gem in its Setting 3. Words Frozen and Thawed 4. Rhapsody in Prose 5. The Mosaic of Speech 6. The Universal Library 7. In a Roman Mirror Conclusion: Emptying the Well Bibliography Index locorum communium Index rerum Index nominum Index Erasmianus

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