Dancing around the well : the circulation of commonplaces in Renaissance humanism / by Eric M. MacPhail.

By:

MacPhail, Eric

Material type: Text

TextSeries: Brill's studies in intellectual history ; 232.Publisher: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2014]Description: 1 online resource (171 pages .)Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

9004277153
9789004277151

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Dancing around the well.DDC classification:

809/.024 23

LOC classification:

PN731 .M34 2014

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

Introduction: dancing around the well -- In the beginning there was chaos -- A gem in its setting -- Words frozen and thawed -- Rhapsody in prose -- The mosaic of speech -- The universal library -- In a Roman mirror -- Conclusion: emptying the well -- Bibliography -- Index locorum communium -- Index rerum perutilium -- Index nominum illustrium -- Index erasmianus.

Summary: 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.

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Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-162) and indexes.

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.