ERASMUS
ERASMUS’S ŒUVRE
Erasmus, a permanent student, disseminated his message through his books and thousands of letters. He was one of the first to adopt a scientific and philological attitude in the study of sacred texts in order to produce an exegesis.
His correspondence was forwarded to countries as different as Poland and Spain and addressed to a variety of correspondents.
His Adagia and Colloquia replaced traditional school books and modernised medieval
teaching.
His major work, in the eyes of his contemporaries, was his translation of the New
Testament from Greek into Latin, which replaced the thousand year old Saint Jerome version, known as the Vulgate.
Although his work was only written in Latin and Greek, it was translated in his own lifetime into various vernacular languages (English, German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Spanish, etc.).
