1671 – Erasmus of Rotterdam – Copia | Renaissance Rhetoric & Speech

The Duplici Copia was a wide-spread treatise by Erasmus written to accompany students who aspired to possess an elegant and high style of writing. Foundations of Style, as it is referred to in English, provided abundant examples of how to say the same word or phrase in a number of different ways. First appearing in 1512, this book found enormous success throughout the 16th-century. According to J.E. Walsh,

“This work is more important than its elementary nature might indicate, for it provided a handbook not only for the intimation of the words of the ancients but for the absorption of their ideas as well.”

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami, De utraque verborum ac rerum copia, libri duo
• Author(s): Erasmus of Rotterdam
• Publisher: Parisiis, Apud viduam C. Thiboust & Petrum Esclassan
• Edition: 1671 printing
• Binding: Full leather with marbled boards
• Format: (16mo), single volume
• Size:  4.5 in x 2.5 in (11.5 cm x 6.5 cm)
• Collation: [8], 305, [20] pp
• Contents Include:
  • Instruction on writing and rhetoric
  • Phrase and word thesaurus examples

Condition:

Near Fine. Leather binding tight and secure with minimal corner wear. Marbled boards remain strong. Pages clean with light age toning and no markings. Complete and stable.

Why Collect This?

• Seventeenth century Paris printing of Erasmus
• Beautiful leather binding in near fine condition

Item Number: #50061