The aim of this translation of the second five hundred of theAdagiais to present, as in the preceding volume (CWE 31), an English version of the final form of a steadily augmented and revised work as left by Erasmus in 1536 and published in theOpera omniaof 1540. The purpose of the notes is to identify the sources on which Erasmus drew, and to show how his collections increased and fresh comments suggested themselves from theAdagiorum Collectaneaof his Paris days (1500) into the Aldine Chiliades of 1508 and its successive revisions published in Basel in...

Aulus Gellius¹ in hisNights,book 2 chapter 6, records that this line circulated in old days as a proverb:Πoλλáκι καί κηπωρòς άνήρ μάλα καίριoν είπεν,Even a gardener oft speaks to the point. It warns us not to despise salutary advice because it comes from a humble source; for it sometimes happens that a man of lowly position and of no account, or of very little education, says something that even persons in high place should not despise. A counterpart is Caecilius’ remark in Cicero’s²Tusculan Questions:‘Under a ragged coat oft wisdom lies.’ Nor does that line...