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

Resource Information

The work Dancing around the well : the circulation of commonplaces in Renaissance humanism represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

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

Title remainder

the circulation of commonplaces in Renaissance humanism

Statement of responsibility

by Eric M. MacPhail

Creator

• MacPhail, Eric

Subject

• Commonplace books -- History
• Erasmus, Desiderius, -1536
• European literature -- Renaissance, 1450-1600 -- Classical influences
• Humanism in literature
• Maxims -- History and criticism
• Metaphor
• Proverbs -- History and criticism
• Clichés

Language

eng

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 examples 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

Member of

• Brill's studies in intellectual history, v. 232

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

809/.024

Index

index present

LC call number

PN731

LC item number

.M34 2014

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Brill's Studies in Intellectual History,

Series volume

232