In a message dated 3/13/00 9:35:40 PM, knobel@ozemail.com.au writes:
<< "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and
clothes."Desiderius Erasmus
(printed on the University of Toronto's Internet library pages) >>
The U. of Toronto, publisher of the "Collected Works of Erasmus," should know
better than to misquote Erasmus.
Erasmus "quotation" (now also printed on the bookmarks that accompany every
book ordered from Amazon.com) is really a misquotation. The original is found
in Erasmus's letter to Jacob Batt, dated Paris, 12 April 1500 (Allen, Ep.
124), and translates:
"I have turned my entire attention to Greek. The first thing I shall do, as
soon as I receive the money, is to buy Greek authors; after that, I shall buy
clothes" (Ad Graecas literas totum animum applicui; statimque ut pecuniam
accepero, Graecos primum autores, deinde vestes emam).
Fred Schreiber