« Qui addit scientiam, addit et laborem » (Ecc. I, 18) : la vanité de savoir dans la littérature sério-comique de la Renaissance
Long before Montaigne wrote his Essays (1580-1592), the vanity of knowledge was an important literary and philosophical theme in the humanist movement, which was prone to check curiosity and to underline its limits. The presence of this theme is all too often ignored, or unconvincingly explained by...
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Institut du Monde Anglophone
2012-09-01
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| Series: | Etudes Epistémè |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/episteme/361 |
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| author | Nicolas Correard |
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| author_sort | Nicolas Correard |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Long before Montaigne wrote his Essays (1580-1592), the vanity of knowledge was an important literary and philosophical theme in the humanist movement, which was prone to check curiosity and to underline its limits. The presence of this theme is all too often ignored, or unconvincingly explained by the sole return of sceptical arguments, while humanists favoured serio-comical and paradoxical treatments of the problem : dealing with the vanity of knowledge implied abandoning the tone of serious discourse and standing with laughing Democritus. “He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow”, reads Ecc. I, 18 : this may have been an amusing formula for humanists who strove to enlarge the encyclopedia, but they also considered it to be a sound one. This article is an attempt at documenting this phenomenon in the first two thirds of the XVIth century, from the landmark Praise of Folly by Erasmus (1511) and the Declamation on the Uncertainty and Vanity of Science by Agrippa (1530). Two major exploitations of this biblical motto are more especially paid attention to : the Coloquios de Palatino y Pinciano by Juan de Arce de Otálora (v. 1550-1555) and the Dialogues du Democritic by Jacques Tahureau (1565). |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4b9c02f687a044b6a7c2e4c74d9f5742 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1634-0450 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-09-01 |
| publisher | Institut du Monde Anglophone |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Etudes Epistémè |
| spelling | doaj-art-4b9c02f687a044b6a7c2e4c74d9f57422025-08-20T02:32:45ZengInstitut du Monde AnglophoneEtudes Epistémè1634-04502012-09-012210.4000/episteme.361« Qui addit scientiam, addit et laborem » (Ecc. I, 18) : la vanité de savoir dans la littérature sério-comique de la RenaissanceNicolas CorreardLong before Montaigne wrote his Essays (1580-1592), the vanity of knowledge was an important literary and philosophical theme in the humanist movement, which was prone to check curiosity and to underline its limits. The presence of this theme is all too often ignored, or unconvincingly explained by the sole return of sceptical arguments, while humanists favoured serio-comical and paradoxical treatments of the problem : dealing with the vanity of knowledge implied abandoning the tone of serious discourse and standing with laughing Democritus. “He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow”, reads Ecc. I, 18 : this may have been an amusing formula for humanists who strove to enlarge the encyclopedia, but they also considered it to be a sound one. This article is an attempt at documenting this phenomenon in the first two thirds of the XVIth century, from the landmark Praise of Folly by Erasmus (1511) and the Declamation on the Uncertainty and Vanity of Science by Agrippa (1530). Two major exploitations of this biblical motto are more especially paid attention to : the Coloquios de Palatino y Pinciano by Juan de Arce de Otálora (v. 1550-1555) and the Dialogues du Democritic by Jacques Tahureau (1565).https://journals.openedition.org/episteme/361 |
| spellingShingle | Nicolas Correard « Qui addit scientiam, addit et laborem » (Ecc. I, 18) : la vanité de savoir dans la littérature sério-comique de la Renaissance Etudes Epistémè |
| title | « Qui addit scientiam, addit et laborem » (Ecc. I, 18) : la vanité de savoir dans la littérature sério-comique de la Renaissance |
| title_full | « Qui addit scientiam, addit et laborem » (Ecc. I, 18) : la vanité de savoir dans la littérature sério-comique de la Renaissance |
| title_fullStr | « Qui addit scientiam, addit et laborem » (Ecc. I, 18) : la vanité de savoir dans la littérature sério-comique de la Renaissance |
| title_full_unstemmed | « Qui addit scientiam, addit et laborem » (Ecc. I, 18) : la vanité de savoir dans la littérature sério-comique de la Renaissance |
| title_short | « Qui addit scientiam, addit et laborem » (Ecc. I, 18) : la vanité de savoir dans la littérature sério-comique de la Renaissance |
| title_sort | qui addit scientiam addit et laborem ecc i 18 la vanite de savoir dans la litterature serio comique de la renaissance |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/episteme/361 |
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