
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Before Valla and Erasmus: The Dionysian Question and the Scholia on the Corpus Dionysiacum Before Valla and Erasmus: The Dionysian Question and the Scholia on the Corpus Dionysiacum
-
Lorenzo Valla Lorenzo Valla
-
Erasmus Erasmus
-
Conclusion Conclusion
-
Notes Notes
-
Bibliography Bibliography
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
31 Valla and Erasmus on the Dionysian Question
Get accessDenis J.-J. Robichaud earned his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University and is an Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame. He has published on ancient, medieval, and Renaissance Platonism, the philosophy of religion, Renaissance humanism, the history of scholarship, as well as philology and manuscript studies. University of Pennsylvania Press published his book Plato’s Persona: Marsilio Ficino, Renaissance Humanism, and Platonic Traditions in 2018. He won the Phyllis W. G. Gordan/National Endowment for the Humanities Rome Post-Doctoral Prize and was a resident fellow at the American Academy in Rome, and is presently the Jean-François Malle Fellow at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.
-
Published:18 March 2022
Cite
Abstract
This essay examines Lorenzo Valla’s and Erasmus’ philological and historical arguments that the Corpus Dionysiacum is pseudepigraphic. The first part surveys the long history of doubts about the authenticity of the Corpus Dionysiacum from the early sixth century until some of Valla’s contemporaries, including Pietro Balbi, Cardinal Cusanus (Nicholas of Cusa), Cardinal Bessarion, Theodore Gaza, and George of Trebizond, began considering the Platonism of the Corpus Dionysiacum in the mid-fifteenth century. The second part examines all of Valla’s arguments about the pseudepigraphic nature of the corpus in his Collatio Novi Testamenti and Encomion S. Thomae Aquinatis. The third part turns to Erasmus’s extensive writings on the Corpus Dionysiacum and ancient forgeries. It discusses Erasmus’ knowledge and publication of Valla’s writings as well as Erasmus’ own arguments that the corpus was the deliberate forgery of a deceitful impostor. This section also evaluates all known evidence for William Grocyn’s reported doubts about the authenticity of the Corpus Dionysiacum. Finally, it turns to the religious controversies in which Erasmus’ writings on Pseudo-Dionysius became involved. The facts, that the king and parliament of France had to intervene in these disputes with Noël Béda, Josse Clichtove, and the Catholic faculty of theology in Paris, and that Erasmus was forced to fight accusations that his conclusions were Lutheran demonstrate what was at stake in Erasmus’ answer to the Dionysian Question.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2022 | 5 |
November 2022 | 2 |
December 2022 | 8 |
January 2023 | 3 |
February 2023 | 7 |
March 2023 | 28 |
April 2023 | 3 |
May 2023 | 4 |
June 2023 | 7 |
July 2023 | 2 |
August 2023 | 4 |
September 2023 | 6 |
October 2023 | 7 |
November 2023 | 8 |
December 2023 | 4 |
January 2024 | 9 |
February 2024 | 5 |
March 2024 | 5 |
April 2024 | 2 |
May 2024 | 6 |
June 2024 | 7 |
July 2024 | 3 |
August 2024 | 6 |
September 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 8 |
November 2024 | 7 |
December 2024 | 3 |
January 2025 | 2 |
February 2025 | 3 |
March 2025 | 2 |
April 2025 | 9 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.