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Published Work
A Handbook on Good Manners for Children: De Civilitate Morum Puerilium Libellus by Desiderius Erasmus
 According to a recent ITV poll, 90% of Britons think we are a ruder nation than we were a decade ago. Apparently 73% of us think that the widely perceived decline in children's behaviour calls for classroom lessons in manners.
Originally published in Latin, A Handbook on Good Manners for Children was written by the Dutch humanist, Erasmus of Rotterdam, for an eleven year old boy. Barely had Erasmus expressed his hope that all young people would benefit from his work, than this short book became a huge bestseller - being translated into many other languages within ten years of its publication and going into 130 editions over 300 years.
The Handbook is considered to be the first treatise in Western Europe devoted to the question of how to behave in society, and reveals how timeless such advice is: 'Don't put yourself above others, nor boast about what you've done, nor criticise someone else's behaviour, nor disparage the habits and customs of another country', and 'If you share your bed with a companion, lie there quietly, don't fidget and throw off your bedclothes, nor annoy him by grabbing his covers'.
Erasmus's advice is often humorous, genial and sympathetic - and as relevant today at it was 500 years ago.
To purchase this publication, please visit:
www.amazon.co.uk/eleanormerchant
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'Cut-throat Lines and Scholarly Signs', a paper delivered at 'Sitting on the Cat': a symposium on Renaissance Readers and Archives, June 2006
Download this paper:
'...she presented her book, its handwritten annotations and their analysis, with infectious enthusiasm, moving confidently with her laser-pointer between electronic images of its pages. She shared with us her detective work figuring out the significance of the red chalk marks for emphasis, the underlinings, and curious crossings-out...
...This is the way academic research in the humanities is meant to be, I believe, in the twenty-first century: engaged with real issues, alert, alive, and full of energy. Here is intellectual athleticism, leading to skills that can be transferred to today's fast-moving world'.
Lisa Jardine, A Point of View |