Immortal mortality. Erasmus, Terminus and The Two Missing Skulls

Gábor Petneházi

Immortal mortality. Erasmus, Terminus and The Two Missing Skulls

Terminus, Early View, Volume 26, issue 2 (71) 2024,

Authors

Titles

Immortal mortality. Erasmus, Terminus and The Two Missing Skulls

Abstract

From the 1510s onwards, Desiderius Erasmus adopted the image of the Roman god Terminus, together with the motto “concedo nulli” (I yield to none) as his private emblem, which became part of his consciously shaped self-representation. According to Erasmus’ own explanation, Terminus served as a symbol of mortality, but since he was a master of ambiguity, it could also have symbolised immortality for him. The article aims to unravel Erasmus’ true relationship to this particular emblem, which ironically seems to have endured even beyond his death. In order to uncover this, it will build on selected texts from Erasmus’ oeuvre, several of his personal belongings, as well as portraits of him made by various contemporary artists.

Keywords

humanism, emblematics, portraits, Erasmus, Terminus, death, eternity

Information

Information: Terminus, Early View, Volume 26, issue 2 (71) 2024,

Article type: Original article

Authors

Gábor Petneházi

https://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-4325-2569

University of Innsbruck
Germany

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY

Percentage share of authors:

Gábor Petneházi (Author) - 100%

Information about author:

Gábor Petneházi – postdoc researcher at the University of Innsbruck, Institute for Classical Philology and Neo-Latin Studies. His research interests include early modern historiography, humanism and Republic of Letters, as well as early modern politics and intellectual history, manuscript and print culture. His most recent publications include articles on the early modern Hungarian histories (A bolygó humanista. Gian Michele Bruto Erdélybe érkezésének előtörténete, Convivia Neolatina Hungarica 5, 2023; Ut tantus thesaurus ex tenebris in lucem hominum prodeat. Szamosközy István és a Rerum Ungaricarum libri, in: Certamen X. Előadások a Magyar Tudomány Napján az Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület I. Szakosztályában, ed. E. Emese et al., 2023) as well as translations of the works of Erasmus of Rotterdam.

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English

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