The Art of Communication through Offerings
The Art of Communication through Offerings

Gifts from Poland to Erasmus of Rotterdam

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on communications which took place by means of gifts between scholars of the Renaissance period. Its aim is to present the correspondence of Poles with Erasmus of Rotterdam and its symbolic meaning. The Poles courted Erasmus by means of numerous gifts which carried a certain message and functioned within the framework of certain ritual gestures. These gestures constituted a certain model of the social behaviour of humanists, and Polish intellectuals wished to observe them as a means of joining this community. The gifts were therefore a symbol of the cultural and intellectual aspirations of Polish scholars – an expression of a certain snobbery, as well as the need to feature among a considerable group of Erasmus’s friends.

• Details
• Contents