A relatively short Erasmian treatise on the method of studying Latin and Greek. Having read this book several times now throughout the process of transcription, I can personally attest to the value it can provide a Latin or Greek educator. Erasmus, though he deliberately passes over specifics, leaving you to seek them out in authors who had already treated the matter copiously, lays out a very rudimentary but nevertheless helpful outline concerning the method of study for students of Latin and Greek literature and rhetoric.

The “libellus” is really more of a letter, addressed to a man who had recently founded a school and who apparently sought curricular advice from Erasmus. 

The book makes a brief argument for the importance of language itself as the groundwork for all study that would follow and he does not hesitate to poke fun at those who would “look to the subject matter first, skipping over mere words”.

The book was, as far as I can gather, written hastily and lacks some of the thoroughness that our modern palate expects from a “curriculum”. It really is more of an outline, but it is helpful to see the books and methods that Erasmus recommends generally for learning Latin and for scholastic education as a whole. The first part of the book focuses on the acquisition of the languages and the latter, longer half on the exercise and application of the languages in study. One can clearly see how Erasmus views education, and perhaps by extension, the goals, aims, and emphasis of renaissance education. There are few if any references to scientific study. The education Erasmus has in mind is that of a writer. Like Quintilian, he sees mathematical knowledge as subservient to oratory and rhetoric by which an audience can be persuaded.

The original publication of de Ratione Studii seems to have been accompanied with three other short works: Concio de Puero Iesu; Expostulatio Iesu ad Mortales; and Carmina Scholaria all of which were inteded to provide aid to John Colet who had just recently opened a school in London. All of these works have been transcribed and are available in the PDF version of the transcription, though only de Ratione Studii has been proofread and is available online for free.

I will preface the text in the same way I prefaced Valla’s Iliad and Erasmus’ De Civilitate. The transcription that I have completed is not a scholarly one. I used a range of public domain sources, some of which occasionally differ slightly with eachother, to assemble what I think represents a coheisive whole. 

Finally, I will excuse my utter ignorance of Greek, especially at the time of copying the text. There are most certainly errors that will need correcting in the future, but their inclusion in the text is relatively rare and should not hinder the reader too much.