Erasmus Began Learning Greek After the Age of 32!
I once mentioned that students in a seventeenth-century Jesuit college were given an exceptionally thorough education in Latin and Ancient Greek from an early age. However, at the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth, the study of Ancient Greek was only beginning to gain ground in the West, largely through the arrival of several learned scholars from Constantinople.
Erasmus, who is widely known as one of the greatest humanists of the Renaissance, began studying Greek seriously when he was already relatively “old,” considering the life expectancy of the time.
In one of his letters, he writes:
“It may be asked why I am … learning Greek at my age. … I am determined that it is better to learn late than to be without knowledge which it is of the utmost importance to possess.”
He devoted several months to the study of Greek and, in another letter, remarked:
“I have been applying my whole mind to the study of Greek; and as soon as I receive any money I shall first buy Greek authors, and afterwards some clothes.”
After only two years of study, he claimed to have gained a solid command of the language of Homer and Plato:
“I have advanced so far as to be able to write what I want in Greek tolerably well without preparation.”
Obviously, Erasmus was a genius. Nevertheless, with discipline and good materials, we too can learn a great deal, whether Latin or Greek. His example shows that one need not begin in childhood to make substantial progress. Consistent study, carried on over months and years, can take us much farther than we often expect.