De Ioanne Morisoto, Belli Ciceroniani Adversus Erasmum Milite

Abstract

The goal of this article is to describe a previously little known episode of the famous Ciceronian controversy by collecting and analysing all passages in which the French humanist Jean Morisot (ca. 1510–before 1581) attacks Erasmus. As a conclusion it is possible to assert that Morisot’s criticism was not primarily aimed at Erasmus’ religious views, as it has been previously thought, but that Morisot should be ranked together with Estienne Dolet, Ortensio Lando and Julius Caesar Scaliger among the opponents of Erasmus in the Ciceronian quarrel.