ABSTRACT
THE MOST INFLUENTIAL work written in earlymodern Europe on the figures ofspeech was De Copia by Erasmus. As the title suggests, Erasmus was primarily interested in teaching how to write more copiously. His readers would learn how to use many words where the common herd used only a few. At one point he developed more than a hundred variations on the sentence "Your letter has delighted me very much." "With what joy do you suppose I am filled when I recognize your soul in your letter! When the letter carrier handed me your letter, my spirit at once began to thrill with an ineffable joy. How shall I tell you what joy titillated the spirit of your Erasmus when he received your letter?" Hemingway would not approve.
