It was probably while the brutal siege in Vienna went on, and the little boys and girls of the region were being sold into slavery, after being raped a few times if more modern examples teach us anything. That Erasmus wrote a book l On Civility for Boys. This was a publishing blockbuster, full of useful advice, like- try not to fart so Loudly! Again, the contrast is part of the theme. If you can manage to avoid slavers, then don’t wipe your nose on your sleeve. You can so easily see the advantages of civilized society, of being so powerful the savages cannot hurt you. Please don’t throw that away.
On Civility for Boys went through 30 editions in 5 years, was likely the number one best seller of the time, new editions keep coming out into the 20th century, something like 140 editions all told. The book is seen as marking a transition from an aristocratic culture touchy about its honor to something more modern emphasizing civility and manners.
It was the first major western treatise that was about the moral and practical education of children in terms of everyday manners, rather than an advice manual of how to behave at court, which has a longer history and there are several surviving examples of. So this work becomes a core piece of Norbert Elias’ history of manners, which we can use to take a look at cultural evolution, and kind of take a first glance at a big question.
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