Contrary to the promise made on the title page, that is to present a collection of notable proverbs, Erasmus of Rotterdam opened his first print publication, the Collectanea adagiorum (1500), with an obscure aphorism that had only been transmitted in one place. Also, unlike other adages, this one also did not really catch on. Yet despite the seemingly infelicitous opening, the article takes this beginning chosen by Erasmus seriously and asks about the channels of communication it opened up, the concerns it responded to, the implications it carried, and the claims to use it encoded. It will be shown how proverbiality was in fact manufactured in the Collectanea and how this contributed to the creation of a transtemporal community. The concept of festivitas, the subtle humour attributed to the proverbs, underwent a significant semantic transformation in this context and became a pledge of friendship. Finally, the media history of the adages opens up perspectives on the archaeology of the digital between codex and scroll.