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Praise of Folly / Letter to Martin Dorp, 1515
Praise of Folly / Letter to Martin Dorp 1515 Author:Desiderius Erasmus, Betty Radice (Translator) Erasmus (1466-1536) of Rotterdam was Northern Europe's leader of Renaissance learning. This great Christian humanist and scholar was the founder of the school of thought that anyone who had a good university education and was well-read in literature and theology would be morally virtuous and intellectually disciplined. Erasmus was well-known... more » for his wit, satire and irony and was regarded as one of the best Latin prose stylists since Cicero.
His most famous and widely read work, "The Praise of Folly", is a dramatic monologue on the futility of all human thought and aspiration. Erasmus conveys in his writings a deeply principled, heartfelt faith leavened with genuinely funny and often cutting wit. He is a great Rationalist while admitting the workings of the irrational and mystical. His attacks on the excesses of the Church are attacks on the excesses but not the Church itself. There is a profound integrity that never slips into a self-righteousness. HIs letter to Martin Dorp is an excellent example. If you are interested in issues of religious faith, church history, theology or the early Renaissance, this is a must read.
With an introduction and notes by A. H. T. Levi.« less