Desiderius Erasmus

"Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) was a Dutch humanist, scholar, and social critic, and one of the most important figures of the Renaissance. The Praise of Folly is perhaps his best-known work. Originally written to amuse his friend Sir Thomas More, this satiric celebration of pleasure, youth, and intoxication irreverently pokes fun at the pieties of theologians and the foibles that make us all human, while ultimately reaffirming the value of Christian...

Dutch thinker and theologian Desiderius Erasmus played a key role in the development of humanism during the Renaissance and early modern periods. In Against War, Erasmus mounts a stunningly lucid and detailed argument against armed combat on humanistic grounds. It's a must-read for anyone who has strong feelings about the moral and ethical dimensions of militaristic undertakings. As part of our mission to publish great works of literary fiction and...

Handbook of the Militant Christian (Latin: Enchiridion militis Christiani), which has also been translated as Handbook of a Christian Knight and The Manual of a Christian Knight, is a work written by Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1503. First published in English in 1533 by William Tyndale, this is the 1962 English edition by John Patrick Dolan. During a stay in Tournehem, a castle near Saint-Omer in the north of modern-day France,...

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) was known as Prince of the Humanists - though a theologian, a Catholic priest and the leading European scholar of his time. A close friend of Sir Thomas More, Erasmus' writings had a strong influence on the growing movement for change in Christian Europe, both Lutheran and the Counter-Reformation. These two essays are among his most important - and well-known - writings. 'The Praise of Folly', written in...