PDF The Praise of Folly Download
- Author: Desiderius Erasmus
- Publisher:
- ISBN:
- Category : Folly
- Languages : en
- Pages : 220
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In Praise of Folly is an essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in 1511. Inspired by Italian humanist Faustino Perisauli's De Triumpho Stultitiae, it is a satirical attack on superstitions and other traditions of European society as well as on the western Church. Erasmus revised and extended the work, which he originally wrote in the space of a week while sojourning with Sir Thomas More at More's estate in Bucklersbury. In Praise of Folly is considered one of the most notable works of the Renaissance and played an important role in the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation.
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 ideals. No other book displays quite so completely the transition from the medieval to the modern world, and Erasmus's wit, wisdom, and critical spirit have lost none of their timeliness today. This Princeton Classics edition of The Praise of Folly features a new foreword by Anthony Grafton that provides an essential introduction to this iridescent and enduring masterpiece.
First published in Paris in 1511, this book is full of humorous, occasionally pessimistic and sometimes cynical diatribes against mankind. The author's principal targets: the Roman Catholic Church, his fellow countrymen, the Dutch, and women.
In his own day a center of controversy, in the four hundred years since his death known too often solely as an apostle of mockery and irreverence, Erasmus can be seen today in a new light—as a humanist whose concen is at once contemporary and Christian. The Essential Erasmus is the first single volume in English to show the full spectrum of this Renaissance man's thought, which is no less profound because it is expressed with the grace, wit, and ironic detachment only a great writer can achieve. Contains the full text of In Praise of Folly
Presents a selection of writings by sixteenth-century Dutch theologian Desiderius Erasmus, including "The Praise of Folly," an ironic speech by the pagan goddess Folly in praise of herself, and includes critical essays.