Erasmus, Man of Letters

Description:

Overview: The name Erasmus of Rotterdam conjures up a golden age of scholarly integrity and the disinterested pursuit of knowledge, when learning could command public admiration without the need for authorial self-promotion. Lisa Jardine, however, shows that Erasmus self-consciously created his own reputation as the central figure of the European intellectual world. Erasmus himself--the historical as opposed to the figural individual--was a brilliant, maverick innovator, who achieved little formal academic recognition in his own lifetime. What Jardine offers here is not only a fascinating study of Erasmus but also a bold account of a key moment in Western history, a time when it first became possible to believe in the existence of something that could be designated "European thought."

subjects: History,  Authorship,  Authors, Latin (Medieval and modern),  Intellectual life,  Humanists,  Printing,  Authors and publishers,  Scholarly publishing,  Biography,  Erasmus, desiderius, -1536,  Netherlands, history,  Printing, history,  Netherlands, social life and customs,  Authors, latin,  Europe, intellectual life

People: Desiderius Erasmus (d. 1536)

Places: Netherlands

Times: 16th century