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."

The name Erasmus of Rotterdam conjures up a golden age of scholarly integrity. However, as Lisa Jardine portrays him, Erasmus self-consciously created his own reputation as the central figure of the European intellectual world. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

First published in 2006, this book is a unique collection of the letters of Erasmus Darwin, revealing his amazing variety of talents.

This handbook offers a new reading of the humanist-scholastic debate over biblical humanism, lending a voice to scholastic critics who have been unfairly neglected in the historical narrative. The investigations cover controversies beginning in quattrocento Italy and spreading north of the Alps in the 16th century.

The “riveting” story of Erasmus, Martin Luther, and the rivalry between the reformer and the dissident: “An impressive, powerful intellectual history.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) At a time when Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael were revolutionizing Western art and culture, Erasmus of Rotterdam was helping to transform Europe’s intellectual and religious life, developing a new design for living for a continent rebelling against the hierarchical constraints of the Roman Church. When in 1516 he came out with a revised edition of the New Testament based on the original Greek, he was hailed as the prophet of a new enlightened age. Today, however, Erasmus is largely forgotten, and the reason can be summed up in two words: Martin Luther. As a young friar in remote Wittenberg, Luther was initially a great admirer of Erasmus and his critique of the Catholic Church, but while Erasmus sought to reform that institution from within, Luther wanted a more radical transformation. Eventually, the differences between them flared into a bitter rivalry, with each trying to win over Europe to his vision. In Fatal Discord, Michael Massing seeks to restore Erasmus to his proper place in the Western tradition. The conflict between him and Luther, he argues, forms a fault line in Western thinking—the moment when two enduring schools of thought, Christian humanism and evangelical Christianity, took shape. A seasoned journalist who has reported from many countries, Massing here travels back to the early sixteenth century to recover a long-neglected chapter of Western intellectual life, in which the introduction of new ways of reading the Bible set loose social and cultural forces that helped shatter the millennial unity of Christendom and whose echoes can still be heard today in the cultural differences between America and Europe. “A sprawling narrative around the rift between the two men, laying out the sociological, political and economic factors that shaped both them and Europe’s responses to them.” —The New York Times

Johan Huizinga had a special sympathy for the complex, withdrawn personality of Erasmus and for his advocacy of intellectual and spiritual balance in a quarrelsome age. This biography is a classic work on the sixteenth-century scholar/humanist. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Desiderius Erasmus was one of the most influential writers of his time and widely acclaimed as the principal Northern humanist. He was, however, not only a man of letters but also a shrewd observer of society, a sharp critic of the institutional church, and a scholar on the cutting edge of biblical studies. Although not a systematic philosopher or theologian, he left his stamp on the intellectual milieu of his time and was regarded by Catholic apologists as the inspirational source of the Lutheran reformation. In this book, Erika Rummel introduces readers to Erasmus' ideas on education, piety, social order, and the epistemology underpinning his thought. The educational programme proposed by Erasmus aims at creating a Christian humanist, speaking with Ciceronian eloquence and breathing the spirit of the gospel. The perfect piety envisaged by Erasmus involves a progression from the observance of rites to inner devotion and a love of Christ that guides every action. The ideal social order, according to Erasmus, is hierarchical. He depicts the three estates arranged in concentric circles around Christ, with the clergy closest to him, followed by the nobility and the common people. The Christian prince reflects the qualities of God, whose steward he is. A father-figure to his people, the ruler dispenses justice and provides spiritual leadership. Erasmus' magnum opus, his pioneering edition of the Greek New>