Deliliğe Övgü

by Erasmus

Rönesans döneminin en büyük hiciv ustalarından olan Erasmus’un Deliliğe Övgü adlı kitabı ilk olarak 1511 yılında yayımlanmıştır. Erasmus, deliliği bilgelikle eşdeğer görür ve bilge bir insanın öncelikle delilik sınavını geçmesi gerektiğini düşünür. Başkarakter Delilik, kendi kendisine övgüler düzerek her konuda egemen olduğunu söyler. Bu çerçevede din karşılaştırmaları, giyim kuşam, hayattan zevk almak, cinsellik, evlilik gibi pek çok konuya değinmesinin yanı sıra, başta Yunan mitolojisi olmak üzere tarihi bilgilerden de yararlanır. Zamanının çok ötesinde olan, hicvi, felsefeyi ve aklı akıcı diliyle sanata dönüştüren Deliliğe Övgü, yazıldığı zamandan bu yana adını başarıyla duyurmuş bir eserdir.

120 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian.

Erasmus was a classical scholar and wrote in a pure Latin style. Among humanists he enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists", and has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists". Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament, which raised questions that would be influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He also wrote On Free Will, The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works.

Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation, but while he was critical of the abuses within the Catholic Church and called for reform, he kept his distance from Luther and Melanchthon and continued to recognise the authority of the pope, emphasizing a middle way with a deep respect for traditional faith, piety and grace, rejecting Luther's emphasis on faith alone. Erasmus remained a member of the Roman Catholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the Church and its clerics' abuses from within. He also held to the Catholic doctrine of free will, which some Reformers rejected in favor of the doctrine of predestination. His middle road approach disappointed and even angered scholars in both camps.

Erasmus died suddenly in Basel in 1536 while preparing to return to Brabant, and was buried in the Basel Minster, the former cathedral of the city. A bronze statue of him was erected in his city of birth in 1622, replacing an earlier work in stone.