De correspondentie van Desiderius Erasmus 3 Brieven 298 - 445

De correspondentie van Desiderius Erasmus #03

by Erasmus

Deel 3 vangt aan in 1514. Erasmus, aangetrokken door de faam van uitgever Amerbach, gaat op weg naar Basel. Tot zijn grote verrassing wordt deze reis in de Duitse gebieden een ware triomftocht. Overal wordt hij ingehaald als de ware vorst der letteren en hij maakt - en wij met hem - een schare nieuwe vrienden: Froben, de opvolger van Amerbach, de drie zonen van Amerbach, Beatus Rhenanus, Jacob Wimpfeling, Zasius en talloze andere. Met al die mensen gaat hij een correspondentie aan die ons een diepgaand inzicht geeft in de wereld van het Duitse humanisme. Hij ontplooit vele activiteiten: een vertaling van het Nieuwe Testament in het Grieks en Latijn, een nieuwe, compleet herziene uitgave van de brieven van Hieronymus, vertalingen van Seneca en Cato. Hij probeert van de paus de nodige dispensaties te verkrijgen, ruziet met Maarten van Dorp over de Lof der zotheiden het nut van zijn arbeid aan het Nieuwe Testament en Hieronymus en begint een briefwisseling met de grootste Franse humanist Guillaume Budé. Kortom, ook dit deel van de correspondentie bruist van leven en activiteit.

308 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1514

About the author

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (28 October 1466 – 12 July 1536), 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.

Reviews

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have given it five stars if the three CWE I've previously read had not been so much more entertaining. This volume is full of gems regarding the life and character of the "ornament" of Europe in that age. In this volume, Erasmus exchanged a series of letters in dispute with an old friend, but did it in such a fashion that he lost neither the argument, nor the friend. He received in this volume the high praises of all of Europe, including Huldrich Zwingli, the Pope, the King of England, the chancellor of Burgundy, and the heads of universities. I feel robbed as a Protestant to have never been told what a great debt we all owe to Desiderius Erasmus. Those who scoff at so great a man do so to their own diminishment.

[Cornelis · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1516 he begins to correspond with Germans. He is quite happy about that.

In deel 4 he can mention a couple of finished books, and he uses them.