Erasmus
Dutch humanist and theologian, key figure of the Northern Renaissance.
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1467?–1536) was the most famous and influential humanist of the Northern Renaissance, rising from obscure beginnings to become a leading intellectual figure courted by rulers and prelates.[1]
Quick Facts
- School of thought
- Renaissance humanism
- Era
- Northern Renaissance
- Other names
- Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus
- Born
- c. 28 October 1466
- Birthplace
- Rotterdam or Gouda, Burgundian Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire
- Known for
- New Testament translations and exegesis
- satire
- pacificism
- letters
- author and editor
- Died
- 12 July 1536
- Place of death
- Basel, Old Swiss Confederacy
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Erasmus was the illegitimate child of Gerard, a citizen of Gouda, and Margaretha Rogers, and later latinized his name as Desiderius Erasmus.[2] His parents could not be legally married, as his father was a Catholic priest.[3] After his parents died from the bubonic plague in 1483, Erasmus and his brother were left to the care of three guardians.[4][5] Poverty forced the sickly, teenaged orphan into the consecrated life, entering the novitiate in 1487 at the canonry at rural Stein.[6]
He travelled widely and regularly for reasons including education, employment, searching libraries for manuscripts, and seeing books through printing.[7] Erasmus's birth year remains uncertain; he sometimes acted as though born in 1466, but his recollected age at key life events more often points to 1469.[8][1] In 1516, Erasmus became a Councillor to Charles V, an honorary post that came with an annual pension of 200 guilders.[9][1]
What the cited sources add
The Catholic Encyclopedia states that Erasmus was the most brilliant and most important leader of German humanism, born at Rotterdam on 28 October, probably in 1466.[2] Jebb's lecture gives Erasmus's birth date as 27 October 1467 and describes him as a rather small man, slight but well-built, with blue eyes and light brown hair.[5] The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that Erasmus's own statements on his birth year are contradictory, possibly to support his efforts to be released from monastic vows.[1] Jebb's account states that Mountjoy settled an annual pension of a hundred crowns on Erasmus and persuaded him to visit England.[5]
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy records that the publication of the New Testament in February 1516 marks the summit of Erasmus's scholarly career.[1] According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Bishop of Cambrai ordained Erasmus a priest in 1492 and later, in 1496, sent him to Paris for further study.[2]
References
- Nauert, "Desiderius Erasmus", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. facts only, no text reused. plato.stanford.edu
- Sauer, J. (1909). Desiderius Erasmus. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 10 August 2019 – via New Advent. .. facts only, no text reused. newadvent.org
- Wikipedia, "Erasmus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cornelius Augustijn, Erasmus: His life, work and influence, University of Toronto, 1991; "Catholic Encyclopedia" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Erasmus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cornelius Augustijn, Erasmus: His life, work and influence, University of Toronto, 1991; The 19th-century novel The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles Reade, is an account of the lives of Erasmus's parents. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Jebb, "Erasmus", Cambridge, 1890. facts only, no text reused. readingroo.ms
- Wikipedia, "Erasmus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Canons regular of St Augustine, Chapter of Sion (or Syon), Emmaus house, Stein (or Steyn).; Harmless, "Mystics", 19 December 2007; De Lang, "Jean Gerson's Harmony of the Gospels (1420)", Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis / Dutch Review of Church History, 1991, p. 37–49; Vredeveld, "The Ages of Erasmus and the Year of his Birth", Winter 1993, p. 754–809 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Erasmus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vermeir, "Brabantia: decoding the main characters of Utopia", Moreana, June 2012, p. 151–182 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Erasmus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vredeveld, "The Ages of Erasmus and the Year of his Birth", Winter 1993, p. 754–809; Nauert, "Desiderius Erasmus", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Gleason, "The Birth Dates of John Colet and Erasmus of Rotterdam: Fresh Documentary Evidence", The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America, Spring 1979, p. 73–76; Erasmus, "The Epistles of Erasmus: from his earliest letters to his fifty-first year arranged in order of time", London: Longmans, Green, 1901–1918 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Erasmus" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: De Landtsheer, "On Good Government: Erasmus's Institutio Principis Christiani versus Lipsius's Politica", The Reception of Erasmus in the Early Modern Period, 1 January 2013, p. 179–208 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Erasmus (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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