Desiderius Erasmus (1466?–1536) saw his fame rise, fall, and rise again, the stuff of legend. Admiration for his Latin has gone the way of Latin, his religious views remain divisive, his science is archaic, yet he continues to attract aspirants to the Republic of Letters. To be Erasmian is worth the work.
Erasmus has stimulated five hundred years of searching scholarship, much of it as fine as his own. Among its giants are Überkritik Pierre Bayle; Jean Le Clerc, Bayle’s nemesis and editor of the Leiden Erasmi Opera Omnia (1703–06); Ferdinand Vander Haeghen, peerless Erasmus bibliographer; Jean-Claude Margolin, chronicler and pathfinder of Erasmus studies for most of the twentieth century; Léon Halkin, biographer, editor, teacher; and Erika Rummel, who put the cap on everything she undertook. We have foundational studies of Erasmus in Spain by Marcel Bataillon and in Italy by Silvana Seidel Menchi. We inherit Jacques Chomorat’s transformative study of Erasmus’ work in the language arts. Bruce Mansfield’s three volumes on the history of Erasmus’ reception covers persons, themes, and controversies so thoroughly it seemed to him that “the vocabulary of possible interpretations is used up.” Alexandre Vanautgaerden’s Érasme Typographie is the go-to guide to Erasmus and his printers. Modern scholarship has spoken in A Companion to Erasmus (2023), edited by Eric MacPhail. I salute them all. They are wonderful.
Three major scholarly works are still underway.
I owe much, as Erasmus owes his lasting fame, to translators who fed his Latin into living languages.1 Erasmus was a translator himself who keenly wished that his writings would be translated. He saw that wish realized.2 Even late in his life, “the speed with which his works were followed up by translations in various vernacular languages is irrefutable proof that there was still an eager and active interest in what he had to say.”3 Translations have made him accessible to all kinds of readers, avid, captive, and curious.
Erasmus owes his present esteem to teachers in schools and universities. Especially important have been Universiteit Leiden, Université de Liège, Oxford University, and the University of Toronto. Jean-Claude Margolin (Université de Tours) acknowledged Erasmus as the “Teacher of Europe.”4 What did he teach? Peace, prudence, language arts, permission for foolery, trust in God, care for humanity.
You can go far and wide in Erasmus scholarship, its ways and by-ways lit and paved in every direction. Into this rich and busy concourse I bring a small book, grateful and glad that so much has been done.