Praise of Folly

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469—1536) — the greatest scholar of the European Renaissance, philosopher, researcher of biblical texts. He was called the "prince of humanists" and the "oracle of Europe." He left behind a vast epistolary legacy, numerous works dedicated... to the most important problems of the universe. "Praise of Folly" (1509) — a joke, essentially a trifle, as the author himself admitted, written to pass the time. And nevertheless, this work became Erasmus's most famous composition. Paradoxical? — or perhaps, inevitable? For this is where the greatest mastery of the philosopher lies, the virtuosity of wielding word and thought — to express the most important, the most cherished, that which will remain eternal through all times in a joke.