ABSTRACT
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466/69-1536), whose original given name was Gerrit Gerritszoon, was born in 1466 or 1469 in the Netherlands, probably in Gouda, as the illegitimate, second son of a priest. After school in Gouda and Deventer, in 1487, he was taken into the Augustinian monastery at Steyn. In 1492 he was ordained to the Catholic priesthood, but already in 1493 he had the opportunity to leave the monastery to become secretary to the bishop of Cambrai. Although he thought in this way he had left humilitas for humanitas since he expected the bishop would take him on a journey to Italy, the true home of humanism, Erasmus was disappointed since nothing ever came of the journey. A few years later, in 1495, with his patron’s, the bishop’s consent he went on to study at the University of Paris where he became acquainted with old-fashioned scholastic learning, but more important, with English friends when he tutored some noble Englishmen, the later Lord Mountjoy in particular, in Latin literature and style; from this education come the dialogues that would later be published as Colloquia. In 1499 he went on his first journey to England and met leading humanists like John Colet (1467-1519) in Oxford, Thomas More (1478-1535), and others. This visit marked the turningpoint of his life. He became a cosmopolite, almost constantly travelling, especially during the years 1500-16, and with frequent changes of residence, the main cities being Louvain, Venice, Cambridge, Basel, and Freiburg im Breisgau; in his later years he spent most of his time in Basel, also the home of the publisher Frobenius, with whom he collaborated. Erasmus was an independent man of letters, always reading, writing, and publishing.1 Furthermore, he was a man of letters in more than
1 The modern standard edition of the works of Erasmus is the Opera omnia Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami. Recognita et adnotatione critica instructa notisque illustrata, ed. by C.M. Bruehl, L.-E. Halkin, C. Reedijk, J.H. Waszink, et al., Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co. 1969-2005 (replacing the older standard edition Opera omnia emendatiora et auctiora, vols. 1-10, ed. by Joannes Clericus (Jean Leclerc), Leyden: Van der Aa 1703-6 (photographic reprint, Hildesheim: Georg Olms 1961-62), with a supplement, Erasmi Opuscula, ed. by Wallace K. Ferguson, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff 1933). The standard English translation
powerful persons of his day.
