Triumph and Tragedy of Erasmus of Rotterdam

Stefan Zweig wrote an enthralling, and one could say deeply insightful, book about an outstanding Dutch scholar-theologian and humanist of the Renaissance: Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469–1536), whom our readers know well as the author of “In Praise of Folly” and other works that display the brilliance of the mind and the sharpness of thought. At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, for several decades Erasmus enjoyed enormous influence among the leading circles of Europe. His words were valued like gold. In them was embodied the spirit of the new Renaissance culture—marching triumphantly across European countries.