Erasmus: In Praise of Folly
10/05/2018
In Praise of Folly (Latin: Moriae Encomium or Stultitiae Laus) is an essay originally written by the great Dutch classicist Desiderius Erasmus while staying in London with Sir Thomas More, who is the subject of a punning reference in its Latin title.
The work is written from the perspective of Folly herself, whose self-praise provides the vehicle for a wide-ranging satire of contemporary society.
In Praise of Folly at Amazon: United States | Canada | United Kingdom | France | Germany | Spain | Italy
Free online texts
Christian Classics Ethereal Library: In Praise of Folly, translated by John Wilson (1688). Multiple formats.
Fordham University Modern History Sourcebook: In Praise of Folly. Single page HTML format.
Gutenberg: In Praise of Folly. Multiple formats.
Internet Archive: In Praise of Folly, translated by John Wilson. Clarendon (1913). Multiple formats.
University of Adelaide: In Praise of Folly, translated by John Wilson. Multiple formats.
Wikisource: Latin text and English translation. HTML and other formats.
Other Resources
BBC Radio 4 In Our Time: Erasmus. Melvyn Bragg with Diarmaid MacCulloch, Eamon Duffy and Jill Kraye.
Erasmus Center for Early Modern Studies: Erasmus in ten points.
Librivox: In Praise of Folly - public domain audiobook.
Princeton University Press: Prelude to The Praise of Folly - foreword to the Princeton Classics edition, by Anthony Grafton.
Wikipedia: In Praise of Folly.
Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes
Thomas More: Utopia, edited by Erasmus, who dedicated In Praise of Folly to More.
John Aubrey: Brief Lives - includes a life of Erasmus.
Works quoted or referred to in Erasmus' In Praise of Folly.
The Battle of the Frogs and Mice
Seneca: Apocolocyntosis
Plato: Phaedo - Phaedrus - Symposium - Republic
Aristotle: Rhetoric - source for Themistocles' fable of the fox and the hedgehog.
Cicero: Letters to Atticus - Letters to Friends
The Bible: Exodus - Numbers - Samuel - Chronicles - Isaiah - Ecclesiastes - Ecclesiasticus - Jeremiah - Habbakuk - Psalms - Proverbs - Matthew - Luke - John - Titus - I Corinthians - II Corinthians.
Livy: From the Foundation of the City
Horace: Satires - Odes - Epistles - Ars Poetica
Lucian: Satires
Quintilian: Institutes
Greek Anthology
Latin Resources: Online materials for learning Latin.
Bloom's Western Canon: In Praise of Folly is listed.
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