The Praise of Folly

First published in Paris in 1511, The Praise of Folly enjoyed enormous and highly controversial success during the author’s lifetime and down to our own day.  The Folly has no rival, except perhaps Thomas More’s Utopia, as the most intense and lively presentation of the literary, social, and theological aims and methods of Northern Humanism. Because it was a seminal and widely influential book, critics have often compared its witty and profound ironies with those of Rabelais, Ariosto, Shakespeare, and Cervantes.
Clarence H. Miller has based his English translation on the definitive Latin text which he prepared for a new, complete edition of Erasmus sponsored by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. This Latin text is based on a complete collation of the thirty-six editions printed during Erasmus’s lifetime, and the English edition indicates the major additions and revisions made by Erasmus after the first publication. Miller’s translation echoes Erasmus’s own lively style while at the same time retaining the nuances of its rich allusiveness; his introduction offers an up-to-date reading of the Folly and places it firmly in its multiple context of Erasmus as humanist and theologian. Also included in this edition are: Erasmus’s letter defending the Folly to the theologian Martin Dorp; a commentary that is more complete than that in any translation or published Latin edition; and a bibliography that is the fullest available in any one place. The Praise of Folly is indispensable reading for students of history, English, and Renaissance studies.
Clarence H. Miller is Dorothy Orthwein Professor of English at St. Louis University.