“Căci răposat-a Erasmus, de-a părinților noștri/ Gura slăvit, a pierit gloria lumii întregi.”- din “Elegie la mormântul lui Erasmus din Rotterdam” de Nicolaus Olahus

Deci, “Elogiul nebuniei (sau cuvântare spre lauda prostiei)” de Erasmus din Rotterdam.
O cărțulie ce astăzi ar stârni comentarii de tipul: “păi și eu pot critica prostia în aceeași manieră, ce e și cu Erasmus ăsta de primește atâția lauri?” sau “ce misogin, zice că femeile sunt proaste!”, iar pentru a combate și în cazul dat prostia (

Прекрасная сатира, дарующая эстетическое удовольствие. Глупость вездесуща и окружает нас повсюду. В человеческом обществе всё полно глупости, всё делается дураками и среди дураков. Можно ли не согласиться: «Мне действительно захотелось подражать риторам нашего времени, которые считают себя уподобившимися богам, если им удается прослыть двуязычными Двуязычные — то есть знающие греческий и латинский языки, наподобие пиявок, и которые полагают верхом изящества пересыпать латинские речи греческими словечками, словно бубенцами, хотя бы это и было совсем некстати. Если же не хватает им заморской тарабарщины, они извлекают из полуистлевших грамот несколько устарелых речений, чтобы пустить пыль в глаза читателю. Кто понимает, тот тешится самодовольством, а кто не понимает, тот тем более дивится, чем менее понимает. Ибо нашей братии весьма приятно бывает восхищаться всем иноземным. А ежели среди невежественных слушателей и читателей попадутся люди самолюбивые, они смеются, рукоплещут и, на ослиный лад, помахивают ушами , дабы другие не сочли их несведущими. »? В каком офисе не так?

Или « Итак, либо нет никакой разницы между мудрецами и дураками, либо положение дураков не в пример выгоднее. Во-первых, их счастье, покоящееся на обмане или самообмане, достается им гораздо дешевле, а во-вторых, они могут разделить свое счастье с большинством других людей. »
Можно было бы больше цитат надёргать, но права на электронные книги, написанные автором 16 века, имеют авторские права – тоже глупость. А перепечатывать вручную не вижу смысла.
Есть и сексистские высказывания. И это тоже глупость, которая свойственна даже мудрецам. За это и снижена оценка, поскольку несмотря на революционность автора в критике религии и схоластики, до признания равноправия женщин и получения образованиями ими его век был еще очень далек.

اراسموس کشیش کاتولیک و منتقد بود. وقتی پادکست مارتین لوتر رو گوش میدادم متوجه شدم به طور غیرمستقیم لوتر، شاگرد اراسموس محسوب می‌شده. محور نوشته‌هایش اتحاد و دوری از جنگ و آزادی عقیده بود که نوشته‌هایش توسط واتیکان اکثرا سوزانده شد. معروف‌ترین اثرش هم در ستایش دیوانگی است. با زبان طنز استبداد مقامات مسیحی را مورد انتقاد قرار داده... در ۸ روز کتاب نوشته شده و مورد استقبال قرار گرفت...

Erasmus dostu Thomas More'u eğlendirmek için bir yolculuk sırasında bir haftada yazdığını söylediği bir kitaptır. Deliliği her yaşta ve her durumda insanları hayata egemen kılan ve insanları mutlu eden bir şey olarak görür. Hayatta sadece ebsürd görülenler değil; normal yaşamda da karşılaştığımız pek çok güçlük ve saçmalığa karşı duran insanın da deli olduğu için karşı koyabildiğini öne sürer.

كتاب فكاهي لطيف اتكتب ف عصر النهضة بيتكلم عن اسس التفكير والفرق بين ان الحكماء اشقياء ف وجهة نظره "كل شخص بيفكر ويجتهد وما الي ذلك"والحمقي اللي بالبلدي محظوظين وعندهم وسطة وما الي ذلك وبيفرق م بينهم وبينتقد تفكير كل منهم..
الكتاب واخد طابع نقدي فلسفة مش مكلكعة والكاتب اسلوبه ساخر دمه خفيف

"Türkler ve diğer bütün barbar artıkları dinleriyle övünür, Hıristiyanları batıl itikatları yüzünden küçümserler."

Erasmus'un arkadaşı More'un kitabı Ütopya gibi bu kitap da çağının ötesine geçememiş bir kitap. Bu 2 kitabın bugün bu kadar popüler olmasını şaşırtıcı buluyorum. Ben de popüler olduğu için bir şey var zannedip okumak gafletinde bulundum. Kitabı okurken "Bu kadar çok boş lafı bir arada daha önce görmemiştim" diye düşündüm, bu açıdan gerçekten baş döndürücüydü.

Horatian style satire peppered with innumerable references to Greco-Roman lore which would take a lifetime to decipher: luckily for me, ten days into this Sisyphean task I discovered Phil’s site:

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartb...

Aint the internet great? The reason the above site is such a treasure is not simply because it spoonfeeds the laziest reader the needful (a word usage I picked up in Sri Lanka: love it), but because it resolves the numerous dilemmas a rookie like me has whilst googling the plethora (of nouns, verbs, peoples and places). Take for instance Nereus: Folly has it fools deem themselves as handsome as Nereus. OK then, Nereus……the old man of the sea, has 50 beautiful daughters, precursor to Poseidon, yada yada yada…..no reference anywhere, but anywhere, to this ‘ancien’ ever being young or handsome: he seems to be always oldish, really, whenever he crops up. Except, apparently, according to Homer in the Odyssey, as per Phil’s site above, whereby he is the handsomest of Greeks. (but also, I think, the old man of the sea. Go figure).

I spent half a morning I think, prior to falling over Phil’s site, trying to pinpoint the story of Theophrastus stopping dumb like an ass before an oration: the more I couldn’t reference it, the more ambitious I became: the things I discovered online, I tell you, but none relating to Theophrastus (translated as divine speaker), only to find it a hypocriphical in joke in the 16 c with no attributable source. Well har-de-har.

Apropos these ‘in jokes’: its bloody damn difficult to know when Erasmus is speaking in vain and when he means it. In referencing Theuth it becomes clear he is satirizing, but what about say Nestor? Is he a good or bad counseller? A wiseman or a fool? The jury is out, so how does Erasmus mean it?

And how does he get away with it all? Why wasn’t he hung drawn and quartered, really, not least for his ‘silenisization’(trademark: just invented this word). A small aside: did I not go barmy looing up the Sileni of Alcibiades only to find eventually that’s the title of another of Erasmus’s booklets. Erasmus is very cheeky like this: references himself at least twice in the text and promotes his other adages and what not. Back to Folly; there is definitely a meme of making the pope say a Sileni figure. So, why didn’t Pope Leo X have an apoplexy and smite and smote him? My own take on this is that Erasmus is so clever and manipulative at being Horatian rather than Juvenalian in his critique that quite, quite likely Pope Leo X probably never thought any of the references referred to him particularly: you know, it concerns some OTHER pope.

Name dropping aside, Folly reads like a dream: Erasmus is brilliantly funny and ironical. Supposedly following in the footsteps of Greek Satirist Lucian, whom, needless to say, I haven’t read yet, but now simply must.

Irriverente, profondo, citazionista, avrei dovuto leggerlo prima! Decisamente uno di quei libri che tutti dovrebbero almeno sfogliare, anche solo per la sfrontata critica alla società dellepoca (ma ancora attualissima con qualche piccolo cambiamento) che trasuda dalle pagine.

Consiglio molto l'ascolto dell'audiolibro, fa decisamente un altro effetto sentire la Follia perorare la propria causa

In Praise of Brexit

Folly speaks:

About five hundred years ago, a man named Erasmus decided to publish a book praising me. Unbelievably, no one had this idea before, and none since. Nobody has the time or the inclination—nobody besides Erasmus, that is—to sing my praises, apparently. All the other gods get their encomiums, but not me.

Well, perhaps I should take the neglect as a compliment. After all, isn’t it the height of folly not to acknowledge the role that folly plays in human life? So is not the neglect a kind of compliment, albeit backhanded?

Nevertheless, some folks need some reminding, it seems, especially after what happened the other day. Oh, you know what I’m talking about: the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union. All I’m hearing left and right is how stupid, short-sighted, narrow-minded, and above all foolish it was to vote “leave.” Well, I can’t stand my name being dragged around in the dust any longer, so I’m taking this opportunity to peep up and remind you how much you owe me.

First, let’s follow in Erasmus’s footsteps and take a short trip around Europe. As you might already know, Erasmus may justly be called the first true “European,” since he was such a cosmopolitan fellow and traveled everywhere. Even now, the trans-European student-exchange program is named after Erasmus. You might already know that the most popular destination for the Erasmus program is sunny Spain, where lots of young Britons like to go and get a tan. (Guess they won't be coming anymore!)

Spain’s a lot different now from when Erasmus was alive. Back then, the Inquisition was in full swing and anybody who wanted to hold public office had to prove his “purity of blood,” which meant he didn’t have any Jewish or Muslims ancestors. Nowadays we don’t see that kind of behavior anymore in Spain; the Spaniards decided that it wasn’t such a good idea. But the folks in England apparently disagree: one UKIP candidate, Robert Blay, got suspended after saying his rival “isn’t British enough.” You see, my foolish devotees never disappear, but only migrate!

Yes indeed, Spain is truly different now. Let’s go to the Mediterranean coast to take a closer look. It's a veritable mini-England! We can find British pubs, British radio broadcasts, British supermarkets selling British products. We can see retired old Brits eating baked beans and drinking tea as they take in the southern sun. And we can meet some Brits who have lived here for over a decade, and who still can’t speak a word of Spanish! Yes, and between two pints these same Brits can tell you about how terrible is the EU and how there are too many immigrants in England. Oh, my wonderful followers!

As you might recall, it was around the time Erasmus wrote this book that England decided to leave another international organization: the Catholic Church. And the reasons were, I suppose, similar enough: “We don’t want some Italian Pope telling our king which wife he can or can’t behead!” Thomas More, one of Erasmus’s friends, and to whom this book is dedicated, disagreed with this, and he got beheaded along with the wives. Lots of people didn’t like this, but honestly I can’t say it was such a bad move. Executions are decisive, at least. Some people still agree with this strategy, like the guy who killed the politician Jo Cox. It worked for Henry VIII, so it can work for us!

Let’s fast forward a bit in time, to the glorious British Empire. By Jingo, it was big! It stretched across the whole world! Look at how these colonial officers stroll around Mumbai, Nairobi, Hong Kong, Sydney! You’ve got to admire them. They don’t ask anybody’s permission to go anywhere, they just walk right in with their guns and biscuits. Doesn’t take long to subdue the native population when you’ve got the Royal Navy on your side! Sure, this approach didn’t please everybody. But, hey, it was the high point of British history. Nowadays, they’re a bit more worried about foreign immigrants colonizing them than the reverse.

Now you see what a big role I’ve played throughout history. You see how many decisions and opinions I’ve inspired! Oh, but now I hear some people saying that the world would be better off without me. Sure, Folly is important, they say, but that doesn’t mean Folly is worth praising. Fair enough, I suppose. Yes, maybe I do cause a bit of mayhem in the world. And yes, maybe I take things too far. But consider this: For every bad decision I inspire, I also provide the remedy.

For without Folly, do you think people could overcome the sheer hypocrisy necessary for their decisions? Without me, do you think people could congratulate themselves for shooting their own foot? Without my soothing balm, do you think people could go to bed with a clean conscience after doing harm to the world? Do you think British people could simultaneously praise the heroic strength of their culture while worrying that a few thousand immigrants could totally destroy their way of life?

No! Of course not! And since happiness is the goal of life, and happiness is most easily achieved through folly, I think that, despite whatever decision I inspire, I still deserve a lot of praise.

So long live Erasmus! Long live Folly! And long live Little England!

FOLLY IN PROFUSION, BY ALL MEANS

“Invite a wise man to a feast and he'll spoil the company, either with morose silence or troublesome disputes. Take him out to dance, and you'll swear a cow would have done it better."


An allegory of Folly, Quentin Massys, 1510

“Throw off the shackles this infernal quest for wisdom has put on you, you blasted bores!”

Slightly paraphrased, so goes the core tenet of the gospel that most whimsical of metaphysical entities, Folly – using Erasmus as a vessel - evangelizes to her audience, which - if we can trust the veracity of her words - has huddled together in the town square to hear her speak. At first, apprehension is palpable in the air, but when the lady finally makes her appearance, her sheer outlandish aspect brings delight to all. She has them in the palm of her hand.

What follows is a feverish spectacle.

Fiercely denouncing the detritus that rigid intellectualism unavoidably leads to, as an antidote Folly offers up a passionate apologia for unadulterated joie de vivre, all delivered in a dizzying, bordering on logorrheic, machine gun rhythm.

Consciously self-aggrandizing, Folly is claiming sole responsibility for all the enjoyments and fruits life has provided to us poor, miserable sinners. Simultaneously, and in the most seemingly guileless manner conceivable, our gifted orator effectively is laying waste to the - in 16th century Europe again in vogue - school of thought which was gifted to us by the ancient Greeks.

To her, what matter such studious men as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes? Puh! Drivel! And what about their Roman successors, that famous stoic Seneca, or that "paragon of wisdom", emperor Marcus Aurelius? In their faces she spits! No, she'll take playwrights of comedies and satirists, glorious scribes such as Aristophanes, Juvenal and Apuleius over them any day. Great, salt of the earth type chaps, all. They saw the common sense in giving oneself over to sweet, soothing folly.

Not content with slaying these sacred cows, even she dares to conclude her rant by firing off a critique of the stodgy, yet still powerful, Catholic clergy. Our impish friend might as well have lighted the Pope’s mitre on fire during Midnight Mass on Christmas, and achieve the same effect.

One can only imagine the initial bafflement experienced at all this being flung with such ferocity at a crowd during the height of the early Renaissance. Compared to everything which they had been taught to respect, this is a radical message, just as Jesus' gospel was in its day. But this sure looked like a most unorthodox picture of a messiah, let alone a redeemer.

Additional reservations crop up. After all, folly isn’t supposed to be a good thing, now is it? Isn’t its presumed opposite, wisdom, to be sought wherever it can be found? We call them pearls of wisdom for a reason, don’t we? Pearls are pristine, beautiful, perfected smoothness, something to be treasured. And if not for any immediate practical reason, isn’t its acquisition, its exchange with others, a deep pleasure of its own?

On each and every count, “no!”, Folly exclaims. It spells doom for every chance at emotional, spiritual, even material prosperity. Be foolish, be unthinking, act impulsively, and earthy paradise is yours. If you do, you'd be adhering to the original Christian message to boot, and be rewarded in the afterlife as well, she adds, setting the minds of her fellow Christians at ease.

Jesus' apostles, to her, weren't deep thinkers ( and were never supposed to be), but instead acted instinctual, like a child would. They merely saw a simple truth being revealed to them, and found peace and contentment from that alone, no further inquiry was needed. Shooting above their station, trying to be more than they were, to know more than they did, didn't even cross their minds. Fools? Perhaps. Yet, on the whole, deliriously happy, even in the most dire of circumstances, such as during the early persecution of their sect.

As a panegyric, In Praise of Folly is nothing short of exemplary, even if you don't remotely agree with its premise. But it can only be considered as such, when taken at face value. It's never entirely clear whether one should do so.

A first suspicion arises when a subtle undercurrent of irony is detected, precisely because of the exaggerated, almost baroque delivery. It is as if Erasmus, rightly foreseeing controversy, is deftly using the form of satire, just in case he is threatened with excommunication or worse. For that reason too, if a finely balanced, systematically laid out philosophical text is what you seek, this most assuredly isn’t any of the kind. It's exceedingly rambling at times. But by Jove is it joyful, bitingly funny, endlessly insightful, speaking of those all-important, perennial human truths.

And isn't it exactly this approach which, if the one addressed willingly opens himself up to it, is the spark needed to ignite, to force him to reassess his most cherished of virtues? For a former - now gratefully reformed - idolater of wisdom, it did just that.

We'll end on a sweet note. Folly, my darling, I misjudged you and, most shamefully, even derided your works in the past, thoughtless grinch that I am. For this grievous error amends have to be made. Let's have a drink - my treat, promise! - get bloody sauced, and be joined in merriment together.

Huzzah!

Renaissance Recommended Reading List as per Benjamin McEvoy in How to Get an Oxford English Education for free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Q2J...

È semplicemente meraviglioso.