Re-read February 2023 review:

Erasmus supposedly wrote this in about a week. It is interesting how popular this little essay was. It struck a nerve when it was published and perhaps fanned the flames for The Protestant Reformation and subsequent break from the Catholic Church when Erasmus simply just wanted reforms (never a break for him - he was always a faithful Catholic) on things like pardons and indulgences that were going on during his time.

This little essay packs a pretty powerful punch of social comment and satire, and Erasmus lending Folly a voice in contrast with Wisdom in Proverbs was well done.

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I just finished reading the book of Proverbs for a Bible study, so the timing of this was right.

In Proverbs, Wisdom, is personified as a woman and is characterized as something to be strived for in life. In Praise of Folly, Erasmus turned Proverbs on its head and gives Folly a voice (Folly, being the exact opposite of Wisdom) as a woman and as something that has a place in life. It was an interesting twist and he made his arguments well.

Erasmus also lambasted the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church during his time, and he is described to have been a sort of kindling for Martin Luther. In the context of Praise of Folly, Erasmus made the point to be wary of those who are purported arbiters of wisdom.

A short, interesting read. Timing is sometimes everything with books.

در ستایش دیوانگی یکی از مشهورترین کتابهای قرن شانزدهم میلادی است که در تمام جهان مسیحی آن عصر هیاهوی برانگیخت و به عقیده بسیاری از مورخان هم در پیشرفت و تکامل فکری دوران تجدد علمی و هنری، خاصه در ایتالیا، و هم در جریان اصلاح مذهبی مارتین لوتر موثر بوده است.

در واقع این کتاب اولین اثری است که بعد از دوران سیاه و تاریک قرون وسطایی در اروپا اوضاع اجتماعی آن روز و مخصوصا استبداد و بیداد هولناک مقامات مذهبی خاصه مسیحی رهبران دیوانهای تفتیش عقاید را با زبان طنز و شوخی مورد انتقاد صریح و شکننده قرار داد.

بخشی از کتاب
"از آنجا که کلیسای مسیحی در میان خون بنا نهاده شد و با خونریزی تقویت یافت و توسعه آن نیز با ریختن خون انجام شد اینان نیز با خون و آهن و آتش بر آن حکومت می کنند، چنانکه گویی عیسی مسیح ناظر اعمال ایشان نیست و برای حفظ دوستان خویش روش خاص خود را ندارند. جنگ آنچنان عمل وحشیانه ای است که فقط مطابق طبع حیوانات است و نه انسان، آنقدر نانعقول است که شاعران آن را فرستاده عمال دوزخ می دانند، آنقدر شوم است که همه خصائل اخلاقی را نابود می سازد،و آنقدر از راستی و پارسایی بری است که اصلا ارتباطی با عیسی مسیح ندارد، و با این حال پاپ ها از همه وظایف خود غفلت می کنند و جنگ را همچون یگانه اشتغال خویش می پذیرند، و در میان ایشان پیرمردانی خشکیده دیده می شوند که حرارت حیوانی از خود نشان می دهند، پول فراوان بذل می کنند، و از خستگی بیمی ندارند فقط برای اینکه بتوانند قوانین و مذهب و صلح و بشریت را زیر و رو سازند."

Verdiğim 3 yıldız yazara ve esere değil kendime...

İnanç için yaptığı göndermeleri çok sevsem de kitabın içine bir türlü giremediğimi hissettim. Eksik olan bir şeyler var, yazardan, eserinden değil; benden, içinde bulunduğum ruh halinden kaynaklı sanırım.

Sakin bir zamanda yeniden okuyacağım.

Parla la Saggezza; Ops, Scusate! La Follia

Erasmo da Rotterdam parlando a Tommaso Moro, definisce questo libro come un "esercizio di stile".
Se ne sto parlando dopo quasi 5 secoli dalla sua pubblicazione ritengo che più di esercizio si possa parlare di lezione.
Usando l'ironia e mascherandosi dietro l'antropomorfizzazione della pazzia, Erasmo spazia toccando aspetti della società del '500 (così simile a quella dei giorni nostri) facendoci scoprire il punto di vista dell'escluso, del diverso, del particolare. È un'arringa difensiva con il ghigno, uno sberleffo tramutato in parole usando come scudo l'inattendibilità di un folle. Ed è proprio quando non abbiamo da perdere nulla e siamo liberi di esprimerci senza subire conseguenze che vengono dette le migliori verità.
Divide i capitoli in tematiche; ponendo sotto la lente d'ingrandimento, volta per volta, la nobiltà, la religione, l'arte. Ho trovato difficoltà nel seguire i riferimenti ai nomi dell'epoca. Per il resto è un testo incredibilmente attuale.
Sicuramente da leggere.

Outstanding flow of thoughts! Not an easy reading ( the book has been written more than 500 years ago!), but definitely it is very enjoyable. Loved the humourous displays of many shadowy images of our life, of the society - past, present and future: all of them embracing the same foolishness:)
‘It is Folly that, in a variety of guise, governs cities, appoints magistrates, and supports judicatures. And, in short, makes the whole course of man's life a mere children's play, and worse than push-pin diversion. The invention of all arts and sciences are likewise owing to the same cause. For what sedentary, thoughtful men would have beat their brains in the search of new and unheard-of-mysteries, if not egged on by the bubbling hopes of credit and reputation?’
..
“...what if I challenge an equal share of wisdom? How ! this, you will say, is absurd and contradictory; the east and west may as soon shake hands as Folly and Wisdom be reconciled. Well, but have a little patience and I will warrant you I will make out my claim. First then, if
wisdom, as must be confessed, is no more than a readiness of doing good, and an expedite method of becoming serviceable to the world, to whom does this virtue more properly belong? To the wise man, who partly out of modesty, partly out of cowardice, can proceed resolutely in no attempt. Or to the fool, that goes hand over head, leaps before he looks, and so ventures through the most hazardous undertaking without any sense or prospect of danger?

In the undertaking any enterprize the wise man shall run to consult with his books, and daze himself with poring upon musty authors, while the dispatchful fool shall rush bluntly on, and have done the business, while the other is thinking of it.”

“...most things being really in themselves far different from what they are in appearance to others. So as that which at first blush proves alive, is in truth dead; and that again which appears as dead, at a nearer view proves to be alive. Beautiful seems ugly, wealthy poor, scandalous is thought creditable, prosperous passes for unlucky, friendly for what is most opposite, and innocent for what is hurtful and pernicious. In short, if we change the tables, all things are found placed in a quite different posture from what just before they appeared to stand in.
If this seem too darkly and unintelligibly expressed, I will explain it by the familiar instance of some great king or prince, whom every one shall suppose to swim in a luxury of wealth, and to be a powerful lord and master. When, alas, on the one hand he has poverty of spirit enough to make him
a mere beggar, and on the other side he is worse than a galley-slave to his own lusts and passions.






If I had a mind farther to expatiate, I could enlarge upon several instances of like nature, but this one may at present suffice.
Well, but what is the meaning, will some say, of all this? Why, observe the application. If any one in a play-house be so impertinent and rude as to rifle the actors of their borrowed clothes, make them lay down the character assumed, and force them to return to their naked selves, would not such a one wholly discompose and spoil the entertainment? And would he not deserve to be hissed and thrown stones at till the pragmatical fool could learn better manners? For by such a disturbance the whole scene will be altered. Such as acted the men will perhaps appear to be women. He that was dressed up for a young brisk lover, will be found a rough old fellow. And he that represented a king, will remain but a mean ordinary serving-man. The laying things thus open is marring all the sport, which consists only in counterfeit and disguise.
Now the world is nothing else but such another comedy, where every one in the tire-room is first habited suitably to the part he is to act. And as it is successively their turn, out they come on the stage,where he that now personates a prince, shall in another part of the same play alter his dress, and become a beggar, all things being in a mask and particular disguise, or otherwise the play could never be presented.”

I've read this multiple times, but have only now found the Goodreads page for the book. For some reason I could only find it lumped in with other Erasmus writings before, so my original review is over there.

I thoroughly enjoy Praise of Folly. I'll most likely read it again soon. Maybe within the next month or two. It's rather short, so I can fit it in between other books.

"O operă proastă va plăcea celor mai mulți. Nimic mai firesc, fiindcă, după cum v-am spus, majoritatea oamenilor sunt proști."

Scrisă din perspectiva Prostiei, "Elogiul nebuniei" este dedicată lui Thomas Morus ("moria" înseamnă "nebunie" în greacă), unul dintre cei mai importanți reprezentanți ai doctrinei umaniste în Europa Evului Mediu, el și Erasmus fiind foarte buni prieteni.

Nu e de mirare că cei doi s-au înțeles atât de bine, având în vedere unul dintre cei mai importanți factori care stau la baza oricărei relații trainice și sănătoase: umorul, element prezent în operele amândurora, într-o manieră cu mult înaintea vremurilor pe care le-au trăit.

Stultitiae laus (Latin) = Moriae Encomium, id est = The Praise of Folly = Praise of Folly, Erasmus

In Praise of Folly, is an essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in June 1511.

Inspired by previous works of the Italian humanist Faustino Perisauli [it] De Triumpho Stultitiae, it is a satirical attack on superstitions and other traditions of European society as well as on the Western Church.

Erasmus revised and extended his work, which was originally written in the space of a week while sojourning with Sir Thomas More at More's house in Bucklersbury in the City of London.

The title Moriae Encomium had a punning second meaning as In Praise of More.

In Praise of Folly is considered one of the most notable works of the Renaissance and played an important role in the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation.

The essay ends with a straightforward statement of Christian ideal: "No Man is wise at all Times, or is without his blind Side."

عنوانها: «مدح دیوانگی»؛ «در ستایش دیوانگی»؛ «در مدح دیوانگی»؛ نویسنده دس‍ی‍دری‍وس‌ اراس‍م‍وس؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش 1998میلادی

عنوان: مدح دیوانگی؛ نویسنده دس‍ی‍دری‍وس‌ اراس‍م‍وس؛ مترجم مسعود انصاری؛ در 190ص؛ موضوع مدح دیوانگی از نویندگان هلندی - سده 16م

عنوان: در ستایش دیوانگی؛ نویسنده دس‍ی‍دری‍وس‌ اراس‍م‍وس؛ ترج‍م‍ه‌، م‍ق‍دم‍ه‌ و ح‍واش‍ی‌ از ح‍س‍ن‌ ص‍ف‍اری؛ ترجمه از متن فرانسوی؛ ت‍ه‍ران‌: ن‍ش‍ر و پ‍ژوه‍ش‌ ف‍رزان‌ روز‏‫، چاپ اول و دوم 1376؛ در 186ص؛ چاپ سوم و چهارم 1382؛ چاپ پنجم 1385؛ چاپ ششم 1387؛ در 185ص؛ شابک 9789643214470؛ چاپ هفتم 1392؛ چاپ هشتم 1395؛ چاپ نهم، نشر فرزان روز، 1396؛ موضوع: بلاهت از متون کهن از نویسندگان هلندی - سده 16م

عنوان: در مدح دیوانگی؛ اثر دسیدریوس اراسموس؛ ترجمه از متن ترجمه انگلیسی و اقتباس مصطفی صالحی‌آزاد؛ سنندج: کانی کتیب شوان‏‫، 1396؛ در 275ص؛ شابک 9786007968659؛

در ستایش دیوانگی، عنوان اثر معروف «اراسموس»؛ فیلسوف «هلندی» است، که در ابتدای سده ی شانزدهم میلادی، نوشته شد، این کتاب در سده‌ های شانزده و هفده میلادی، از پرفروش‌ترین کتاب‌های «اروپا» بود؛ «در ستایش دیوانگی» نخستین اثری است، که پس از سده های میانی میلادی استبداد مقامات مسیحی را، با زبان طنز، و شوخی، مورد انتقاد قرار داد؛

متن اصلی کتاب، به زبان «لاتین»، که زبان علمی آن روزگار بود، نگاشته شده ‌است؛ ایده ی این اثر، طی مسافرتی از «ایتالیا»، به «انگلیس»، به ذهن «اراسموس»، راه یافت، و آن را در منزل «تامس مور»، صدراعظم آینده ی «انگلستان»، در هشت روز نوشتند؛ ایشان طی نامه‌ ای، که در آغاز کتاب آمده‌، اثر را، به میزبانش هدیه کرده است؛

انتشار کتاب، باعث تشویق هواداران اصلاحات مذهبی شد، و در برابر آن، خشم کلیسا، و مراکز آموزش حکمت مسیحی را، برانگیخت؛ از آن‌جا که «اراسموس» دارای دوستان پرنفوذی در «اروپا» بود؛ و دستگاه کلیسا، در آن ایام، درگیر اصلاحات مذهبی «مارتین لوتر» بود؛ «اراسموس» توانست، پس از نوشتن این کتاب، از محاکمه ی مذهبی در امان بماند، و جان سالم به در ببرد؛ در «فرانسه»، «سوربن» که بزرگ‌ترین مرکز تعلیم علوم مسیحی آن روزگار «اروپا» بود؛ «اراسموس» را ملحد دانست؛ و حکم سوزاندن وی را، صادر کرد؛ اما از آن‌جا که به وی دسترسی نیافتند، «لویی برکن» نماینده و نخستین مترجم کتاب‌اش، در «فرانسه» را، در آتش سوزاندند؛

کتاب که سرشار از اشارات، به اسطوره‌ های «یونانی»، و «لاتینی» است؛ در واقع خطابه‌ ای، از زبان دیوانه ‌ای، در ستایش از خود است؛ این اثر، توسط جناب آقای «حسن صفاری»، به پارسی ترجمه شده‌، و نشر فرزان روز آن را، در سال 1376هجری خورشیدی؛ منتشر کرده است؛ این ترجمه تا به امروز 1399هجری خورشیدی، به چاپ نهم رسیده ‌است

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 22/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

The classic Praise of Folly.

I think these days (or is it just me?) this book is better served as a literary experiment than a philosophy book. The writing is superb, the subject matter will be dated and irrelevant to most casual readers.

Děsivě aktuální zůstává Erasmus i dodnes.

Again I admit that I'm impressed with a classical author. From his obviously sympathetic view of women at a time when that wasn't exactly common, to his deep understanding of human nature, Erasmus really isn't what I expected from a Catholic clergyman. As with  Baldassare Castiglione I found his description of aging to be both poignant and incredibly accurate. When I read Folly's claim that old people enter a kind of second childhood in which they regain some of their lost innocence and wonder, I remembered the exact same thing happened with my grandpa. Somehow I didn't quite make the connection myself, but Erasmus summed it up and described it beautifully.

This was another book that I know I would have enjoyed more if it hadn't been required reading, but if it hadn't, I don't know if I ever would have gotten around to reading it. Since I had to take notes and analyze the subject matter for bias and such, I didn't get to read the book straight through, which is how I prefer to read things I enjoy. Overall I think that this is an incredibly insightful book, and neither is it too dry despite it's age.

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.