In Praise of Folly (1511) is Erasmus’s dazzling satirical essay in which the goddess Folly steps forward to deliver her own mock-encomium, praising the foolishness that, she claims, makes life bearable and society function. Witty, learned, and slyly subversive, it skewers vain scholars, corrupt clergy, pompous princes, and self-deceiving lovers in turn.
Beneath the comedy runs serious Christian-humanist argument: Erasmus uses Folly’s voice to expose hypocrisy in the Church and to commend a simpler, more heartfelt piety. Dedicated to his friend Thomas More, the book became one of the most influential works of the Northern Renaissance. This illustrated edition, with its many curious cuts, preserves the playful spirit of a text that helped prepare the ground for the Reformation.