777J Desiderius Erasmus 1466/7-1536
Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami
De CONTEMPTU MUNDI.
Lugduni Batavorum, ex officina Ioannis Maire, 1641 Price $900
Duodecimo 13 x 7 cm. Signatures: A-D12 E6(E6 blank), Bound in a vellum antiphonal leaf wrapper, with release mark from MNtCA by MH-AH 1991 with the bookplate of the Andover Harvard Theological Library.
“His misgivings found expression in one of his first works, De Contemptu Mundi (On disdaining the World, written in the 1490s, published 1521). Ostensibly a praise of monastic life, it began by recommending seclusion and withdrawal from the world but ended in a lament about the decline of monasticism and a warning to postulants not to take the vows rashly. Erasmus himself discovered that he was constitutionally and psychologically unsuited to the monastic life. He would have preferred to go to university. In 1495 he saw a chance to realize this goal when Bishop Hendrik of Bergen sent him to the Collège de Montaigu in Paris and promised him financial support. It is uncertain how much, if any, theological training Erasmus received during his brief stay at the college. In any case, he did not find the Parisian brand of theology to his liking, declaring that scholasticism “repelled him” (CWE 4: 408). When the promised financial support did not materialize, Erasmus left the college, then renowned for its strict discipline and harsh living conditions, and supported himself by tutoring well-to-do young men.”
(Rummel, Erika and Eric MacPhail, “Desiderius Erasmus”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), UR<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/erasmus/>.
Van der Haeghen, Bibl. Erasmiana,; 1, 65; Short title catalogue Netherlands,; 840238592’
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