Erasmus (original 1924; edition 1924)

In 1923, at the height of his fame as a historiographer, Scribner commissioned Johan Huizinga to write a biography of Desiderius Erasmus, to be published as the third volume in Scribner's series Great Hollanders (Volume 1 was William the Silent by Frederic Harrison and Volume 2 was Vondel by A.J. Barnouw. In 1919, Huizinga's seminal work, The Waning of the Middle Ages had appeared in Dutch, and in 1924, it was first published in English. Huizinga's biography of Erasmus, was scheduled to be published in the same year, in March 1924.

Huizinga wrote each chapter in Dutch, which was then sent to New York, to be translated by
Frederik Jan Hopman into English. The English-language edition appeared first, followed in the same year by the Dutch edition, published by Tjeenk Willink in Haarlem.

For many years, Huizinga's biography on Erasmus was considered to be the best in the field, and despite its age, it is still considered one of the best.

The Dutch edition, published by Ad Donker in 2001 is a luxury edition, containing all known portraits of Erasmus in large, A5-size full-colour photos, as well as reproductions of all known etchings, and photos of (commemorative) coins bearing his portrait, facsimile (cover) pages of all his works, and other photos of objects from his heritage, statues, etc.

In 1928, Huizinga had objected to a similar type of publication in Germany, claiming that in such a publication the illustrations would be considered more important than the text. Huizinga is right in that assertion, as even I was often distracted by the illustrations during my reading. In the Dutch edition, that happens because the text is printed in columns, undoubtedly a concession to the unusual size of the book.

Huizinga's Erasmus is not a very thick book, the original edition was published having just 276 pages. What made Huizinga's book so unique was that he had consulted all known correspondence of Erasmus for bibliographical details. In 1936, Huizinga added and verified this concordance by consulting with the 12-vols Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami by Percy Stafford Allen and Helen Mary Allen (Eds.) published between 1906-1958, containing all known and preserved letters by Erasmus.

Erasmus by Johan Huizinga is a very readable biography. Highly recommended. ( )