Paper Summary:

This paper reviews Johan Huizinga's book, 'Erasmus and the Age of Reformation'. The paper discusses how Huizinga depicts the life and thought of Dutch humanist and theologist, Desiderius Erasmus.

From the Paper:

"The tone of the book was also either enhanced or repudiated by the language used by Huizinga, depending on if the reader knew Latin (or at least Latin terms) and German (or German terms) and even a little Dutch. If the reader was ignorant of such languages then the reader more than likely a tiny bit lost as the reader traversed the book's pages. What was interesting about the fact that Huizinga used phrases from other languages (primarily Latin) liberally throughout the book, was the way that he also extolled Erasmus' virtue and complete comprehension of the Latin and Greek languages, and how that same comprehension of those languages somehow made Erasmus a 'better' man. It was ironic to say the least, that by stating such a belief, and then using such language, Huizinga was by inference showing that he believed he was also a 'better' man for being able to copy Erasmus' elucidation in regards to linguistics."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Huizinga, Johan. Erasmus and the Age of Reformation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984
• Johan Huizinga (1872 - 1945), 2002, http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/huizin.htm, accessed April 21, 2006

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