Llibres que han canviat la meva vida 3

Fa uns anys vaig llegir un llibre el qual encara tinc molt a prop meu. Un llibre que, sobretot, és força divertit, tot i que mostra les necieses més grans de l'home i la dona. Un llibre no apte per a sensibilitats exacerbades o per a gent sense gaire sentit de l'humor i la ironia. Elogi o Lloança de l'estultícia, d'Erasme de Rotterdam. En català es coneix la traducció com Elogi de la follia, en castellà, Elogio de la locura, ans el títol original és Moriae encomium. Aquest llibre és una de les obres mestres del Renaixement, i mostra la convicció profundament humanista i crítica de l'autor...

Erasme Desideri naixé en Rotterdam cap el 1469; estudià a París i Oxford, com a teòleg i humanista destaca per ser una de les ments més brillants dels segles XV i XVI al nord d'Europa. És notable com editor i traductor dels clàssics, un Humanista, profund crític de la guerra. Fou gran amic d'en Tomàs Moro, a qui dedicà el seu Elogi de la follia. Morí en 1536. Encomium moriae és una obra concebuda entre 1509 i 1511. Fa crítica a una idea clàssica, la "moría" dels grecs: estultícia, neciesa, follia. El to és més aviat satíric i amb un ampli sentit de l'humor; la seva finalitat és realitzar la crítica de la noció tradicional de "l'ésser humà", i el mitjà en el qual es basa és la ironia, la rialla, el sarcasme. Ente les idees erasmianes trobem que la moría, stultitia, neciesa o follia ajuden l'home a arribar a la veritat: si som necis estem més a prop de la veritat, debut a què la neciesa és una característica tan humana i tan important com la "raó", llavors és un vehícle vàlid per arribar a un fi trascendental. Quins són els alcanços de la raó? És una estultícia analitzar allò que és místic tot i què tothom sap que no és minúcia de la raó. Quina follia més gran és tractar d'emprendre el camí espiritual via l'enteniment racional!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Praise_of_Folly

The Praise of Folly (Greek title: Moriae Encomium, Latin: Stultitiae Laus, sometimes translated as In Praise of Folly, Dutch title: Lof der Zotheid) is an essay written in 1509 by Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in 1511. Erasmus revised and extended the work, which he originally wrote in the space of a week while sojourning with Sir Thomas More at More's estate in Bucklersbury. The Praise of Folly is considered one of the most influential works of literature in Western civilization and one of the catalysts of the Reformation.

It starts off with a satirical learned enkomion after the manner of the Greek satirist Lucian, whose work Erasmus and Sir Thomas More had recently translated into Latin, a piece of virtuoso foolery; it then takes a darker tone in a series of orations, as Folly praises self-deception and madness and moves to a satirical examination of pious but superstitious abuses of Catholic doctrine and corrupt practices in parts of the Roman Catholic Church--to which Erasmus was ever faithful--and the folly of pedants (including Erasmus himself). Erasmus had recently returned, disappointed, from Rome, where he had turned down offers of advancement in the curia, and Folly increasingly takes on Erasmus' own chastising voice. The essay ends with a straightforward and touching statement of true Christian ideals.

Erasmus was a good friend of Sir Thomas More another faithful Roman Catholic and detractor of Luther, with whom he shared a taste for dry humor and other intellectual pursuits. The title "Moriae Encomium" can also be read as meaning "In praise of More". The double or triple meanings go on through the text.

The essay is filled with classical allusions delivered in a style typical of the learned humanists of the Renaissance. Folly parades as one of the gods, offspring of Plutos and Freshness and nursed by Inebriation and Ignorance, whose faithful companions include Philautia (self-love), Kolakia (flattery), Lethe (oblivion), Misoponia (laziness), Hedone (pleasure), Anoia (thoughtlessness), Tryphe (wantonness), Komos (intemperance) and Eegretos Hypnos (dead sleep).

Moriae Encomium was hugely popular, to Erasmus' astonishment and sometimes his dismay. Leo X thought it was funny. Before Erasmus' death it had already passed into numerous editions and had been translated into French and German. An English edition soon followed. One of the editions of 1511 was illustrated with woodcuts by Hans Holbein the Elder. These are the most famous illustrations of The Praise of Folly.

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