Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) was a Dutch humanist, Catholic theologian, educationalist, satirist and philosopher. Through his vast number of translations, books and essays, he is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Northern Renaissance and one of the major figures of Dutch and Western culture.
He was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in a spontaneous, copious and natural Latin style. As a Catholic priest developing humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament, and also wrote fundamental works as On Free Will, The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, and many other essays.
The Praise of Folly (Stultitiae Laus or Moriae Encomium in Latin), is an essay written by Erasmus in Latin in 1509 and first printed in June 1511. Inspired by a previous works of the Italian humanist Faustino Perisauli, De Triumpho Stultitiae, it is a spiralling satirical attack on all aspects of human life, not ignoring superstitions and corruptions in the contemporary Latin Church, but with a pivot into an orthodox religious purpose.