{"product_id":"2940014565172","title":"Against War","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Introduction      ix\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  Against War        3\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eINTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Treatise on War, of which the earliest English translation is here\u003cbr\u003ereprinted, was among the most famous writings of the most illustrious\u003cbr\u003ewriter of his age. Few people now read Erasmus; he has become for the\u003cbr\u003eworld in general a somewhat vague name. Only by some effort of the\u003cbr\u003ehistorical imagination is it possible for those who are not professed\u003cbr\u003escholars and students to realize the enormous force which he was at a\u003cbr\u003ecritical period in the history of civilization. The free institutions and\u003cbr\u003ethe material progress of the modern world have alike their roots in\u003cbr\u003ehumanism. Humanism as a movement of the human mind culminated in the age,\u003cbr\u003eand even in a sense in the person, of Erasmus. Its brilliant flower was of\u003cbr\u003ean earlier period; its fruits developed and matured later; but it was in\u003cbr\u003ehis time, and in him, that the fruit set! The earlier sixteenth century is\u003cbr\u003enot so romantic as its predecessors, nor so rich in solid achievement as\u003cbr\u003eothers that have followed it. As in some orchard when spring is over, the\u003cbr\u003eblossom lies withered on the grass, and the fruit has long to wait before\u003cbr\u003eit can ripen on the boughs. Yet here, in the dull, hot midsummer days, is\u003cbr\u003ethe central and critical period of the year's growth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe life of Erasmus is accessible in many popular forms as well as in more\u003cbr\u003elearned and formal works. To recapitulate it here would fall beyond the\u003cbr\u003escope of a preface. But in order to appreciate this treatise fully it is\u003cbr\u003enecessary to realize the time and circumstances in which it appeared, and\u003cbr\u003eto recall some of the main features of its author's life and work up to\u003cbr\u003ethe date of its composition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat date can be fixed with certainty, from a combination of external and\u003cbr\u003einternal evidence, between the years 1513 and 1515; in all probability it\u003cbr\u003ewas the winter of 1514-15. It was printed in the latter year, in the\u003cbr\u003e\"editio princeps\" of the enlarged and rewritten Adagia then issued from\u003cbr\u003eFroben's great printing-works at Basel. The stormy decennate of Pope\u003cbr\u003eJulius II had ended in February, 1513. To his successor, Giovanni de'\u003cbr\u003eMedici, who succeeded to the papal throne under the name of Leo X, the\u003cbr\u003etreatise is particularly addressed. The years which ensued were a time\u003cbr\u003esingularly momentous in the history of religion, of letters, and of the\u003cbr\u003ewhole life of the civilized world. The eulogy of Leo with which Erasmus\u003cbr\u003eends indicates the hopes then entertained of a new Augustan age of peace\u003cbr\u003eand reconciliation. The Reformation was still capable of being regarded as\u003cbr\u003ean internal and constructive force, within the framework of the society\u003cbr\u003ebuilt up by the Middle Ages. The final divorce between humanism and the\u003cbr\u003eChurch had not yet been made. The long and disastrous epoch of the wars of\u003cbr\u003ereligion was still only a dark cloud on the horizon. The Renaissance was\u003cbr\u003ereally dead, but few yet realized the fact. The new head of the Church was\u003cbr\u003ea lover of peace, a friend of scholars, a munificent patron of the arts.\u003cbr\u003eThis treatise shows that Erasmus, to a certain extent, shared or strove to\u003cbr\u003eshare in an illusion widely spread among the educated classes of Europe.\u003cbr\u003eWith a far keener instinct for that which the souls of men required, an\u003cbr\u003eAugustinian monk from Wittenberg, who had visited Rome two years earlier,\u003cbr\u003ehad turned away from the temple where a corpse lay swathed in gold and\u003cbr\u003ehalf hid in the steam of incense. With a far keener insight into the real\u003cbr\u003estate of things, Machiavelli was, at just this time, composing The Prince.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47074017607920,"sku":"2940014565172","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014565172_p0.jpg?v=1763611155","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014565172","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}