In 1925, the celebrated Chicago publisher Pascal Covici brought out an eclectic if unorthodox edition of In Praise of Folly, the classic Renaissance-era essay by philosopher and theologian Desiderius Erasmus. A work of many hands, the limited edition of eleven hundred numbered copies, bound in cloth and boards, and printed on fine paper (Coventry Book), quickly sold out and the edition went out of print. Since then, the Pascal Covici edition of Erasmus' In Praise of Folly has only been available through rare and out-of-print book dealers in the antiquarian marketplace.
The present work, with revisions and corrections to the text, retains Horace J. Bridges' lengthy introduction "In Praise of Erasmus," a selection of illustrations by Anthony Angarola, Hans Holbein (the Younger), Gene Markey, and Paul L. McPharlin that originally appeared in the Pascal Covici edition, and several additional illustrations by Holbein. This revised and corrected edition is published by Ether Editions. Arguably not your professor's Folly (though with all due respect, perhaps it should be), this edition of In Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus is intended to reacquaint modern readers with one of the classics of Renaissance Humanism.
