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Secondary sourceBook1914

The Age of Erasmus: Lectures Delivered in Oxford and London

P. S. Allen · 1914

A 1914 series of scholarly lectures by P. S. Allen examining Erasmus's life, works and historical context.

This scholarly work studies Erasmus's life and times using his letters as evidence, written centuries later.

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About this source

What it is

This book collects lectures given by P. S. Allen at the universities of Oxford and London, published in 1914 as The Age of Erasmus. The lectures cover topics such as schools, monasteries, universities and Erasmus's life-work, drawing heavily on his letters.

Why it matters

Allen was a major scholar of Erasmus's correspondence, and these lectures reflect early twentieth-century academic efforts to understand Erasmus within the wider world of Renaissance education, religion and scholarship. They show how historians have used Erasmus's own letters to reconstruct the intellectual life of his era.

Look closer

  • Why might a historian focus lectures on institutions like schools and monasteries to understand one person's life?
  • What does the opening statement about the importance of biography suggest about Allen's approach to history?
  • How might lectures written in 1914 differ from a modern account of Erasmus's world?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Desiderius Erasmus on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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