Erasmus of Rotterdam

Erasmus, Desiderius (1466-1536) Dutch humanist and scholar, one of the most influential Renaissance figures, born in Rotterdam. he was educated by the Brethren of the Common Life in Deventer and joined an Augustine monastery at Steyn near Gouda in 1487, and was ordained a priest in 1492. But Erasmus was already reacting against scholasticism and was drawn to the Humanists. He studied and taught in Paris, and later in most of the cultural centres in Europe, including Oxford and Cambridge, where he was professor of divinity and of Greek. He published many popular, sometimes didactic works like Adages (1500, 1508), Handbook of a Christian Soldier (1503), and the famous In praise of Folly (1509). He also published scholarly editions of classical authors and the Church fathers, and edited the Greek New Testament (1516). Erasmus traveled widely and met Europe’s foremost intellectuals, including Thomas More. In Basel he stayed for 15 years. Hans Holbein the Younger was among his admirers and friends.
See: Albrecht Durer. Portrait of Erasmus.
Hans Holbein. Portrait of Erasmus. Portrait of Erasmus von Rotterdam in a Round Frame.
Quentin Massys. Erasmus of Rotterdam.