Erasmus, Man of Letters: The Construction of Charisma in Print

"Winner of the 1993 Bainton Book Prize, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference"

"A contribution to the understanding of the modern age. Jardine vividly shows how reading-attentive, critical reading-became a form of `spiritual education' in the early modern period, and how Erasmus became the pattern for the modern Man of Letters."---Tom D'Evelyn, Bostonia

"Jardine's spirited study exploits the evidence of Erasmus's own statements about himself, direct and oblique, and the estimates of his situation in the great tradition that he influenced others to make.... [Her portrait of Erasmus] is taken under a raking light, to show a master of the media [and] a master-builder of a textual persona, of an intellectual genealogy culminating in himself."---J. B. Trapp, London Review of Books

"Erasmus, Man of Letters may inspire skepticism about Erasmus's alleged sincerity, but it is hard not to feel increased admiration for the energy and ingenuity with which the indefatigable scholar continued to combine so successful a publicity campaign with his countless other literary activities."---Alastair Hamilton, The Times Literary Supplement