Ulrich von Hutten - Epistolarum obscurorum virorum - 1624

[VARIOUS AUTHORS / HUTTEN, Ulrich von]
Epistolarum obscurorum virorum, ad Dn. M. Ortvirum Gratium Volumina II. Extam multis libris conglutinata... Accesservnt hac editione multa magistralia interlocutorias...
Frankfurti ad Moenum [Frankfurt on the Main], M. DC. XXIV. (1624).

One volume in-12 bound in half-leather of the period, spine with gold-tooled raised bands, with a gilt-tooling compartment, title piece in red morocco, speckled edges. A copy fairly well preserved, wear and small losses, spine splits. Overall good condition.

Absolute masterpiece of Renaissance humanist satire, the Epistolae obscurorum virorum (Lettres des hommes obscurs) constitute one of the most humorous, ferocious, and subversive pamphlets in European literary history. Published initially anonymously from 1515 onward and mainly attributed to Ulrich von Hutten and his humanist circles, the work takes the form of a burlesque pseudo-correspondence.

Written in deliberately heavy, clumsy, grandiloquent Latin, these letters parody with caustic wit the obscurantism, gross ignorance, fanaticism, and hypocrisy of scholastic theologians and German monks (notably around the Cologne faculty and Ortwin Gratius), who vociferously opposed the spread of humanists and the great critic Reuchlin.

This in-12 volume, dated 1624 (printed at Frankfurt on the Main), collects the two volumes of these famous letters as well as several additional satirical texts (dealing especially with ecclesiastical morals, the priests’ concubine, and university jests).