I’m shocked at how recently I learned about Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466-1536), who according to Wikipedia is considered one of the greatest scholars of the northern Renaissance. He corresponded with literally hundreds of people in the 1500s. He was born out of wedlock in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Both of his parents died in a plague.

He became a catholic priest like his father, studied at monastic schools, was probably gay, was offered the post of secretary to a Bishop on account of his skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters… studied at the university of Paris, taught at Oxford…

he urged internal reform of the Catholic Church, was good friends with Thomas More (Utopia), was lauded as “Prince of the Humanists”, famously argued with Martin Luther on the subject of free will, travelled widely across Europe, and died of dysentery at 69.

The man wrote thousands of letters, getting replies from Pope Adrian VI, Pope Leo X, Henry VIII… a bastard child who was orphaned at 17!

“Despite a chronic shortage of money, he succeeded in learning Greek by an intensive day-and-night study of three years, continuously begging in letters that his friends send him books and money for teachers.”

Erasmus and Da Vinci were alive at the same time (Leo X was, after all, a Medici, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent), but it doesn’t look like they corresponded.

Stefan Zweig wrote quite a moving biography of him: Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1934.

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One of my goals is to “mint 100 Erasmuses”. That means, to support and encourage 100 people who are prolific correspondents. This is part of my larger vision to build productive intellectual scenes in the world.

tbc