Wessel Gansfort (1419–1489) and Northern Humanism

Book excerpt: Wessel Gansfort (1419-1489) is the author of a number of astute but difficult texts which indicate the high level of late-medieval spirituality and scholarship in northern Europe. Together with his younger friend Agricola (1444-1485) he ushered in the beginning of modern intellectual life in the northern part of the Netherlands (the province of Groningen) and adjoining Germany. This volume contains eight contributions on Gansfort, enlarging the range of perceptions of his work and personality for the first time since the major studies of 1917 and 1933 by Maarten van Rhijn. There are three additional articles on the Devotio Moderna and its influence, and eight on various subjects and personalities touching early Humanism and the Reformation in this range. Each of these studies is the result of entirely new and original research. The volume is concluded by a large bibliography.