Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum (redirected from Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum)

Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum 

(Letters of Obscure Men), an early 16th-century German satire written in Latin by the humanists C. Rubeanus, H. von dem Busche, and U. von Hutten. It was published anonymously in two volumes (1515–17).

These parodic letters, written as if by churchmen, ridicule the ignorance, stupidity, religious fanaticism, and moral wretchedness of scholastics. They also expose the vices of papal Rome and the parasitism and profligacy of monks. The lively and witty satire of the Epistolae obscurorum virorum dealt a heavy blow to obscurantists on the eve of the Reformation.

EDITIONS

Epistolae obscurorum virorum, vols. 1–2. Edited by A. Bömer. Heidelberg, 1924.
In Russian translation:
Pis’ma temnykh liudei. Moscow-Leningrad, 1935.

REFERENCE

Istoriia nemetskoi literatury, vol. 1. Moscow, 1962.