In the footsteps of Erasmus - Rotterdam

Erasmus was born around 1466 in Rotterdam. There is not so much to say with certainty about his birth or the circumstances at that time. The archives as well as the house and street where he was born are long gone. What is certain is that the construction works for the St. Lawrence church, a typical landmark in Rotterdam until the present day, had started.

Erasmus was born in a prosperous city and his parents were not poor. What was remarkable, especially for that time, was that he was a child of unmarried parents. In fact his father was a priest and the fact that he had a son with his housekeeper was considered a crime by the very church he worked for.

From this difficult social starting point, Erasmus would develop into an author and professor who taught the whole of Europe how to read and write, who taught his contemporaries proper manners and how to behave and who lectured popes and kings.