Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum

The Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum (English: Letters of Obscure Men) was a celebrated collection of satirical Latin letters which appeared 1515-1519 in Hagenau, Germany. They support the German Humanist scholar Johann Reuchlin and they mock the doctrines and modes of living of the scholastics and monks, mainly by pretending to be letters from fanatic Christian theologians discussing whether all Jewish books should be burned as un-Christian or not.

The work was based upon the real-life public dispute between German humanist Johann Reuchlin and certain Dominican monks, especially the formerly Jewish convert Johannes Pfefferkorn who had obtained Imperial authority from Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I to burn all known copies of the Talmud in 1509. The title is a reference to Reuchlin's 1514 book Epistolae clarorum virorum (English: Letters of famous/bright men) which provided a collection of letters to Reuchlin on scholarly and intellectual matters from eminent German humanists such as Ulrich von Hutten, Johann Crotus, Konrad Mutian, Helius Eobanus Hessus, and others, to show that his position in the controversy with the monks was approved by the learned. The Latin adjective obscurus ("dark, hidden, obscure") is the opposite of clarus ("bright, famous, obvious") used in the title of Reuchlin's book.

Most of the letters found in Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum are addressed to Hardwin von Grätz in Deventer and contain mock accusations against him, such as allegation that he had been intimate with Johannes Pfefferkorn's wife (Letter XII) and that Gratius had defecated his pants in public (letter XL). The letters profess to be written by certain ecclesiastics and professors in Cologne and other towns of Germany. Grätz had made himself odious to the liberal minds of the time by what they saw as his arrogant pretension, his determined hostility to the spirit of the age, and his lax morality.

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