The French humanist, doctor, and writer François Rabelais (ca. 1494-ca. 1553) is acclaimed a master of the comic for his creations Pantagruel and Gargantua.

Unfortunately there are more legends than facts about François Rabelais The dates of his birth and death are only scholarly guesses. No record of his activities for long periods has survived. Most certainly born in the closing years of the 15th century, Rabelais consequently experienced a time of considerable ferment in the history of France's institutions and intellectual life. Unless one grasps the issues and the attitudes in this crisis, much of Rabelais's work is meaningless or subject to misinterpretation.

Central to the problems that faced Rabelais's contemporaries were the decline of scholasticism and the rise of humanist activity. (A humanist is defined here as a scholar of the language and literature of ancient times, including biblical research.) After the constructive...