Erasmo

1522 · ref. 5299 — Basel: Johann Froben August 21 1521 - January 1522. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover. Fine. A superb copy bound in contemporary alum-tawed pigskin over beveled wooden boards ruled and tooled in blind with the original clasps catches and straps preserved. Binding mildly soiled a few scrapes mild surface wear. Internally crisp and bright with just a few lightly toned leaves and a few trivial stains. With 16th c. manuscript annotations scattered throughout and a 16th c. ownership inscription on the paste-down. The errata lvs. have been tipped in possibly indicating early issue. Excellent. Title page with the fine ‘Triumph of Humanitas’ historiated woodcut border by Urs Graf Lüthi 50a and Hieronymus Oberrheinische Buchillustration 172 enclosing Froben’s printer’s device; two preliminary pages with fine four- and five-piece woodcut borders by Ambrosius Holbein; white-on-black woodcut headpiece two 10-line woodcut initials and numerous smaller ones verso of final leaf with large printer’s device enclosed in five-piece woodcut border; some Greek printing. First edition of this collection of 671 letters of which 171 are newly printed. The majority of the new letters are from 1519-1521 but some are earlier the first dated 11 July 1513. The collection is far larger than its predecessors: the ‘Epistolae aliquot’ of January 1518 52 letters the ‘Auctarium’ of October 1518 63 letters and the ‘Farrago’ of Nov 1519 333 letters. Erasmus provides a preface to his correspondence for the first time in this edition. The letter to his editor Beatus Rhenanus Ep 1206 tells of his dislike of two earlier collections edited by him Beatus and published by Froben the ‘Auctarium’ of October 1518 and the ‘Farrago’ of Nov 1519 and implies that they were published surreptitiously without his consent. After the present edition no further collections were printed until the ‘Opus epistolarum’ of 1529. The introduction in the Collected Works to Erasmus’ prefatory letter to Beatus Rhenanus illustrates his personal involvement in the production of this collection: "Even as the Farrago was being printed Erasmus spoke of another edition with new letters added and others revised. The last thing he desired was a straight reprint either by Froben or another publisher. So in the summer of 1520 he was going through all his letters and in November the review of the ‘Farrago’ was apparently completed. Before the middle of January 1521 the revised copy together with a substantial number of new letters had reached Basel. When he sent the first part of the revised New Testament shortly afterwards he apparently asked to have all letters old and new back for another review but was sent none and told instead that a volume of 41 quires pages 1-490 was set in type lacking only a preface and an epilogue. So he wrote this preface as well as dispatching more letters to Basel. “Froben next prepared a preliminary quire containing the title-page dated 31 August Epp 1206 1225 and to fill some space left over on the last page Ep. 1239. All was printed and ready to be launched at the Frankfurt autumn fair but with the certain prospect of Erasmus’ return to Basel a delay was indicated. As Froben now preferred his volume not to reach the public and his rivals until the time of the spring fair of 1522 Erasmus could add more letters including the last in time dated from Basle 22 November 1521 which appears on page 639 but is followed by thirty more pages of letters. Presumably as a result of Erasmus’ review of the printed volume over three pages of corrigenda were added at the end" Collected Works vol. 8 pp. 215/7. The correspondents for the newly printed letters include Johann Reuchlin Justus Jonas Guillaume Bude Petrus Mosellanus Polydore Vergil Pope Leo X Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg Thomas More William Warham Thomas Wolsey and John Fisher. Many of the letters reflect Erasmus’ changing stance regarding Luther but at the same time continue his attacks on the friars and Louvain theologians. Bietenholz singles out a long letter of 10 May 1521 Ep 1202 to Justus Jonas as one of the finest of the period in which Erasmus expresses his alarm that Jonas as well as a whole group of German humanists especially Melanchthon are committing themselves irrevocably to the Lutheran cause Collected Works vol. 8 pp. 201. Another letter to Jonas of June 1521 Ep 1211 holds an important biography of his friend John Colet the humanist and educational pioneer who had died in September 1519 “Sixteenth-century Europe’s image of Colet owes everything to Erasmus. Much is still today known only from that source. Erasmus’ encomium is the fullest and most explicit portrait.” Contemporaries of Erasmus I p. 327. Also included in this collection and previously published in the Farrago is one of Erasmus’ most famous letters “which will always rank among his finest writing and the great accomplishments of Renaissance literature” Collected Works vol. 7 p. xii. Addressed to Ulrich von Hutten in July 1519 Ep 999 it contains Erasmus’ intimate pen portrait of his close friend Thomas More. It serves as earliest biographical account of More and is the most substantial of three letters the others Ep 1233 see below & Ep 2750 “which are indispensable for any historical assessment of More’s character” Contemporaries of Erasmus II p. 458. It is full of memorable phrases such as “in a word if you want a perfect model of friendship you will find it in no one better than in More” and “no one is less led by the opinions of the crowd yet no one departs less from common sense”. The friends met for the last time in Bruges in August 1521 and in his letter to Budé Ep 1233 first printed here Erasmus writes of the invigorating impact of their meeting and of the shining example set in More’s household for the education of women. Johann Froben, August 21 1521 - January hardcover books