Erasmus

1650 · ref. 505202 — Typis Ludovici Elzeverii Elsevier 1650. Leather. GOOD. Collation complete: 8 unsigned Froben note and Author Vita A-Nn4 Oo-Pp4; Pagination: 8 589 3. 24mo sewn in 8's contemporary brown calf with gilt tooled spine. Engraved title page. Tips worn with some older reapirs headband intact tail of spine chipped ffep lost with waste vellum reinforcment stitched in now unglued. First owner's inscription to FPEP indecipherable; subsequently ex-libris Rene Louet Seigneur De La Porte with his inscriptions d. 1700 to title page verso p. 1 34 558 561 and colophon also with later 'Professors' Library' stamp from 'Grand Seminaire . Lava.' to title verso. This is NOT the 'prettier' of the two 1650 Elzevier printings listed by Willems 1110. 'Erasmus' Familiar Colloquies grew from a small collection of phrases sentences and snatches of dialogue written in Paris about 1497 to help his private pupils improve their command of Latin. Twenty years later the material was published by Johann Froben Basel 1518. It was an immediate success and was reprinted thirty times in the next four years. For the edition of March 1522 Erasmus began to add fully developed dialogues and a book designed to improve boys' use of Latin and their deportment soon became a work of literature for adults although it retained traces of its original purposes. The final Froben edition March 1533 had about sixty parts most of them dialogues. It was in the last form that the Colloquies were read and enjoyed for four centuries. For modern readers it is one of the best introductions to European society of the Renaissance and Reformation periods with lively descriptions of daily life and provocative discussions of political religious social and literary topics presented with Erasmus's characteristic wit and verve.' -- Craig Thompson introduction to the Colloquies volume of Erasmus's Collected Works. Typis Ludovici Elzeverii [Elsevier] unknown