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9 oo o 564 LETTERS OF ERASMUS [1514 Ago nunc in arce Hammensi, pauculos dies cum meo Montioio commoraturus, deinde Germaniam aditurus in transitu salutatis amiculis aliquot, Si fortuna respondebit et meis optatis et aliorum promissis, maturabimus reditum ; sin minus, consilium ex re capiemus. Faxit Deus Opt. Max. vt incolumis reuersus Ammonium meum offendam non solum incolumem, verumetiam lautissimis fortunae muneribus auctum. Si quando inciderit occasio prouehendi res Erasmi tui, non dubito quin sis eum praestaturus absenti quem semper hactenus praestitisti et absenti et praesenti. Bene vale, amice singularis. Ex arce Hammensi. postridie nonas Iulias. m.D.X1II. 296. To Servatius ROGERUS. Deventer MS. go. f°. 9. Hammes Castle, Brussels MS. 4850-7. f°. 143. 8 July 1514. Lond. Pref.: LB. App. 8 and i. Pref. [This letter was never published by Erasmus, though copies of it were in circulation before his death. Two manuscripts of it exist, one in a xvi° hand, in the Athenaeum Library at Deventer (a), the other, written by Martin Lypsius (1492-1555); in the Bibliothèque Royale at Brussels (8). There are also three printed versions of importance. Two of these contain the letter only, on four quarto leaves, with the title Zrasmi Roterodami Epistola qua se excusat cur mutarit monasticam vitam, item habitum, but without indication of date or printer; of one, which has an elaborate border and device on the title-page, there is a copy in the library of Trinity College, Dublin (y!); of the other, which is quite plain, several copies are known, one being in the Bodleian (7”). The third was printed by J. Lambert at Ghent in 1536 after Erasmus’ death, with the title Zpistola quaedam D. Erasmi Rot. nunquam ante hac aedita, rationem fere totius vitae eius continens. Epitaphia nonnulla in eundem (è) ; a copy of this is at St. John’s College, Oxford. Though it is not invariably the best, I consider a the most valuable, as containing the important reading inclinatus (1. 54; see facsimile). It is the last item in a little book of twelve octavo leaves, written throughout by the same hand, but plainly on several occasions ; for the title ‘Papa modernus’ is given to Leo x in an entry of 1515 (f. 5 v°) and to Adrian vi in one of 1522 (f. 6). The book contains nine miscellaneous speeches and letters, of dates ranging between 1508 and 1522. Four of the letters are to and from Erasmus, one of the latter being unpublished. £ is also of high value and has the following introduction by Lypsius, which throws light on the manner in which the letter became public property ; ‘Sequentem epistolam amiculi cuiusdam opera vsus transcripsi. Erasmus enim ceu sub fide Francisco Nouiomago Crucifero, D. Philippi Traiectensis episcopi sacellano, eam communicarat, sed tandem a suae professionis consorte circumuentus est, qui eam noctu exscripsit. It occurs in a MS. volume of 267 quarto leaves, all in Lypsius’ hand ; and from the date of the other contents of the volume it seems to have been written about 1518. y! and y? are probably unauthorized impressions of the letter, which were in circulation in 1533, and to which Erasmus refers as ‘ea Cepistola) quae fertur ad Seruatium’ in Lond. xxvii. 22, LB. 1265. They agree very closely in their text, and one is probably a reprint of the other. 6 is unique in containing versions of a few words and sentences into inferior Greek. One of these passages, ll. 75-7, is alluded to by Erasmus in the same letter as having given offence; it is clear therefore that the Greek translations were inserted by some friond of Erasmus in an attempt to establish an authorized text of the letter and to render passages which were liable to misrepresentation less easily accessible 38. M.D.XIIIL. add. H. 30. Si fortuna] Cf. Ep. 297. 27.
