Page 623 [623]
CORRESPONDENCE WITH CORNELIUS GERARD 587
with which Engelbert is spoken of in the latter. The defence of
Valla in Ep. 29 plainly differs from that in Ep. 26, for there Erasmus
answers a written charge against Valla, here he combats criticisms
made by Cornelius during a recent visit to Steyn. Ep. 30 refers to
an oration, the Antibarbari, which Erasmus has in hand and is there¬
fore later than Ep. 28, in which the Oratio lugubris is spoken of as
the first of Erasmus’ efforts in prose to be sent to Lopsen. From
the fact that Epp. 17 and 22 have points of resemblance to the
Antibarbari and that in Ep. 30 Erasmus speaks of resuming it at
Cornelius’ request, some interval, not necessarily long, may be
presumed between this group and the letters preceding. Not much
Importance can be attached to the fact that the date assigned by
Erasmus to Ep. 29 coincides with that given conjecturally here ;
for since Ep. 26 probably precedes it, one of the dates supplied
in the Farrago must be wrong.
To obtain definite year-dates for these letters seems impossible,
although one of them, Ep. 20, has the month-date given. A number
of Erasmus” early compositions are mentioned, the dates of which
he attempted to fix in later years by estimates of his age at the time
of writing. Thus Epp. 17, 22, 29, 30 recall or refer to the Anti¬
barbari, which is said in his preface to have been begun when he
was not yet nineteen ; Epp. 19, 22, 23 to the Apologia, which, as Snoy
states, was commenced at the same age; Ep. 28 to the Oratio
Sunebris, written in his twenty-first year; Ep. 23 probably to the
Paraphrase of Valla’s Elegantiae, which he variously avers that he
wrote when about eighteen, or when scarcely twenty and seven years
before he went to Paris”. But, as has been shown in App. 2, Erasmus’
estimates of time are usually untrustworthy, and these cannot be
accepted with confidence. No clue is given by the external events
alluded to, the Utrecht war, the death of Rudolph Agricola’, or
Balbus’ poems*; and in view of the wide extent to which manuscript
was still used for circulating literary matter, it is not safe to conclude
with Richter that the poems of Bartholomew of Cologne mentioned
in Ep. 28. 22 are the Deventer edition of 16 Feb. I49I.
The general outcome of these considerations is that they indicate
à period some years later than Erasmus” entry into Steyn, and this
is corroborated by Ep. 28. 16, 7, where he refers to works composed
during his boyhood and during the year of probation. The date
which has the greatest value of those given above is that of the
Paraphrase of Valla. Seven years before Erasmus went to Paris
yields 1488. If Erasmus was working at Valla in that year, his
championship of him in Epp. 23, 26, 29 perhaps followed in 1489.
APPENDIX V
ERASMUS WITH THE BISHOP OF CAMBRAY
Erasmus left Steyn to accompany Henry of Bergen, Bishop of
Cambray, who was going to Rome in the hope of winning a cardinal’s
5 p. 108. 7 Indicated by callwit, Ep. 23. 59.
$ Ep. 20. 109 n. $ Epp. 28, 25, 27.
Qq2