Page 631 [631]
OCR
PRINCIPAL EDITIONS OF ERASMUS’ EPISTOLAE 595 With the Farrago (E) the pretence was discarded, and the volume appeared without a preface, perhaps because Erasmus was absent from Basle. It is of special interest as containing, with a very few exceptions, all of Erasmus’ letters before 1514 which were printed during his lifetime. Like his first letter-book, this volume contains very few letters from his early friends. In the Paris period the correspondence is always one-sided. With his pupils, Grey and Fisher, the Northoffs and Mountjoy, this isnatural enough ; buteven Faustus Andrelinus. who enjoyed a high contemporary reputation, was only accounted deserving of that honour to the extent of participating in what was evidently considered a witty exchange of notes %. Of the faithful Batt, the recipient of so many urgent missives, only one letter was included”, and that possibly written by Erasmus? hand. Soagain in England there are plenty of letters to More, Sixtin, and Colet, or to Gilles at Antwerp; but only the gifted Ammonius was deemed worthy to have his replies appended in any number to Erasmus’ compositions. Something of this was no doubt due to the Basle editors, who were modest enough to insert not a single letter from their own circle, a fact which excited some comment”. But probably in large measure it was because Erasmus had not preserved the letters of his correspondents during his early years; in the case of Ammonius, however, he had taken care to secure whatever he could, as soon as he heard of his friend’s death *. It is clear from consideration of the dates assigned to some of the early letters in the Farrago that Erasmus must have arranged for the publication. Out of the 103 letters which represent the years down to 1505, fifty-one have year-dates assigned ; of these, thirty-three and perhaps more are wrong, in most cases quite indisputably. These incorrect year-dates cannot have formed part of the original letters ; and Erasmus would hardly have left his friends to assign dates haphazard. It is evident therefore that the dates were added by Erasmus himself, in preparing the letters for publication. But his memory was sadly at fault, as it was ten years later, when he was engaged upon the Opus Epistolarum. The next edition, the Epistolae ad diuersos (F), was brought out to correct a number of indiscretions committed in the former volumes *, especially in D and E”; and it is quite evident that Erasmus was aware of the undertaking. In the preface, which he contributes himself, he admits having revised the Farrago; but he dwells at great length on his reluctance to publish his letters, and the pressure exercised upon him by circumstances, When the printed matter was exhausted, Beatus Rhenanus wrote to him for fresh material; in reply he sent a packet of letters, perhaps a book containing those of 1519-21, entreating Beatus to make a good selection, and protesting that he would like to see the volume suppressed. The little volume of Selectae Epistolae (Œ) appears to have been called forth by the numerous attacks on Erasmus in 1528, for it 15 Epp. 96-100. 19 Lond. xiii. 5, LB. 515. © Ep. 120. 2° Cf. Epp. 123, 146, and 280. In 7 BRE. 136. Epp. 80 and 88 are examples of con18 LB. App. 228, 180, 260, 132, 281. siderable amplification,
