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598 APPENDIX VII doubt. The correspondence of Cornelius Gerard in No. 1323 mentions a number of small points” alluded to in the collection published by Merula, and also supplies the exact complement to a statement in one of the letters”; but as these are altogether too petty to allow of the supposition that Merula had seen the Gouda manuscripts and made use of some of their contents, the whole hypothesis of forgery falls to the ground. The contents of O! may therefore be accepted as genuine. The fact that the collection made by Francis was not published by Erasmus may readily be attributed to disappointment at finding them inferior in style and contents to his expectation. The two letters of this period published in E were perhaps selected from it as the only ones which, doubtless by revision, could be made worthy of Erasmus’ reputation. Seriverius’ reprint of Merula’s book (0°) contains thirty-four out of the forty-two letters in Book 1, and adds to them a number of others, most of which are letters to and from Pirckheimer. These are very possibly derived from the recently published volume of Pirckheimer’s works (P): but as Scriverius omits some of those printed by Goldast and adds a new one addressed to Pirckheimer, it is possible that his collection came from another source. He has also three new letters, addressed to John de Hondt. The Epistolae Familiares (Q) were discovered in 1773 by the Bishop of Basle in the records belonging to the Chapter, and deposited in the University Library, where they are now. They were edited a few years later by some one who conceals his name, but who was probably an official of the Library. The letters are all addressed to Boniface Amerbach, and with two exceptions, one of 1515 and the other of 1522, belong to the period of Erasmus’ sojourn in Freiburg, ISS The name of the editor of the great London volume of 1642 (Lond.) is not known; but Mr. Nichols has shown™ that there is good reason for identifying him with a certain Adrian Vlacq”, a Dutch bookseller resident in England, whose name appears on the title-page in some copies of this edition. The text varies between the Basle folios of 1538 (N*) and 1541 (N°); but the omission of the letter to Loxanus mentioned above indicates N' as the original used. The editor follows the example there set of collecting the prefaces, cast in the form of epistles, from Erasmus’ other works; and these, with the letters published by Merula and Scriverius, make up two new books and a half. But his work, though mainly collecting and reprinting, was not entirely so ; for a few dates are added, and the text is occasionally corrected. As supplements to the London volume were published at the same time collections of the letters of Melanchthon, More, and Vives, containing respectively five, one, and eighteen letters to Erasmus. Leclerc, in his great edition of the whole of Erasmus” works (LB.), was the first to attempt the chronological arrangement, which Erasmus # See Epp. 3. 4on., 17. 6on., 19. 2 n, OLE and 33n., 28. 24n. 5 See ADB. He resided in England 53 Hp. 28. 4n, from 1633 to 1642.
