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THE DEVENTER LETTER-BOOK
APPENDIX VIII
THE DEVENTER LETTER-BOOK
Tux Athenaeum Library at Deventer contains one of the letter¬
books (MS. 91) in which copies of Erasmus’ correspondence were made
by his servant-pupils. Its genuineness is indisputably established
by corrections made by Erasmus himself, which occur throughout
the volume, the first being on f. 1, the last on f. 211. In the spring
of 1705, when Leclerc’s great edition of Erasmus’ complete works
was in progress’, the volume came into the hands of his enterprising
publisher, Peter Vander Aa, and such of its contents as were not
already printed were incorporated in an appendix to the volumes of
letters, which were then too far advanced to admit of reconstruction.
After being used for Leclere’s edition, for which purpose it was
actually put into the printers’ hands, the letter-book came into the
possession of the Academia Gelro-Zutphanica at Harderwyk; and,
on the demise of that institution in 1816-7, it passed with other
literary treasure into the Deventer Library, where it now reposes.
The manuscript does not appear ever to have been bound together
and, as it now stands, consists of 228 separate folios, and a small
title-page, unnumbered, on which is inscribed in a late xviit hand ?
within an elaborate border, very finely drawn, ‘ Collectio exquisitissima
epistolarum Desid. Erasmi Roterodami et ad eum scriptarum, in qua
diversae Autographae, nempe No. 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233,
234, 237, 239. MSS? This is followed by 224 folios numbered
consecutively at the foot of the page by some late hand. Then come
two autograph letters to Erasmus, one from Alciati (LB. App. 356),
the other from the Archduke Ferdinand (LB. 705) written by James
Spiegel, which are numbered 237-238 by the same late hand. Then
a half-sheet unnumbered, containing LB. 781 in a xviic hand ; and
the last sheet is blank except for the number 206 which is part of an
older numeration.
The late numeration may with probability be assigned to John de
la Faye, who edited the manuscript for Leclerc’s edition. It cannot
be earlier than Leclere’s edition, for the letters on f. 238 and the
half-sheet were evidently in Leclerc’s hands before he received the
letter-book, since he was able to incorporate them in the body of the
letters. And that this was complete before the Appendix letters
were dealt with is shown by the fact that the letter on f. 237, though
later in date than the two just mentioned, is placed in the Appendix.
In any case the numeration is probably not much later than Leclere’s
time.
The book contains altogether 366° letters and pieces of verse, of
which 55‘ were printed by Erasmus himself in different collections
1 See a note appended by Leclerc
to his Vie d'Érasme in the Bibliothèque
Choisie, Amsterdam, 1705, vol. vi. p. 238.
It appears from the Avertissement, f°. A?,
v°, that vol. vi. of the Bibliothèque was
published about April 1705.
2 Mr. F, Madan assigns it to the
years 1680-1700.
3 Six letters are copied twice, making
372 in all
* Fifty-one of these are printed in
the body of Leclere’s edition, four in
his appendix. LB. 334 occurs in the
Deventer book, f. 223; but since it is