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OCR
THE DEVENTER LETTER-BOOK 605 occurring in bundles of leaves which can be distinguished from one another with apparent ease. Ff. 183-7 for instance seem plainly to be by a different hand from ff. 188-204. But at f. 121 the two writings mingle and become undistinguishable, the characteristic upstrokes of the one appearing in the same line, and even in the same word, with those of the other. The limits of the letters copied by this hand are from 27 May 1509 (Ep. 215) to 11 Nov. 1517° (LB. App. 205). Among the Erasmiana in the Basle University Library is the manuscript copy of Erasmus’ translation of Book 11 of Gaza’s Grammar, which was sent to Basle in August 1517, and printed by Froben °; the compositors’ marks on the manuscript to show the ends of the pages corresponding exactly with the pages of Froben’s first edition. It is written by this hand, almost entirely in the straight form, with corrections in the margin by Hand C; which are included, however, in Froben’s text. 2. Hand B, covering ff. 206-224, 205 being blank, the letters ranging from 22 Apr. 1517 (LB. App. 130) to 7 Oct. 1517 (LB. App. 193). 3, 4. Hands C and D, covering ff. 1-16 and 30-92, with isolated letters by D on f. 03 v° and f. 102. The differences between them are strongly marked, but they are plainly contemporary with one another, since several letters are begun by one hand and finished by the other. The range is from 8 July 1517 (LB. App. 146) by D, and 13 July 1517 (LB. 258) by ©, to 24 Apr. 1518 (LB. App. 135) by D, and 26 Apr. 1518 (LB. 314, 5) by C. These two scribes evidently did not accompany Erasmus to Basle in the summer of 1518. 5. Of Hand E there are only two letters (LB. App. 284, 5) on f. 17. They are dated 31 May 1518 and are plainly written by some servant acquired at Basle. In spite of obvious differences, it may possibly be identified with the next hand, Hovius’, for there are points of resemblance, and the two are hardly farther apart than the two forms of Hand A. It is noticeable also that two leaves (ff. 18-9) are lettered !° by Hand E but are written by Hovius. 6. The next and last hand has some very distinctive marks, notably the letter d. It covers ff. 18-20, and the letters range from 13 Aug. to 25 Oct. 1518, consisting almost entirely of letters written after Erasmus’ return to Louvain. In some scribblings by this hand in the margin of f. 58 the words ‘ Houus tuus’ occur, which are evidently the scribe’s own signature ; and he may thus be identified with John Hovius, who entered 8 LB. App. 118 and 129 from their contents seem to require the dates 20 Mar. and 22 Apr. 1518, although the manuscript gives 1517 unmistakably for each. But it is possible to place them in 1517, and there is a strong presumption in favour of 1517 from their position on ff, 105, 6, which are signed A», A,, and are therefore some of the earliest leaves written by this hand, if we may assume the signatures to have been affixed when the leaves were written ; and also from the fact that there are only two letters in this hand (LB. App. 197 and 205) certainly later than 16 Sept. 1517. 9 LB. App. 286, 7. 10 See below.
