Page 648 [648]
612 APPENDIX IX
The manuscripts have therefore the highest authority. Their
value would be still further increased if it were possible to dis¬
cover the identity of Hand A. Various indications go to show
that he was closely connected with Gouda. Gerard, Herman, and
Snoy, whose writings form so important a part of the contents, were
all natives of that town ; the poem by Peter Nanno is specially con¬
cerned with it; the writer can explain the allusions to Winckel and
Cornelius of Woerden®; and finally he relates in the margin of
1324, f. 9, against a remark by Erasmus on preachers who try to
arouse laughter in their audiences, an incident of a Franciscan
preaching at Gouda, who made his hearers laugh at and not with
him. The date at which 1324 was written was probably about
1524, since a large proportion of its contents were composed by
Erasmus between the years 1521-4. 1323, however, as far as Hand
A is concerned, may be placed somewhat earlier, since it has
nothing later in date than 1519.
There are two other clues which may help to establish the
writer’s identity. He was unable to write Greek; and when words
or sentences occur in the original, he usually writes ‘ Hic Greca. In
a few cases he transliterates into Latin, not always successfully; and
only on three occasions’ does he essay Greek characters, once with
conspicuous failure. Again, at the end of Dorp’s letter, 1324, f. 55,
he writes: ‘ Huic epistolae respondet Erasmus apologia prolixa, quam
reperies in codice Adagiorum nigro ad literam a, Non fuit, ete.’ This
evidently refers to some book of his own or belonging to some library
which he frequented ; and it may be conjectured that he had copied
the letter in question into it with his own hand, since that letter was
never printed with the Adagia.
The two manuscripts may perhaps have been the property of Her¬
mann Lethmaet (1492-1555) a young man belonging to a good
Gouda family, who in 1522 had recently entered the service of John
Carondilet, Archbishop of Palermo, and in consequence had come
into contact with the Imperial household and the life of a Court.
Erasmus took much interest in him at this time, and wrote him two
letters” which Lethmaet, who on his side was devotedly attached to
his patron, was so delighted to receive that he carried them about in
his pocket until they were nearly destroyed. After his death these
two letters, with a few others written to him by distinguished per¬
sonages, passed into the Gouda Library, where one of them still
survives. In this Erasmus jests with him about the way to get on
in life, and adds: ‘Scripsimus epistolam iocosam de vtendo aula, sed
quae seria ducat ; ea est in libello de ratione componendi epistolas.
When, in 1524, Hand A began to make extracts from the De Con¬
scribendis Epistolis, the first item selected is this Epistola iocosa, which
it heads: ‘Ex libello Erasmi de componendis epistolis exemplum
epistolae monitoriae de vita aulica.’ It is noticeable that the title
given to the book is that used by Erasmus in the letter quoted,
instead of that which is found in all the printed editions. i
It does not seem possible to discover whether the manuscripts
% 1824; f. 108 v°, and 1323, f. a1 ; cf. © 1323, f.22 v°, and 1324, ff. 19 and 35.
PP. 73 and 565. 7 LB. App. 321 and 324.