Pagina 57 [57]
312] TO PETER GILLES 35
Neque velim tamen aucupari gratiam, vbi nihil promerear. Quibus 70
hic titulus praefertur ex Aristotele Plinioque, in his mea est col¬
lationis inuentio. Porro quae ex Plutarcho Senecaque desumpta
testatur inscriptio, in his nihil mihi vindico praeter colligendi ex¬
plicandique laborem et si quid laudis meretur commoda breuitas.
Neque vero me clam est quantum Similium pelagus possit e rerum
omnium naturis, e tot disciplinis, e tot poetis, e tot historiographis,
e tot oratoribus aggregari. Verum quae dementia sit quod infinitum
est velle persequi? Gustum dumtaxat dare voluimus, vt ingenia
iuuenum ad his similia conquirenda excitaremus. E Plutarcho
complura recensuimus, partim quod is author Graecus est, partim 80
quod in hoc genere sic excellit vt cum hoc nemo vel eloquentissi¬
morum iure conferri queat. E Seneca, quoniam in eo tum aliud
agentes versabamur, non ita multa decerpsimus. Non alienum fuerit
hunc libellum Adagiis aut, si mauis, Copiae commentariis ceu coroni¬
dem adiungere, quod cum illis plurimum habeant affinitatis et ad 85
hanc vel in primis faciant. Epithalamium tuum quo minus et
absolutum sit et editum, famulus meus in causa fuit, qui Louanii me
quidem imprudente reliquit exemplum. Bene vale.
Basileae. Anno a Christo nato m.D. x111. Idibus Octobriis.
Si
ox
310313. To ULRICH ZASIUS.
Munich MS. Lat. 1470, f. 199 v°. Basle.
18 October (1514).
[This letter occurs in a manuscript volume of 217 ff. belonging to the Royal
Library at Munich. The volume is the work of several hands, the earliest of
whom signs himself as a monk at Wessosprunn, in Bavaria, in 1456. The
copyist of this letter, also perhaps a monk at Wessosprunn, filled ff. 78-102 and
175-205 in the manuscript with miscellaneous contents : the first series including
(f. 94) a copy of a letter dated 23 Dec. 1517; the second containing, besides this
letter and Ep. 307, the Julius Excdusus, finished (f. 185 v°.) by the writer on
gi Doc, 1518, some letters (ff. 186-95) from the IMust. vir. epist. ad To. Reuchlin,
March 1514 and May 1519 (Ep. 300), and some extracts (ff. 202 v°-205) from
Erasmus’ Adagia and translations of Lucian and from A. The handwriting is of
the early sixteenth century, and thus bears out the inference suggested by these
dates. For the character of the copyist’s work see Ep. 307 introd.
This letter is printed by Prof. Neff, Udalricus Zasius, pt. 2 (1891), p. 33; not
quite accurately. The date is given by the third edition of the Adagia; ch,
Ep. 260.]
71. et aliis nonnullis post Plinioque add. 6. 78. este: sita, 85, 6. an:
habeat . .. faciat c0. Be: affinitatem ay. 87. sit Be: est ay.
qi. titulus] Parabolae siue Similia © written, probably ce. 1517-18, with
physicis, pleraque cu Aristotele et Plinio. allusions to the death of Jerome
86. Epithalamium] Petri Aegidii, Busleiden (Ep. 205), and the founda¬
afterwards included in the Colloquia of tion of the Collegium Trilingue intro¬
Sept. 1524 (LB. i. 746). It was re- duced. Of. also Ep. 356.
D2