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12 LETTERS OF ERASMUS [1517
credas quam auide expectem, quamque male precer illi morbo qui
vota mea tam diu remoratur. Dominus Cardinalis amantissimam
nuper apud me tui mentionem habuit, et plane videtur tibi magnum
aliquod bonum destinare. Epistolam meam, qua scribis te nolle
55 fraudari, Guilielmus meus tam diligenter reposuit vt inuenire non
possit, Tamen, quando ita vis, vbi vbi sit, inuentam et ad te missam
curabo. Vale. Londini raptim 162 Iulii.
Mitto ad te fasciculum ab oratore Veneto atque eius secretario,
praeterea ab Episcopo Roffensi.
602. To JoHN FROBEN.
Basle MS. G. IT. 132. 43. (Louvain.)
(July 1517.)
[An autograph throughout. M. Philippe Renouard has kindly allowed me to
avail myself of his intimate knowledge of Badius’ publications, and in answer
to my inquiry at once indicated that the book here referred to is the Antiquae
Lectiones of Caelius Rhodiginus. The first edition of this was published by the
Aldine firm in Feb. 1516, and a copy reached Froben through the Frankfort
fair in Sept. 1516 (Ep. 469. 8n.). He printed it in the winter of 1516-7
(Ep. 556. 27), and the colophon is dated 18 March 1517 (not 1518, as Panzer).
Meanwhile Badius also was reproducing the Aldine edition, 13 June 1517, and
in his preface of the same date, to Remigius Ruffus, he writes: ‘Tu enim istis
libris quos mihi suppeditasti non carebas, at sciebas duplo minoris a nobis quam ab
reliquis redimendos’ (cf. Ph. Renouard, Bibliographie de Josse Badius, iii. 209, 10).
But the priority of Froben’s edition is apparent, not real; for its title-page
contains on the recto the preface suggested here by Erasmus, which can only
have been written after the appearance of Badius’ volume.
For this conflict of dates three explanations are possible: (1) that Froben’s
book is to be dated in March 1517. (2) that the British Museum copy, which
is the only one I have examined—it once belonged to John Toker, Cardinal
College, Oxford—is a re-issue with a new title-page. (3) that the substantive
part of the book was completed by the date given in the colophon, but that this
being too late for the Frankfort spring fair, the introductory sheets (forty
folios of indexes, &., with separate signatures) were finished more leisurely ;
and that thus there was time for Erasmus’ preface to be included. No. 1 seems
to me improbable. The German year usually began at Christmas or 1 Jan.,
and I know of no other instance in which Froben uses the ‘old style’; though
Erasmus sometimes adopts it in his letters to friends who were accustomed to
it (cf. Ep. 522 introd.). Of the practice suggested in No. 2 Dr. Bernoulli has
shown me an example in two copies of the Adagia of 1515 (Ep. 269 introd.) in
the Basle University Library, where the title-pages differ considerably, but
otherwise there is no apparent variation. But though this was doubtless done
in other cases also, there is no suggestion in this letter of substituting a new
preface for one already used; and I therefore prefer the third explanation.
As to the date, there is no clear indication as to Erasmus’ correspondence
with Basle in the summer of 1517, except that he sent one packet in May
(Ep. 584. 15), which was answered from Basle, ¢. 13 July (Epp. 598, 9); and
that he replied to these answers with another budget of letters, e. 23 Aug. (Epp.
625-35). But as none of these announce Erasmus’ arrival at Louvain, it is
51. quamque seripst (qq): Jq aß: quamquam LB. 55. Gulielmus 8.
56. et add. B. 57. 168. 58. Mitto . . . 59. Roffensi add. 82.
52. Cardinalis] Cf. Ep. 577. 591, which follow a in the MS. in this
. 55. Guilielmus] Gonell; cf. Ep. 274 order: 8 is preceded in the MS. by
introd. Epp. 559 and 574.
58. fasciculum] Epp. 574, 590, 559, 59. Roffensi] Ep. 592.