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THE COPENHAGEN MANUSCRIPT 631
1519 (Hp. 932. 16-8), and by Jan. 1523 he had made some notes which
he hoped to work up before the close of the year (1. p. 34. 19-22 and
crit. n.). After the publication of Cat. Luc. (1) the fulfilment of the
promise was often claimed. But from the tribute paid to the memory
of Warham (+22 Aug. 1532) it is clear that this draft at any rate—
and there is no evidence to show that there was any other—cannot
have been begun before 1532-3; for the passage occurs (f. 35) in
continuous composition and cannot be considered as an insertion.
It was not till the spring of 1535 that Erasmus began to print ; but
as there are five books, and as he suffered much from illness during
his closing years, Book I, with which we are now concerned, may
well have been begun at the time suggested. This conclusion is
borne out by the paper used. In the Ecclesiastes there is only one
watermark, and it occurs 30 times. The same occurs on 30 out of
38 sheets in the Adagia ; on 2 out of 8 sheets in the De praeparatione ;
and in all the letters written in 1533.
The De praeparatione ad mortem was written in response to a letter
(EE?. 109) from Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, dated 19 June
(1533). The preface, which in the manuscript has no date, in the
printed book (L) is dated 1 Dec. 1533.
The additions to the enlarged edition of the Adagia, Basle, Froben,
and Episcopius, March 1533, number 3659-4146; and of these the
manuscript contains rather more than half. The preface which pre¬
cedes them on p. 989 of the printed volume, is dated 1 Oct. 1532 ;
and in Q. 7, dated 15 Jan. (1533), Erasmus discusses the interpreta¬
tion to be put on a phrase which was afterwards included as No. 4082.
They were probably, therefore, composed for the most part in 1532-3.
No. 1493 in the manuscript is a new version of the adage, which
appears for the first time in the edition of 1536.
The notes on Seneca were made for the Froben edition of March
1529; those on Augustine I have not been able to trace. The
Froben firm published Augustine’s works in 1528-9 and 1540-3
with the aid of Erasmus; but I cannot find these notes in either
edition.
Thus far there is very little difference of date between the com¬
ponent parts of the manuscript. But with the letters there is less
uniformity, one quarter of them being prior to 1529, the earliest date
yet reached in the other contents of the volume. They are distri¬
buted thus :—
MONTS 1524 3. 1528 4. 1531 II. 1534 I
1519 I. 1525 I. 1529 2. 1532 2. 1535 I.
1520 I. N 270828 1530 II. 1533 6. 1536 4
and one uncertain, probably 1533.
The arrangement of the volume as it is now bound, shows little
evidence of design. The letters are, indeed, placed together at the
end; but the other compositions are in a confusion from which
a very slight expenditure of trouble would have extricated them ;
and it may therefore he safely assumed that the manuscript collection
—in whatever manner it was formed—was sent to the binder in the
condition in which it happened to be. We may argue, therefore, that
the collection was not made by any one interested in the papers for