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634 APPENDIX XIII Indeed miswritings in the letters are not uncommon, many of them being very rapidly written; so that it is not surprising to find the printed version sometimes at fault. In the two cases (ff. 184, 217) where we have the opportunity of comparing the rough drafts with the fair copies actually sent, it is noticeable that the secretary was not scrupulously accurate in his copying, as we have seen already with Ep. 326 ; writing for instance cum for tum, quum for cum, besides -ae for -e and making occasional differences of punctuation and order. The manuscript volume presents us with ample material for an examination of Erasmus” orthography. It appears that he uses the form -e far more commonly than -ae; which rarely occurs except as -ẹ; In a few cases (ff. 213, 214, 219 v°.) in revising Erasmus adds a cedilla to an -e; but this is quite exceptional. The form aeditio, which with its kindred words is regularly printed by the Froben press, has hardly any authority in this manuscript, editio being Erasmus’ almost invariable usage; though aed- occurs thrice, on ff. 160-1, and an improving hand, not Erasmus’, has added a cedilla once, on f, 209. Again lifterae—one of the words about which it is difficult to collect evidence, because in manuscript it is so frequently contracted—is almost always found instead of literae. Pre occurs only rarely, as also pre, the contracted form being usually adopted. Sometimes it is quite impossible to determine certainly what Erasmus wrote. The vowels are often so alike that the only guide is in the sense, and where this fails there is no arbiter. The same word, for example, might not infrequently be read either possum, possim or possem ; nolim or nolwi; and the terminations -is and -ius are often indistinguishable.
