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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
While the influence of Erasmus on his contemporaries has been studied in various ways, it has been little noticed that even at the height of his fame Erasmus could himself be influenced by those who looked to him for inspiration. He probably reached the summit of his prestige as the prince of European letters between 1514 and 1516, when many of his important works were printed for the first time or reissued: Enchiridion Militis Christiani, which P. S. Allen says first attracted wide notice in the edition of 1514; Moriae Encomium (1514 and 1515); Adagiorum Chiliades (1515); the Greek New Testament (1516) and the Epistulae of St. Jerome (1516). Except for the first, all these works were printed by the firm of Johann Froben in Basel. Erasmus came to Basel in the late summer of 1514 to publish his Adagia and, after a brief trip to England in the spring of 1515, returned to publish his New Testament. The men who gathered around him at Froben's press seem to have had more than a little to do with what went into his books.
1 P. S., Allen, D. Erasmi Opus Epistolarum(12 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon, 1906-58), 1, 229, 373.Google Scholar
2 According to Erasmus, a German messenger disobeyed orders and took the manuscript Adagia to Froben in Basel rather than to Badius in Paris to whom it was promised: Opus Epist., Letter 283,11. 152-162,1, 547. Allen, ‘Erasmus’ Relations with his Printers,' Transactions of the Bibliographical Society XIII (1913-15), 310, believes Erasmus in fact sent the messenger to Basel because Badius did not have Greek type and because he may have seen Froben's 1513 counterfeit of the 1508 Venetian edition which had a eulogy of himself on the title page.
3 Letter 266,11. 11-14,1, 519; Letter 33,11. 29-40, 11, 71.
4 De Duplici Copia(Strassburg: M. Schuererus, Jan. 1513), sig. ii.
5 Letter 302, 11, 7-8; Letter 305, 17-24. Gerhard Ritter, ‘Erasmus und der deutsche Humanistenkreis am Oberrhein: eine Gedenkerede,’ printed as an appendix to Josef Rest, Die Erasmusdrücke der Freiburger Universitätsbibliothek (Freiburg: Wagner, 1937), p. 9.Google Scholar
6 Budé to Erasmus, Letter 435,11. 69-84, n, 274; Letter 369,11. 1-3, 159.
7 Letter 305,11. 170-178, 11, 21.
8 Letter 301, 11. 45-46, 11, 7; Letter 337, 11. 10-12, 91. Cf. Letter 303 (from Ulrich Zasius), 11. 13-14, 10; Letter 365 (from Ulrich von Hutten), 11. 4-5, 156; Letter 374 (from Johann Caesarius), 1. 41, 174; and Letter 391 (from Nicholas Basell), 1. 53, 203.
9 Rudolf, Wackernagel, Geschichte der Stadt Basel (3 vols.; Basel: Helbing, & Lichtenhahn, , 1924), 111, Ch. VI;Google Scholar Edgar, Bonjour, Die Universität Basel von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Basel: Helbing & Lichtenhahn, 1960 Google Scholar
10 See Wackernagel, m, Ch. vi.
11 Ibid. The Chronicon of Conrad Pellican, tr. Frederick C. Ahrens (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1955) provides, unfortunately, no information for this period.
12 Letter 459,Il. 20-45, 11, 334.
13 Letter 412,Il. 24-25, 11, 242.
14 He left ‘unwillingly’ (Letter 404, 1. 15, 11, 234) because he wished to confer with friends in England about his application for two papal dispensations (see Allen's introduction to Letter 447, 11, 291-293). Letter 411,Il. 2-4, 241; Letter 414,Il. 10-15, 246; Letter 416,Il. 8-9, 248.
15 To Zasius, Letter 31, 1. 17, n, 36; to Pirckheimer, Letter 322, 11. 34-35, 47; to William Cop, Letter 326,1. 30, 56.
16 ‘Erasmus, as Cosmopolitan and Internationalist,’ Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, XLIV (1955), 167–195;Google Scholar ‘Auris, Batava,’ praising Dutch simplicity, was the last adage in the 1508 Venetian edition and is translated by Margaret Mann Phillips, The Adages of Erasmus(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964), pp. 210–211;Google Scholar Jan, Huizinga, 'Erasmus über Vaterland und Nationen,’ Gedenkschrift zum 4ooen Todestage des Erasmus, Historische und Antiquarische Gesllschaft zu Basel (Basel: Braus-Riggenbach, 1936), pp. 34–49.Google Scholar
17 Letter 321, 11. 13-15, 11, 46. Sebastian Murrho (see note 4) and Urbanus Rhegius (Letter 386, 11. 36-38, 190) were concerned about the same question. Later Erasmus thought that a ‘Batavus’ was more a Gaul than a German: O., Noordenboos, ‘Erasmus en de Nederlanden,’ Bijdragen voor Vaderlandsche Geschiedenis, 7e Reeks, VI (1936), 203.Google Scholar
18 Letter 23, 11. 52-72, 1, 105-107, names a Frisian, a Hollander, a Westphalian and a man from Cologne as illustrious scholars produced by ‘our Germany.'
19 Letter 283,1. 162, 1, 547 (for this incident see note 1); Letter 307, 11. 11-12, n, 26; Letter 334,11. 7-8, 74; Letter 305,11. 38-39,18. The play on ‘Germanus’ and the adjective 'germanus’ was not new to German humanists: Letter 317 (from Zasius), 11. 17-18, 39. The line in the preface to the Froben Adagia, dated Jan. 1513, ‘Decet hominem Germanum ingenue turn facere turn dicere’ (Letter 269, 11. 38-39, 1, 522), was probably added in Basel. Erasmus had always liked to think of himself as a man of great candor; see e.g., Letter 107 (to Colet), 11. 37-49, 1, 244.
20 The future Reformers Capito (Neue Deutsche Biographie, III, 132-133) and Urbanus Rhegius (Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, XXVIII, 374-378) were appointed to endowed pulpits in Basel and Augsburg respectively in 1515 and 1520.
21 See Ludwig, Geiger, Johann Reuchlin(Leipzig: Dunck & Humboldt, 1871),Google Scholar and Friedrich, Paulsen, Geschichte desgelehrten Unterrichts(2 vols.; Leipzig; Veit, 1919–21).Google Scholar
22 Hubert, Jedin, Geschichte des Konzils von Trient (2 vols.; Freiburg, 1950-57), 1Google Scholar; Anton, Stoermann, Die Städtischen Gravamina gegen den Klerus (Reformationsgeschichtliche Studien und Texte, 24/6; Münster: Aschendorff, 1916).Google Scholar
23 Hummelberger to Amerbach, Nov. 19, 1518, Die Amerhach Korrespondenz, ed. Alfred Hartmann (5 vols.; Basel: Verlag der Uruversitätsbibliothek, 1942-58), n, 139- 140; cf. Wilhelm Nesen to Amerbach, June 21,1518, 11, 118-119. Neither letter mentions Luther.
24 Pellican, Chronikon, pp. 87-88.
25 Ritter, , ‘Die Geschichtliche Bedeutung des deutschen Humanismus,’ Historische Zeitschrift, CXXVII (1922), 393–453;Google Scholar ‘Erasmus und der deutsche Humanistenkreis am Oberrhein,' pp. 11-23. Ritter goes too far in the latter essay when he says the Germans were not interested in works which dealt only with eloquence (Allen, ‘Erasmus and his Printers,’ p. 311, points out that Schuerer reprinted the Aldine Adagia almost every year until 1514, calling Erasmus ‘Germanorum Omnium elegantissimus’ in the 1509 edition).
26 Letter 490 (from Glareanus), 11. 26-30, n, 384; from Dürer's Tagebuch, in Albrecht, Dürer, Schriften, ed. Max, Steck (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1961), p. 76.Google Scholar
27 Wallace, Ferguson, Opuscula Erasmi (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1933), pp. 40–46;Google Scholar Thompson, 'Erasmus as Cosmopolitan,’ p . 183n.; and Harbison, E. Harris, The Christian Scholar in the Age of Reformation (New York: Scribner's, 1956), p .98 Google Scholar accept Erasmus’ authorship of julius Exclusus. The strongest evidence is that a copy of it was extant in his hand while he was in England in May 1516 (Letter 502, 11. 10-12, n, 420). But to Thomas More (Letter 908,11. 2-8, m, 463) he denies outright that it was ‘conscriptum’ by himself. In a work largely overlooked by Americans, Carl, Stange, Erasmus und Julius II: eine Legende (Berlin: Toepelmann, 1937)Google Scholar argues that the author of the dialogue attacks Julius II less for pacifist reasons than from pro-French and pro-Conciliarist sentiments, both of which were foreign to Erasmus; he disliked the Pope ‘non studio Galli, sed odio belli’ (Letter 240,11. 32-33,1, 483).
28 Letter 288,1, 551-554 (Feb. 1514); Letter 1211,11. 576-616, IV, 525-526; Robert T., Adams, The Better Part of Valor: More, Colet, Erasmus and Vives on Humanism, War and Peace(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1962), pp. 55–78.Google Scholar
29 Phillips, The Adages of Erasmus, pp. 9, 96, 106-119. The fact that the letter to Anthony of Bergen appeared in the 1515 edition as the adage ‘Bellum’ indicates that Erasmus did further work on the manuscript after reaching Basel. The statement by Augustin, Renaudet, Erasme et I'ltalie (Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, xv; Geneva: Droz, 1954), p.83,Google Scholar that the Aldine Adagiamade Erasmus ‘The most vigorous critic of social, political and religious life in Christian Europe’ is untenable.
30 I am indebted to Professor Miller of St. Louis University for the use of notes he has made in preparation for a variorum edition of Moriae Encomium. In the Leyden Opera Omnia, iv, the passages added in 1514 include: 465B ‘Adde nunc’ to 468B ‘conspurcare'; 473B ‘Horum magna pars’ to 474A ‘absque meo beneficio'; 475B ‘aut crucis mysterium’ to 477A ‘preambulum suum'; 491C ‘Sed interim obstrepunt’ to 496A ‘Ad Paulum redeo.' 412D for the phrase added in 1515.
31 Letter 2615,11. 171-181, IX, 449-450; Leyden Opera Omnia, IV, 466EP, 465C.
32 Opus Epist., 11. 5-12,1, 14.
33 Erasmus did not lay an egg for Luther but he did pass on a ‘torch’ to Capito: Letter 541, 11, 487-490.
34 Adnotationes (Basel: Froben, 1516), to Matt. 10, 2, p. 257, and Matt. 6, 7, p. 250.
