Selections from Erasmus: Principally from his Epistles Part 12

20. Paul of Aegina was a Greek writer on medicine, whose works were much esteemed in the sixteenth century.

27. William Latimer (c. 1460-1545) was an Oxford scholar of great fame in his own day. He had recently been studying in Italy.

28. Cuthbert Tunstall (1474-1559) was a scholar and lawyer, who after discharging important emba.s.sies was made Bishop of London in 1522, and Bishop of Durham in 1530. He also had been studying in Italy shortly before this time.

33. Badius' edition had been published in Sept. 1506.

38, 9. Cf. Soph. _Ajax_ 362, 3:

[Greek: Euphaema phonei mae kakon kako didous Akos, pleon to paema taes ataes t.i.thei.]

41. MINUTIORIBUS ILLIS] The famous 'italic' type, first cast for Aldus, and said to have been modelled on the handwriting of Politian, the Italian humanist.

54. MERCURIUS] Cf. IX. 21 n.

XIII

[An extract from a letter written in 1531 to an inmate of a Venetian monastery, St. Antonio in Castello. It describes an interview which Erasmus had with Cardinal Grimani in 1509, just before leaving Rome to return to England. Grimani, who was one of the most influential cardinals at that time, resided in a palace built by Paul II--now the Palazzo di Venezia--near the Church of St. Mark. On his death in 1523 he left his valuable library to the monastery above-mentioned: whence it has pa.s.sed into the Library of St. Mark's at Venice.]

12. UT TUM ABHORREBAM] This clause is explanatory of _tandem_.

15. MUSCA] A figurative expression, meaning 'the slightest sign'. Cf. 'as big as a bee's knee', of something small.

55. ERAM RELICTURUS] = _reliquissem_. An idiomatic use with the future participle. Cf. Livy 1. 40 'Gravior ultor caedis, si superesset, rex futurus erat'.

XIV

[An extract from a letter dated 29 Oct. 1511 to Colet, who was then engaged on the foundation of St. Paul's School, and had asked Erasmus to make inquiries at Cambridge for a suitable under-master.]

2. MAGISTROS] _sc_. artium.

19. NOS RELIQUIMUS] Matt. 19. 27.

XV

[An extract from a letter written to a French scholar in 1532 from Freiburg. It describes Erasmus' meeting with Cardinal Canossa, who had been sent to London by the Pope in June 1514 to endeavour for peace between England and France. Andrew Ammonius, who arranged the meeting, was an Italian who held the important post of Latin Secretary to Henry VIII, and was endowed with a Canonry in St. Stephen's Palace at Westminster, on the site of the present Houses of Parliament. He was an intimate friend of Erasmus, and as Canon had an official residence in St.

Stephen's, on the banks of the Thames.]

1. IMMORTALITATI] By dedicating a book to him.

5. CULTU PROFANO] In the dress of a layman; instead of in his proper ecclesiastical garb.

14. PERSUASUS] An ante-cla.s.sical use.

16. _praesedit_] 'took precedence of me in sitting down'.

37. ITALI] There were many Italian merchants and agents resident in London at this time.

58. PERTRAXERAT] Cf. XIII. 55 n.

62. DIRIMIT] Cuts the house off from neighbouring buildings, i.e.

surrounds it.

63. OFFICII CAUSA] As a polite attention.

65. REDIRE] to London.

67. APERIT ... FABULAE SCENAM] Draws the curtain, i.e. discloses the facts.

70. SURDO] Cf. II. 53 n.

XVI

[When Erasmus became famous, a friend of his early days at Steyn, Servatius Rogerus, who had now risen to be Prior, wrote to him reproaching him for having abandoned the dress of his order and urging him to return to the monastery. The letter reached Erasmus in July 1514, when he was on his way to Basel and was staying a few days at Hammes Castle, an important military post in the English dominion near Calais, of which his old patron, Lord Mountjoy, was lieutenant. In reply Erasmus wrote an 'apologia pro vita sua', giving an account of himself and stating his reasons for the belief that he could make better use of his talents if he remained free. It is an important and confidential doc.u.ment; and Erasmus therefore never published it. But copies of it were being circulated in ma.n.u.script many years before his death.]

17. Cornelius, of Woerden, to the north of Gouda, was a school-friend of Erasmus. He had entered the monastery of Steyn and persuaded Erasmus to follow his example.

24. QUARUM ISTIC NULLUS USUS] This must not be taken to mean that good learning was unknown to the monastery; for Erasmus read a great deal in the cla.s.sics at Steyn; but that a monastery was not a suitable home for a scholar.

40. ANNUM PROBATIONIS] The const.i.tutions of the Augustinian Order provided that a novice could not make his profession as a Canon until he had completed his sixteenth year and had pa.s.sed at least a year and a day in probation.

74. CALCULO] Stone in the bladder.

84. CONFRATRES] Brother belonging to the same order.

100. CONCANONICOS] fellow-canons. The word is appropriate here as Steyn was a house of Augustinian canons.

104. SOLONIS] Cf. IV. 21 n.

Pythagoras (cf. VII. 7 n.) travelled in Egypt and the East in search of knowledge, and ultimately settled in Magna Graecia. By birth he was a native of Samos.

Plato (c. 429-347) after the death of Socrates in 399 travelled in Egypt, Sicily, and Magna Graecia.

120. HIC IPSE] Leo X, who was Pope 1513-21.

135. ELEEMOSYNARIO] almoner. Wolsey (c. 1475-1530) now held this post, and was also Bishop of Lincoln.