Selections from Erasmus: Principally from his Epistles Part 11

219. QUID MULTIS?] _sc_. verbis opus est.

228. EXISTIMARET] An example of 'contamination', i.e. the combination, through confusion of thought, of two constructions, either of which would be correct. The idea in the robber's mind here could be expressed equally well by 'nisi quod nos quam pecuniosissimi essemus', the subjunctive indicating not a fact but only his opinion; or by 'nisi quod nos quam pecuniosissimos esse existimabat', where the opinion is definitely stated. By 'contamination' with _essemus_, _existimabat_ is put into the subjunctive. Cf. Cic. _Off_. l. 13 'Rediit paulo post, quod se oblitum nescio quid diceret'.

230. MINUSCULUM] 'Just too small a sum.'

233. DUODENARIOS] Coins worth 12 pence; douzains.

234. divum Dionysium] St. Denis, 4-1/2 miles from Paris: which seems to have been regarded as practically the end of the journey.

235. LANCES] Cf. l. 60 n.

258. PONDERI] The weight used in the scales; not as in l. 256.

264. IN HIS] 'in these modern coins.'

268. INTELLEGERET] Cf. l. 228 n.

272. NIMIS QUAM] _quam_ strengthens _nimis_, as freq. in Plautus.

291. AD SACRUM] To ma.s.s, in the monastery opposite.

X

[A letter written from Paris in the winter of 1504, after Erasmus had returned from two years' sojourn in the Netherlands. The influence exerted upon him by Colet in Oxford five years before is clearly shown.]

14. PERSUASERIM] Cf. I. 1 n.

19. NIHIL DUM] 'nothing as yet.' Cf. _nondum_.

TUARUM COMMENTATIONUM] Colet had been lecturing on the Epistles of St.

Paul, at the time of Erasmus' visit to Oxford. Cf. XXIV. 308, 9.

23. The precise date of Colet's D.D. is not known. He was now administering the Deanery of St. Paul's, though he did not actually receive it until May 1505.

31. VELIS EQUISQUE] 'id est summa vi summoque studio.' Erasmus, _Adagia_.

41. AD ROMANOS] Cf. XVI. 183, 4. Never completed.

49. Origen (_fl_. 230 A.D.) was one of the Greek Fathers of the Church.

Erasmus was engaged on an edition of his works at the time of his death in 1536.

50. _evolvere_, to unroll, is the cla.s.sical word for opening and reading a book; belonging to the days when books were rolls (_volumina_) of papyrus.

54. LUCUBRATIUNCULAS] Erasmus published a volume with this t.i.tle in 1503 or 1504. Its contents are sufficiently indicated here. One of them was the _Enchiridion Militis Christiani_, which was a manual of practical Christianity; its t.i.tle, which may mean either 'dagger' or 'handbook', being perhaps intentionally ambiguous.

68. Erasmus had recently published a Panegyric, which he had delivered at Brussels on 6 Jan. 1504 in the presence of Philip, Archduke of Austria, and son of the Emperor Maximilian, congratulating the Archduke on the success of his recent journey to Spain; to the thrones of which he was, through his wife, the heir apparent.

103. INSCRIPTUM] The _Adagia_ were dedicated to Mountjoy.

106. STUDIO] 'intentionally.'

124. Christopher Fisher was an English lawyer in the service of the Papal Court: who was at this time resident in Paris.

XI

[This incident occurred in January 1506, when Erasmus was paying his second visit to England. It is narrated in 1523, in the catalogue of Erasmus' writings, from which V is taken.]

3. LOVANII] During the years 1502-4.

4. PHILELPHUS] Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481) an Italian humanist. Erasmus was incited to attempt the translation by Filelfo's example, not by any direct communication.

6. _tum_ reverts back to the _tum_ in l. 3, after the digression.

7. PALUDa.n.u.s] John Desmarais (?), Public Orator of Louvain University.

9, 10. MONTIBUS ... AUREIS] 'Proverbialis hyperbole de iis qui immensa promittunt spesque amplissimas ostentant,' Erasmus. _Adagia_.

17. CANTUARIENSI] Warham. See XXII and XXIII.

25. REDIMUS] From Lambeth to London.

38, 9. NOSTRAE FAIRINAE] 'nostri gregis, nostrae conditionis.' Erasmus, _Adagia_. _Farina_ is lit. 'meal': so 'substance'; so 'quality '.

41. BADIO] Josse Bade, a Paris printer.

42. The Iphigenia in Aulis is another play by Euripides.

44. UNAM] _sc_. fabulam.

XII

[A letter written in 1507 to the famous printer Aldus (1449-1515) proposing a new edition of the translations from Euripides mentioned in XI. Aldus a.s.sented and the book appeared in Dec. 1507.]

2. UTRIQUE] Greek and Latin.

7. VOLITATURUS] Cf. Ennius in Cic. _Tusc_. 1. 15. 34:

Nemo me lacrimis decoret nec funera fletu Faxit. Cur? Volito vivu' per ora virum.