Details
September 1508
ERASMUS, Desiderius (Rotterdam 1469? - 1536 Basel). Adagiorum chiliades tres, ac centuriae fere totidem. Super-chancery 2° (313 x 214mm). Collation: A6 B8 ξ-2ξ6 (A1r title, Aldine preface and device Fletcher no. 3, A1v-B8r Latin alphabetical index of the proverbs, B8v laudatory verse in Latin and Greek addressed to Erasmus by Germain de Brie of Auxerre, ξ1r-2ξ5v subject index, 2ξ6r.v author's dedicatory letter to William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy [ca. 1478-1534, tutor of Henry VIII]); a-z & aa-qq6 rr10 (text, rr9v colophon, quire register and device 3, -rr10 blank). 275 leaves (without the final blank). Roman type 11bis:91 (text), greek 3bis:90 (numerous quotations). 54 lines and headline. (Minor worming, slightly affecting text, four letters of title strengthened in manuscript.)
PREFACE: Aldus assures scholars that he has only their interest at heart. When this learned work by the erudite Erasmus of useful proverbs came to hand, he decided for the time being to put the classics aside in order to print it. From this large number of glossed adages the student will learn their value, and in addition he will find tens of thousands of lines from Homer, Euripides, Plato, Demosthenes and others. But let the work speak for itself.
BINDING: contemporary Swiss blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, panelled covers decorated with a hunting roll forming the outer border, an inner border of ropework ornament, different rope-tools and floral tools filling the central compartment, original brass clasps and catches, original endpapers, red, green and white headbands, (slightly wormed, corners a little rubbed.) PROVENANCE: BONIFACIUS AMERBACH (1495-1562, son of the Basel printer Johann Amerbach, jurist, intimate friend of Erasmus from 1515, ERASMUS'S LEGAL HEIR, with the printers Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Bischoff present at the bedside of the dying man on the night of 11-12 July 1536, author of the long epitaph inscribed on Erasmus's tombstone), HIS AUTOGRAPH QUOTATIONS AND SUBSTANTIVE ANNOTATIONS in Greek and Latin on pastedowns and in the margins of forty-two pages, his ownership entry on front pastedown Est Bonifacii Amorbacchii Basiliensis; the Amerbach family (presumably Bonifacius's wife Martha Fuchs, Basilius, brother and son, daughters Faustina and Juliana), inscribed on title and below colophon Amorbachiorum; brief 19th-century French bibliographical note.
FIRST EDITION of most of the text, expanding the Parisian recension (five editions 1500-1507, including GW 9374) from 841 to 3,260 essays on classical proverbs and transforming the work from a minor local success into an international best-seller. Much of the new material was Greek and according to Erasmus himself had been made available by Aldus and his associates Janus Lascaris, Marcus Musurus, Egnazio and Bolzanio (Adagia II 1, his tribute to the printer in the form of a lengthy essay on the Roman motto Festina lente as it relates to the Aldine dolphin-and-anchor device, fos. 112-14 in this edition, accompanied by a brief autograph gloss of Amerbach's in this copy). By the end of 1507 the Aldine company had been revived (see lot 52) and in 1508 was rapidly gathering momentum again. Erasmus had primarily gone to Italy in order to perfect his knowledge of Greek, and he stayed for more than a year at Bologna with Paolo Bombasio, professor of Greek at the university there. He arrived in Venice shortly before April 1508 and was Aldus's guest for about nine months, working as an editor for the Press. "Virtually all the employees, some thirty-three in number, lived in the same household, a building in the quarter of San Paternian which was the possession of Aldus's father-in-law and ... business partner, Andrea d'Asola. In these cramped quarters ... Erasmus had to share a room with Girolamo Aleandro and ... all were accustomed to take their meals together ... Generous aid came from members of the Aldine circle, who supplied him with various manuscripts in their possession, including even texts of unedited authors. Aldus himself provided unpublished codices from his own library, which, Erasmus attests, was supplied better than any other, especially in Greek books. In addition, Aldus permitted Erasmus access to letters of scholars from all over Europe with whom he was in correspondence regarding manuscripts and literary problems... It was the first time that Erasmus had essayed the role of writing at the same time that printing was in progress. What rendered his task even more difficult was the skill of the Aldine workmen, who printed with a rapidity extraordinary for the time. The first proof, we are told, was corrected by an employee named Serafino. Erasmus then occupied himself with additions and what today would be termed author's corrections. The final copy was always corrected by Aldus himself. Aldus' meticulousness evoked a query from Erasmus as to why he took such pains, to which the reply was "studeo" (I am learning). The picture of the two scholars working together in a room filled with the noise of the press has remained a classic in the annals of printing" (Geanakoplos p. 261-66).
ASSOCIATION COPY OF THE GREATEST LITERARY HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE AND IN ENTIRELY ORIGINAL CONDITION. Bonifacius Amerbach's books all passed after his death to the library of the University of Basel, but this volume evidently remained in the hands of his family. [Incidentally, Erasmus had sold his own library before his death to the Polish diplomat Jan Laski the younger.] In his last will of 12th February 1536 Erasmus named Amerbach as the heir of his property. "Let my heir, according to his best judgement and with the advice of my executors, distribute it for the benefit of the poor and sick who are advanced in years, for maidens of a marriageable age, for young men of good promise, and generally for all those whom he shall deem worthy of assistance" (as quoted by Léon-E. Halkin p. 264). As the administrator of the Legatum Erasmianum, Amerbach's help was requested by students coming from as far as Ireland and Hungary, and he became the chief supporter of the many religious refugees who found shelter in Basel ... But Amerbach was Erasmus' heir in a far wider sense, in that he lent his support to that current which made of Protestant Basel a stronghold of 'Erasmian' latitudinarianism. That the city was to be a centre of Erasmian inspiration for nearly half a century was due in large part to Bonifacius and to his son, Basilius" (M.E. Welti in Contemporaries of Erasmus II, 45). Isaac 12816; Adams E-418; Vander Haeghen I, 1; Bezzel 68; Dionisotti & Orlandi LXIII; Murphy 81 (faulty coll.); Laurenziana 100; R 53:2
ERASMUS, Desiderius (Rotterdam 1469? - 1536 Basel). Adagiorum chiliades tres, ac centuriae fere totidem. Super-chancery 2° (313 x 214mm). Collation: A6 B8 ξ-2ξ6 (A1r title, Aldine preface and device Fletcher no. 3, A1v-B8r Latin alphabetical index of the proverbs, B8v laudatory verse in Latin and Greek addressed to Erasmus by Germain de Brie of Auxerre, ξ1r-2ξ5v subject index, 2ξ6r.v author's dedicatory letter to William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy [ca. 1478-1534, tutor of Henry VIII]); a-z & aa-qq6 rr10 (text, rr9v colophon, quire register and device 3, -rr10 blank). 275 leaves (without the final blank). Roman type 11bis:91 (text), greek 3bis:90 (numerous quotations). 54 lines and headline. (Minor worming, slightly affecting text, four letters of title strengthened in manuscript.)
PREFACE: Aldus assures scholars that he has only their interest at heart. When this learned work by the erudite Erasmus of useful proverbs came to hand, he decided for the time being to put the classics aside in order to print it. From this large number of glossed adages the student will learn their value, and in addition he will find tens of thousands of lines from Homer, Euripides, Plato, Demosthenes and others. But let the work speak for itself.
BINDING: contemporary Swiss blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, panelled covers decorated with a hunting roll forming the outer border, an inner border of ropework ornament, different rope-tools and floral tools filling the central compartment, original brass clasps and catches, original endpapers, red, green and white headbands, (slightly wormed, corners a little rubbed.) PROVENANCE: BONIFACIUS AMERBACH (1495-1562, son of the Basel printer Johann Amerbach, jurist, intimate friend of Erasmus from 1515, ERASMUS'S LEGAL HEIR, with the printers Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Bischoff present at the bedside of the dying man on the night of 11-12 July 1536, author of the long epitaph inscribed on Erasmus's tombstone), HIS AUTOGRAPH QUOTATIONS AND SUBSTANTIVE ANNOTATIONS in Greek and Latin on pastedowns and in the margins of forty-two pages, his ownership entry on front pastedown Est Bonifacii Amorbacchii Basiliensis; the Amerbach family (presumably Bonifacius's wife Martha Fuchs, Basilius, brother and son, daughters Faustina and Juliana), inscribed on title and below colophon Amorbachiorum; brief 19th-century French bibliographical note.
FIRST EDITION of most of the text, expanding the Parisian recension (five editions 1500-1507, including GW 9374) from 841 to 3,260 essays on classical proverbs and transforming the work from a minor local success into an international best-seller. Much of the new material was Greek and according to Erasmus himself had been made available by Aldus and his associates Janus Lascaris, Marcus Musurus, Egnazio and Bolzanio (Adagia II 1, his tribute to the printer in the form of a lengthy essay on the Roman motto Festina lente as it relates to the Aldine dolphin-and-anchor device, fos. 112-14 in this edition, accompanied by a brief autograph gloss of Amerbach's in this copy). By the end of 1507 the Aldine company had been revived (see lot 52) and in 1508 was rapidly gathering momentum again. Erasmus had primarily gone to Italy in order to perfect his knowledge of Greek, and he stayed for more than a year at Bologna with Paolo Bombasio, professor of Greek at the university there. He arrived in Venice shortly before April 1508 and was Aldus's guest for about nine months, working as an editor for the Press. "Virtually all the employees, some thirty-three in number, lived in the same household, a building in the quarter of San Paternian which was the possession of Aldus's father-in-law and ... business partner, Andrea d'Asola. In these cramped quarters ... Erasmus had to share a room with Girolamo Aleandro and ... all were accustomed to take their meals together ... Generous aid came from members of the Aldine circle, who supplied him with various manuscripts in their possession, including even texts of unedited authors. Aldus himself provided unpublished codices from his own library, which, Erasmus attests, was supplied better than any other, especially in Greek books. In addition, Aldus permitted Erasmus access to letters of scholars from all over Europe with whom he was in correspondence regarding manuscripts and literary problems... It was the first time that Erasmus had essayed the role of writing at the same time that printing was in progress. What rendered his task even more difficult was the skill of the Aldine workmen, who printed with a rapidity extraordinary for the time. The first proof, we are told, was corrected by an employee named Serafino. Erasmus then occupied himself with additions and what today would be termed author's corrections. The final copy was always corrected by Aldus himself. Aldus' meticulousness evoked a query from Erasmus as to why he took such pains, to which the reply was "studeo" (I am learning). The picture of the two scholars working together in a room filled with the noise of the press has remained a classic in the annals of printing" (Geanakoplos p. 261-66).
ASSOCIATION COPY OF THE GREATEST LITERARY HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE AND IN ENTIRELY ORIGINAL CONDITION. Bonifacius Amerbach's books all passed after his death to the library of the University of Basel, but this volume evidently remained in the hands of his family. [Incidentally, Erasmus had sold his own library before his death to the Polish diplomat Jan Laski the younger.] In his last will of 12th February 1536 Erasmus named Amerbach as the heir of his property. "Let my heir, according to his best judgement and with the advice of my executors, distribute it for the benefit of the poor and sick who are advanced in years, for maidens of a marriageable age, for young men of good promise, and generally for all those whom he shall deem worthy of assistance" (as quoted by Léon-E. Halkin p. 264). As the administrator of the Legatum Erasmianum, Amerbach's help was requested by students coming from as far as Ireland and Hungary, and he became the chief supporter of the many religious refugees who found shelter in Basel ... But Amerbach was Erasmus' heir in a far wider sense, in that he lent his support to that current which made of Protestant Basel a stronghold of 'Erasmian' latitudinarianism. That the city was to be a centre of Erasmian inspiration for nearly half a century was due in large part to Bonifacius and to his son, Basilius" (M.E. Welti in Contemporaries of Erasmus II, 45). Isaac 12816; Adams E-418; Vander Haeghen I, 1; Bezzel 68; Dionisotti & Orlandi LXIII; Murphy 81 (faulty coll.); Laurenziana 100; R 53:2