ILLUSTRATIONS
| PAGE | |
| ERASMUS From the portrait by Holbein in the Louvre. | [Frontispiece] |
| STATUE OF ERASMUS AT ROTTERDAM | [2] |
| HOUSE AT ROTTERDAM IN WHICH ERASMUS WAS BORN From Knight's "Life of Erasmus." | [4] |
| PARISH CHURCH AT ALDINGTON, KENT From Knight's "Life of Erasmus." | [20] |
| HOLBEIN'S STUDIES FOR THE HANDS OF ERASMUS | [48] |
| THOMAS MORE From the drawing by Holbein in Windsor Castle. | [64] |
| JOHN COLET From the drawing by Holbein in Windsor Castle. | [70] |
| HENRY VIII. AND HENRY VII. Fragment of a cartoon by Holbein in possession of the Duke of Devonshire. | [77] |
| FRONTISPIECE AND TITLE-PAGE FROM "L'ÉLOGE DE LA FOLIE," PUBLISHED AT LEYDEN IN 1715 | |
| ALDUS P. MANUTIUS From an old print. | [134] |
| CARDINAL REGINALD POLE From "Erasmi Opera," published at Leyden, 1703. | [146] |
| CARDINAL PETER BEMBO From "Erasmi Opera," published at Leyden, 1703. | [154] |
| ERASMUS.—"FOLLY" AS PROFESSOR. Holbein's illustrations to the "Praise of Folly" | |
| A THEOLOGIAN.—A COUNCIL OF THEOLOGIANS. Holbein's illustrations to the "Praise of Folly" | |
| EVERYONE HAS HIS HOBBY.—PILGRIM FOLLY.—"FOLLY" CONCLUDES HER LECTURE. Holbein's illustrations to the "Praise of Folly" | |
| TITLE-PAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, 1519 | [180] |
| WILLIAM WARHAM, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY From a painting by Holbein in the Louvre. | [184] |
| QUEEN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE From Knight's "Life of Erasmus." | [190] |
| JOHN FISHER, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER From the drawing by Holbein in Windsor Castle. | [195] |
| CARDINAL XIMENES From a portrait by C. E. Wagstaff, in the Florence Gallery. | [200] |
| DEVICE OF THE HOUSE OF FROBEN | [205] |
| DEVICE OF FROBEN | [207] |
| PORTRAIT OF FROBEN BY HOLBEIN. EPITAPH BY ERASMUS—FACSIMILE OF HANDWRITING From Knight's "Life of Erasmus." | [232] |
| BONIFACE AMERBACH OF BASEL From "Erasmi Opera," published at Leyden, 1703. | [236] |
| CHARLES V. From an engraving by Bartel Beham, 1531. | [262] |
| PHILIP MELANCHTHON From the drawing by Holbein in Windsor Castle. | [280] |
| FRONTISPIECE (ERASMUS SEATED) TO "ERASMI OPERA," PUBLISHED AT LEYDEN, 1703 | [296] |
| ERASMUS WITH "TERMINUS" From a woodcut by Holbein in the Basel Museum. | [315] |
| ERASMUS From a copper engraving by Albert Dürer. | [334] |
| FACSIMILE OF LETTER OF ERASMUS TO JOHANNES LANGE | [342] |
| ULRICH VON HUTTEN From a contemporary woodcut. | [364] |
| BILIBALD PIRKHEIMER OF NUREMBERG From an engraving by Albrecht Dürer, in "Erasmi Opera," published at Leyden, 1703. | [415] |
| TITLE-PAGE TO THE "COLLOQUIES OF ERASMUS," PUBLISHED AT AMSTERDAM, 1693 Portrait of Erasmus and others. | [424] |
| TITLE-PAGE TO THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF THE "APOPHTHEGMS OF ERASMUS," TRANSLATED BY UDALL, 1542 | [450] |
| INSCRIPTION ON THE TOMB OF ERASMUS, AT BASEL From Knight's "Life of Erasmus." | [460] |
INTRODUCTION
The student of Erasmus is at first overwhelmed by the abundance of the material before him. A man who has left to posterity enough to fill eleven folio volumes would seem to have made a biographer unnecessary. Especially when two of these volumes are filled with personal letters, more than eighteen hundred in number, and addressed to some five hundred correspondents, it might well seem that the best biography would be a faithful transcript of what the man himself has given us. And, in fact, almost all that we know about Erasmus comes through himself. The singular thing is that with this great mass of material we know so little that is definite about him.
He lived in one of the most eventful periods of the world's history, and was in some kind of personal relation with its leading actors; and yet his life, from beginning to end, has not one event more important or stirring than a journey in winter, an attack of illness, a quarrel with some fellow scholar, or a change of residence. Our whole knowledge of his early life up to the period of production is derived from a very brief record made by himself many years afterward and made obviously with both a literary and a practical purpose.