Add MS 38512

LETTERS of and about Erasmus, 1522-1536. Latin. The letters of Erasmus, thirty-nine in number, are almost all holograph and addressed to Erasmus Schets of Antwerp, who acted as banker to Erasmus. Those to Schets are all unpublished, but will appear, along with Schets's letters to Erasmus, the originals of which are in the University Library of Basle, in P. S. Allen's Erasmi Epistolae in course of publication (vols. iiii, 1906-1913). They are mainly concerned with money matters, but refer also to other subjects, Luther, the monks, political affairs in the Empire, English acquaintances, personal matters, etc. They include three 19th century copies. (ff. 19, 40, 59) by the secretary of P. F. X. de Ram. Besides the letters to Schets there are others from Erasmus (i) to Hieronymus van der Noot, Chancellor of Brabant, Basle, 14 July, 1522. Signed, with autogr. notes. f. 2; (ii) to Johannes Vlatten, [Freiburg, 25 July], 1533. 16th cent. copy. Printed in D. Erasmi . . . Opera Omnia, Leiden, 1703, tom. iii, col. 1758. f. 82; (iii) to Damian a Goes, Freiburg, 11 Mar. 1534. Signed. Printed by P. F. X. de Ram, Analectes pour servir à l'hist. de l'Univ. de Louvain, xvi, p. 72. f. 88. The volume contains the following additional letters: (a) Albert Pighius, private chamberlain of Pope Clement VII, to the Theological Faculty of Louvain University, on their opposition to Erasmus; Rome, 12 July, 1525. Hol. Printed by F. Nève, Mém . . . sur le Collége des Trois-Langues à l'Univ. de Louvain, tom. xxviii of Mém. . . . publiés par l'Acad. Royale . . . de Belgique, etc. f. 8 ; (b) Cuthbert [Tunstall], Bishop of London, to Peter Gillis, Town Clerk of Antwerp; London, I July, [1527 ?]. Hol. f. 21; (c) Tilmannus Gravius to Schets on the death of Erasmus; Cologne, 1 Aug. 1536. Hol. f. 94. Paper; ff. ii + 94. XVI cent. Folio. The collection formerly belonged to Pierre François Xavier de Ram (1804-1865), Rector of Louvain University, and more recently to Louis Nève of Louvain, from whom it was purchased by the Museum and the Bodleian library jointly, the latter taking nine letters of the series (Bodl. MS. 35596).