ERASMUS, Desiderius. Institutio principis christiani, saluberrimis referta praeceptis, per Erasmum Roterodam[um], ab eodem recognita. Praecepta Isocratis de regno administra[n]do ad Nicoclem regem eodem interprete. Cologne: Ex officina Eucharij Ceruicorni (colophon: Impensis M. Godefridi Hittorpij), May 1529. 8vo, [120] pp. With fine woodcut title after Hans Holbein and woodcut white on black initials; contemporary owner's inscription on title-page crossed out; Latin inscription on first page of text in a contemporary hand; some light foxing. Early vellum over boards.
BOUND WITH
ERASMUS, D. Epistolae familiares propter singularem elegantiam & argumenti materiam Scholis & adolescentum studiis captuique accommodatae ex omnibus, quas reliquit, literis summo doctissimorum iudicio segregatae. Basel; B. Westheimer, 1538. [16], 477 (i.e. 479) pp. With woodcut printer's device at end. Some light marginal foxing.
BOUND WITH
ERASMUS, D. Pars prima (- secunda) breviorum aliquod ... epistolarum quæ iam nunc collatione magni operis epistolarum sunt emendatæ. Cologne; J. Gymnicus, 1536. [48] leaves; [48] leaves. With woodcut printer's device on title pages and woodcut 2 (of 3) parts. Some light marginal foxing.
I. Early and scarce edition (1st: Basel, 1516) of one Erasmus' major works. "The Institutio principis christiani, written for the future Emperor Charles V and treating of the duties of kingship, is an important statement by a leading intelligence at a time when the concept of government was being much scrutinized. It is a curious fact that three other highly influential works on the same subject were all being written at approximately the same time: More's Utopia, Budé's De l'institution du prince, and Machiavelli's Il principe. Erasmus's Institutio, suggesting ways of educating a prince so as to produce a ruler whose central concern will be the protection and effective representation of his people rather than his own personal aggrandizement, has something in common with the first two, very little with the last." (J. Walsh. Erasmus on the 500th anniversary of his birth, Cambridge, MA; The Houghton Library, 1969. no. 33)
The title-page is illustrated with a lovely woodcut title-border with the suicide of Cleopatra, a reduced copy of a border by Hans Holbein (Cf. Hollstein XIVA, Hans Holbein the Younger, 50).
II. "FIRST EDITION of this selection of Eramus' letters made from his Opus epistolarum of the same year. The whole volume was intended for school boys as a manual of model letters. The volume opens with the announcement of Erasmus' death and a short biography of the latter by Beatus Rhenanus, and also contains some laudatory verses on Erasmus by Henricus Glareanus and Johannes Sapidus, and an epitphium by Andrea Alciati. Westheimer reprinted the volume in 1551. The present edition was possibly, although there is no direct evidence, also edited by Johannes Gast (d. 1552), who in 1546 published Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami epistolae familiares in tres centurias divisae." (A. Erdmann, A. Govi, & F. Govi, Ars Epistolica, Communication in Sixteenth Century Western Europe: Epistolaries, Letter-Writting Manuals and Model Letter Books 1501-1600. Luzern, 2014. p. 576, with illus. of title-page).
III. First edition of this new selected collection of Erasmus letters published by Johann Gymnicus in Cologne and intended, as was previous volume, as a manual for school boys. One of the new aids that Gymnicus has provided for the young students, as noted in the title, is a listing at the end of all the Greek words used in the letters with Latin translations to help those students (most of whom probably) who had not yet started their study of that language.
The publisher also issued the work in rather short 48 leave parts, possibly to make them more affordable and the subject matter not so daunting. Only the first two parts are present here. The work appears to be rather scarce, especially complete sets, with F. vander Haeghen's Bibliotheca Erasmiana recording the existence only of volume two. The OCLC only locates the Harvard copy which does consist of a complete set of all three parts.
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