APPENDIX I THE YEAR OF ERASMUS'S BIRTH HE data for calculating the birth year of Erasmus TH inscriptions, and allusions, but most reliably in his own writings. It is remarkable that his statements differ widely. A number of indirect statements point to the year 1469 or even later. Thus he says several times that he was fourteen years old when he left Deventer (LB. i, 921 f; viii, 561; Allen, ep. 940), which happened in 1484. Again, he says he was twelve years old when he saw Agricola, probably in 1484. He tells us that when he met Colet, in the autumn of 1499, they were both just thirty years old (Allen, ep. 1211). He says he wrote a letter to his guardian at the age of fourteen; if this is the letter printed by Allen, ep. 1, as in 1484, he must have been born in 1469, which is the year that all the other data just given indicate, save the saying about Agricola, which would point to a later year. Most of his direct statements of his age, however, point to an earlier year. The list drawn up by Doctor Richter, revised by Mr. Nichols (i. 474 ff) is here given again revised and expanded by myself. First I give the source and afterward, in parentheses, the year to which the statement points: 1. Carmen de senectutis incommodis, August, 1506. LB. iv, 756a. (1466.) (1466 or 1467.) Allen, ep. 392. (1467.) Allen, ii, p. 469. (1466.) 2. Methodus verae theologiae, March, 1516. 3. Epistle to Rhegius, February 24, 1516. 4. Epistle to Budé, February 15, 1517. 5. Epistle to Capito, February 26, 1517. Allen, ep. 541. (1466.) 6. Apologia ad Fabrum, August 5, 1517. LB. x, 20. (1466.) 7. Epistle to Stromer, August 24, 1517. Allen, ep. 631. (1467 or before.) 8. Epistle to Eck, May 15, 1518. Allen, ep. 844. (1466 or 1467.) 9. Preface to Methodus, 2d ed., 1518. LB. v, 79. (1466.) 10. Epistle to Rhenanus, October, 1518. Allen, ep. 867. (1467 or before.) 11. Epistle to Ambrose Leo, October 15, 1518. Allen, ep. 868. (1465 or 1466.) 12. Epistle to Theodorici, April 17, 1519. Allen, ep. 940. (1466.) 13. Epistle to Gaverus, March 1, 1524. Lond. xxiii, 5; LB. iii, 787D. (1465 or 1466.) (1466.) 14. Compendium Vita, March 2, 1524. Allen, i, 47. 15. Epistle to Stromer, December 10, 1524. Lond. xix, 4; LB. iii, 833F. (1465 or 1466.) 16. Epistle to Budé, August 25, 1525. Lond. xix, 89; LB. iii, 885C. 17. Epistle to Nicholas Hispanus, April 29, 1526. 19. Epistle to Gratianus Hispanus, March 15, 1526. LB. iii, 1067B. (1464.) (1464 or earlier.) Lond. xxi, 24; Lond. xxi, 39; Lond. xix, 54; 20. Epistle to Binck, September 4, 1531. Lond. xxv, 2, col. 1331. (1461 or later.) 21. To Peter and Christopher Mesia, December 24, 1533. Lond. xxvii, 22. col. 1530DE. (1464 or soon after.) 22. Epistle to Amerbach, June, 1534. Epistolæ familiares D. Erasmi ad Bon. Amerbachium, 1779, ep. 90. (1464.) 23. Epistle to Decius, August 22, 1534. Miaskowski, Philosophisches Jahrbuch, xv, p. 333. (1464) Combining these data, we see that five indirect references to events early in Erasmus's life point to 1469 as the year of birth, and one to 1472, or possibly an earlier year. Of the direct references, the first fifteen, falling between the year 1506 and 1524, point mostly to 1466, but some to 1465 or to 1467. All can be made to agree with 1466 except one which gives 1467. But, of the last eight references, falling between the years 1525 and 1534, all point to the year 1464 or can be made to agree with it. It therefore seems that Erasmus tended to put the year of his birth farther back the older he became. For a solution of the enigma see ante, pp. 7 f. |