Part 23 (1/2)

[121] Lit 'not even the peeping of an ass is safe' This Greek proverb, used of those who go to law about trifles, refers to the story of a potter whose wares were s to look out of theIn court the potter, asked of what he co of an ass' See Apuleius, _Met_ IX, 42

LIST OF ILlustRATIONS

I PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS By Quentin Metsys 1517 Ro p 14_

One half of a diptych, the pendant being a portrait of Erasidius), town clerk of Antwerp The diptych was sent to Sir Thomas More in London; the portrait of Gilles is now in the collection of the Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle

II VIEW OF ROTTERDAM at the beginning of the sixteenth century

Conte p 15_

III PORTRAIT BUST OF JOHN COLET, Dean of St Paul's (1467-1519) By Pietro Torrigiano St Paul's School, Ha p

30_

John Colet, a close friend of Erasmus (see pp 30-1), founded St Paul's School The artist, a Florentine sculptor, was active in London for ies on some of the royal tombs in Westminster Abbey The attribution of this bust is due to F Gross and Courtauld Institutes_, XIII, July 1950), who identified it as a cast froinal bust on Colet's tomb (destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666) and also pointed out that Holbein's drawing of Colet in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle (No

12199) was made from the lost monument after Colet's death

IV PORTRAIT OF SIR THOMAS MORE (1477-1535) Dated 1527 By Hans Holbein New York, Frick Collection _Facing p 31_

See also Holbein's drawing of Thomas More with his family, Pl XXIX

V Pen and ink sketches by Eras p 46_

These doodles of grotesque heads and other scribbles are found in Erasmus's manuscript copy of the _Scholia to the Letters of St Jerome_, preserved in the Library of Basle University and published by Een des Erasmus von Rotterdam_, Basle, 1933) Erasmus worked on this ust 1514 His edition of the _Letters of Jerome_ was published by Froben in 1516 (see p 90)

VI A Manuscript Page of Eras p

47_

See note on Pl V

VII title-page of the _Adagia_, printed by Aldus Manutius in 1508

_Facing p 62_

The printing of this edition was supervised by Eras his visit to Venice (see pp 64-5) On this title-page is the eain on the reverse of Aldus's portrait medal (Pl IX)

VIII VIEW OF VENICE, 1493 Woodcut _After p 62_

Fro, 1493

IX PORTRAIT MEDAL OF ALDUS MANUTIUS By an unknown Venetian medallist

Venice, Museo Correr _After p 62_

On the reverse, the emblem adopted by Aldus in 1495 from an antique coin, an anchor entwined by a dolphin The Greek inscription, [Greek: Speude bradeos] (Hasten slowly), is also of antique origin Cf Hill, _Corpus of Italian Medals_, 1930, No 536