Treasures: Columbia Rare Book & Manuscript Library

THE RARE BOOK AND
MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Treasures

23 Herodotus
Libri novem, quibus musarum indita sunt omnia

Venice, Aldus Manutius, 1502

Erasmus's copy, with his autograph on the verso of the final leaf, contains extensive marginal annotations in his and another hand throughout. In 1519 Erasmus published a collection of letters in which we find one dated Louvain, 29 April [1518], addressed to his friend Antonius Clava, a citizen of Ghent and patron of letters, which reads in part, "You seemed the other day to be wishing for a Herodotus in Greek. I am sending one to you as a present, for I shall easily find another in the course of my present journey [to Basel]." On the verso of the last leaf of the volume, Erasmus has signed "Sum Erasmi," "I am Erasmus's," and there are two additional inscriptions in other hands which translate, "Friends are a circle," and "This book of Herodotus' Histories D. Erasmus of Rotterdam had given as a gift to Antonius Clava....the same Antonius Clava, upon dying, bequeathed in his will to Levinus Ammonius [a Carthusian]. In the year 1529, the day before the Calends of June [i.e. 31 May 1529]."

Gift of George A. Plimpton

Collections and Treasures

23	Herodotus
Libri novem, quibus musarum indita sunt omnia
Venice, Aldus Manutius, 1502
Erasmus's copy, with his autograph on the verso of the final leaf, contains extensive marginal annotations in his and another hand throughout. In 1519 Erasmus published a collection of letters in which we find one dated Louvain, 29 April [1518], addressed to his friend Antonius Clava, a citizen of Ghent and patron of letters, which reads in part, "You seemed the other day to be wishing for a Herodotus in Greek. I am sending one to you as a present, for I shall easily find another in the course of my present journey [to Basel]." On the verso of the last leaf of the volume, Erasmus has signed "Sum Erasmi," "I am Erasmus's," and there are two additional inscriptions in other hands which translate, "Friends are a circle," and "This book of Herodotus' Histories D. Erasmus of Rotterdam had given as a gift to Antonius Clava....the same Antonius Clava, upon dying, bequeathed in his will to Levinus Ammonius [a Carthusian]. In the year 1529, the day before the Calends of June [i.e. 31 May 1529]."
Gift of George A. Plimpton