Volume 21 of the Collected Works of Erasmus completes the correspondence of the Dutch humanist, which began publication in 1974. It contains letters either written by Erasmus or addressed to him that cover the two years preceding Erasmus's death on 12 July 1536 (letters 2940–3131), and ten more by distinguished friends or acquaintances mourning his death (letters 3132–3141). This volume also provides some supplementary materials: Erasmus's last will (12 February 1536); a spurious letter to Pietro Corsi (9 January 1535); a letter to Petrus Paludanus that prefaced the Formula (1520–21?) and which Erasmus repeatedly stated to have never written; and the writing Expositio fidelis (ca. August 1535), a document instigated (but probably not written) by Erasmus, which narrates the trial and death of Thomas More and the execution of John Fisher. The “Addenda to Earlier Volumes” (620–25) translates three overlooked letters (856A, 1147A, 2518A) that belong to CWE 6, 10, and 18; a two-page corrigenda gives emendations for earlier volumes.
These two last items constitute a clear example of the pursuit of accuracy, faithfulness, and honesty that has characterized the entire series throughout the years. The translation, by the late Alexander Dalzell, is both a fine example and the final demonstration of his profound classical learning and his brilliance as a translator. After his death, John N. Grant took responsibility for the needed revisions, and supplied excellent translations of a few items missing from Dalzell's text. As in previous volumes, James M. Estes is in charge of the meticulous annotations and the preface, in which he gives a masterful account of the main historical events taking place in the period in question, the main controversies and personal events occurring in Erasmus's life, and the works published by Erasmus as an author or an editor.
After selling his house in Freiburg, by September 1535 (letter 3051) Erasmus had already returned to Basel to live temporarily in the home of Hieronymus Froben, his intention—never fulfilled—being to settle in Besançon (letter 3052). During these years, Erasmus continues to lament his health (e.g., letters 2940, 2961, 2965, 2968, etc.) and the seemingly neverending wars (Landgrave Philip of Hessen's reconquest of Wüttemberg, Charles V's assault on Tunis, the undeclared state of war between Charles V and Francis I) and religious conflicts (particularly with the Anabaptists) that threaten to devastate Christendom (e.g., letters 2961, 2997, 3000).
Erasmus also faces a new controversy, this time with Pietro Corsi, a Ciceronian who thought that the Dutch humanist had behaved most disrespectfully in Adag. II.i.7 when he stated that “one seldom finds . . . a brave (bellax) Italian.” As a result of this, Erasmus wrote in 1535 a brief pamphlet which was disseminated in Rome (Iudicium de apologia Petri Cursii, letter 3015), and a longer Responsio (letter 3032). But perhaps the most distressing event portrayed in CWE 21 is the execution of Thomas More on 6 July 1535. Erasmus makes a heartfelt eulogy of his beloved friend in the prefatory epistle of the Ecclesiastes (letter 3036, 328–29), while other correspondents such as Conradus Goclenius (letter 3037), Tielmannus Gravius (letter 3041), and Erasmus Schets (letter 3042) emphasize More's courageousness.
It is precisely the Ecclesiastes (Basel, August 1535) on preaching the philosophia evangelica one of the long-awaited works of Erasmus, which is regarded as a “recapitulation of Erasmus's entire career” (CWE 67:78) and had elicited numerous letters encouraging its publication (e.g., letters 2947, 2893, 2990, 3004, 3029, 3041). With equal eagerness must have been expected the publication of the fifth edition of the Greek-Latin Novum Testamentum (Basel, March 1535), the last enlarged edition of the Adagiroum chiliades (Basel, March 1536; see letter 3093), which amounted to 4,541 numbered proverbs with commentary, and the posthumous Origenis opera omnia (Basel, September 1536; see letter 3131), which included Erasmus's Origenis vita.
Erasmus of Rotterdam, “by every measure a very great man, / whose incomparable learning / in every branch of study, / joined with equal good sense, / posterity will admire and praise [. . .] will never die, / as long as the world will stand, / but will speak to learned men in every land” (579). This is an excerpt of the inscription placed on the column next to Erasmus's grave in Basel. Volume 21, along with the twenty preceding, will speak to all learned people in every land about the life, thought, and teachings of Desiderius Erasmus, and posterity will admire and praise this piece of the finest scholarship.
