Erasmus, 1549

ERASMUS, Desiderius (1466-1536). The Praise of Folie. Translated by Thomas Chaloner. London: Thomas Berthelet, 1549.

The very rare first edition in English of the work which established Erasmus's international reputation, his manifesto of Christian Classicism. This famous satire was first conceived on the road from Italy to England, composed in the house of Erasmus's friend (and the dedicatee) Thomas More, and then first printed under the Latin title Moriae encomium in Paris in 1511. Begun as a paradoxical joke between the two men, who had been translating the ancient humorist Lucian together, The Praise of Folly is a remarkable work, by turns sharp and gentle—but always playful—in its learned treatment of the follies of the world and vision of a humanist life.

Immediately a bestseller, over 40 editions were printed in the author's lifetime. Strangely, although dedicated to an Englishman, this posthumous edition is both the first in the English language and to be printed in England. A second English edition, c. 1557, is sometimes mistaken for the first, closely reprinting the title page but with the initials TP (for Berthelet's successor, Thomas Powell). This copy has an intriguing early ownership inscription of a woman reader, as well as a note in Greek on the colophon. Only two other copies are recorded at auction by ABPC and RBH. Pforzheimer 359; STC (2nd ed.), 10500. See PMM 43 (first edition) and Egbertus Van Gulik, Erasmus and his Books.

Quarto (183 x 125mm). Title in woodcut border signed TB, woodcut printer's device on final page (title page neatly repaired at edges sometimes touching woodcut border, A2 with neat repair to margin, a little marginal worming, dustsoiling). Brown morocco gilt by Sangorski, edges gilt. Provenance: "Elizabeth Hichen" (early inscription on title) – "John Hinde" (effaced inscription on interior leaf) – Francis Kettaneh (morocco bookplate).