On the Shoulders of Hercules: Erasmus, the Froben Press and the 1516 Jerome Edition in Context

Abstract

In this thesis I examine Erasmus' work for the edition of Jerome's collected works published by Johannes Froben in 1516. By drawing from this edition and comparing it with prior printed editions, I address two aspects of Erasmus' scholarly activity in particular: his work as an historian and his work as an editor and commentator.

In the first part of this thesis I show that Erasmus' Life of Jerome, a biography included at the beginning of the nine-volume 1516 Froben Jerome Edition, was clearly part of a long and established biographical tradition stretching back to Late Antiquity. By examining this life in its historical context and keeping in mind its place within the 1516 Jerome Edition, I show that we cannot responsibly consider Erasmus' Life of Jerome to be a forebear of any `modern' historical method. Instead, from my analysis we can understand that Erasmus' Life of Jerome was a skilful and well-presented synthesis of ideas and sources that were commonplace among humanist scholars in the early sixteenth century.

In the second part of this thesis I examine Erasmus' activity as an editor and commentator. After presenting several important developments in Erasmus' career as a scholar as well as the scholarly communities in which he worked at Venice and at Basel, I show that Erasmus' editorial methods and those of his colleagues at Basel were not terribly different from those of printers and scholars before him. By examining his editorial work for the 1516 Jerome Edition, I am also able to describe with confidence several important aspects of Erasmus' method as a textual critic, editor and commentator.

Through this detailed analysis, we can arrive at a better understanding of Erasmus' true genius: in his editing, his commentaries and his work for the printed book, he was able to synthesize, to present and to spread to a broader public ideas and concerns that were relatively common for contemporary scholars. He was one of the first and greatest agitators for the Res Publica Litterarum.