which for the “world” of that time was practically limited to Europe. The circulation of many of the treatises of Luther was very great, but these found their way to few but Protestant readers, while in its original Latin and in the various versions in the vernacular, _The Praise of Folly_ was welcomed in all circles--Protestant, Catholic, lay and ecclesiastical, scholarly and unlearned. _The Praise of Folly_ has taken its place with the world’s literature, but a still greater success with the generation of the author was secured by the next book of Erasmus, the _Adagia_, or _Proverbs_. Of this there were printed in the authorised editions, by Froben, between 1513 and 1539, ten thousand; by Aldus, in Venice, between 1508 and 1524, eight thousand; by Schürer, in Strasburg, between 1513 and 1520, eleven thousand; by Badius and Philippus, in Paris, three thousand; or, in all, thirty-two thousand copies. There were also a number of unauthorised editions issued in Lyons, Cologne, and elsewhere, the statistics of which are not available. The third of the more important works of Erasmus, the _Colloquia_, which may be described as a kind of predecessor of Landor’s _Imaginary Conversations_, also published in Basel, Venice, and Paris, found a sale (for the authorised editions) in a term of ten years, of about twenty-four thousand copies. The demand for this was hastened by the rumour that it was shortly to be placed on the _Index Expurgatorius_. Erasmus speaks of Froben as “the Aldus of Germany,” and can give him no higher commendation. Froben had selected for his publishing symbol or trade-mark a design representing an upright staff on the point of which rests a dove, about which are twined two serpents with their heads raised towards the dove. It is not difficult to imagine the kind of interpretation that would be given by the wits of a modern authors’ society to such a symbol, with its suggestion of the innocent and hapless author lifting his aspirations towards the heavens, but powerless to escape the toils of the wily publishers of the earth, earthy. No such criticism appears, however, to have arisen in the sixteenth century to disturb Froben’s peace of mind. His best friend, the most influential author of his time, expresses the wish that his serpents may prove as serviceable for Froben as the dolphin has been for Aldus, and that in combining, as he does, the innocence of the dove with the wisdom of the serpent, Froben may achieve a well-earned fame and future.[90] Rhenanus, Mutianus, Rufus, and many others of those who were proud to call themselves the _Auctores Frobeniani_, are all in accord in their appreciative references to the high literary ideals, the thorough scholarship, and the liberal business methods of the great Basel publisher.