I have given a fuller reference to the literary undertakings of Erasmus than might seem to be warranted by the general purpose and proportion of my narrative. I had, however, thought it desirable to present with some detail the record of the publishing relations of some representative author of the time, and the career of Erasmus rendered him, on a number of grounds, the most distinctive author for my purpose. His commanding position and world-wide celebrity as a scholar, his relations with men of note and of learning in Protestant as well as Catholic circles, the wide circulation secured for his writings, a circulation absolutely without precedent in the history of the world’s literature, and, finally, his close association with the most famous publishers of their time, two of whom, Aldus and Froben, must take rank with the most famous publishers of any time--all these considerations unite to make the experience of Erasmus, as an author, one of exceptional interest in the history of publishing undertakings. To the above summary must be added the important detail that Erasmus was the first author, after the invention of printing, to secure a large and continued return from the sales of his writings. From the time of Gutenberg on, payments had been made by publishers to the scholarly editors whose services were utilised in preparing for the press the editions of the classics and the Fathers, to whose works the earlier publishing undertakings were with rare exceptions restricted. There is record also of the publication before the close of the fifteenth century and early in the sixteenth, chiefly in Paris, of occasional volumes of original writings. Few of these, however, were addressed to what we should call the general public, and before the time of Erasmus there is no record of an author’s making money by the sale of original productions. While the correspondence and diaries of Erasmus have been preserved, I find no mention of any accounts, and, in fact, he was not the kind of a man who would have been likely to trouble himself with such details as account-books. Unfortunately, the records of Froben’s business have disappeared, and we have no means of ascertaining the precise amounts paid to Erasmus by his publishers, either for his editorial services or for royalties on his books. Drummond is, however, of opinion that these receipts were very considerable. Erasmus spent from year to year considerable sums in journeys, in books and manuscripts, and in other ways, although during the years of his sojourn in the house of Froben, his actual living expenses must have been moderate. He had no property, the small inheritance from his father having been dissipated by his guardians. In addition to the income from his books, he had, after 1507, a pension of sixty pounds settled on him by Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury; there was, for a time at least, a pension from Lord Mountjoy; and a