I have used constantly the Leyden edition of Erasmus' works[7] based upon the Basel edition of 1540. The arrangement is roughly according to the nature of the material. The editorial work is meagre and careless. The indexes are elaborately and exasperatingly useless. In the case of the letters, though the editor is perfectly conscious of false arrangement and dating, he leaves them as he finds them, and the reader is compelled to discover the inaccuracies for himself. Professor Adalbert Horawitz of Vienna was preparing to write a Life of Erasmus when he was interrupted by death in 1888. His preliminary studies[8] have supplied much new material and given us many valuable critical suggestions. In 1876 Professor W. Vischer of Basel, acting on the suggestion of Horawitz, published a series of very interesting documents which he had discovered in the Basel University Library, and which throw much light upon several obscure points in the life of Erasmus.[9] An article by the late Dr. R. Fruin,[10] which came to my knowledge after the completion of the manuscript, quite confirms my view of the utter untrustworthiness of Erasmus' accounts of his early life. Jortin's _Life of Erasmus_, first published in 1758-60, 2d ed., in 3 vols., 1808, is little more than a translation of Leclerc's _Vie d'Érasme_[11] which was published as a kind of résumé and advertisement at once of the Leyden _Opera_. Jortin gives, however, in addition, a good many documents and a mass of more or less relevant remarks. [7] _Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami opera omnia, emendatiora et auctiora_, etc., ed. Johannes Clericus (Jean Leclerc), 10 vols., folio. Leyden, 1703-1706. [8] Horawitz, Adalbert, _Erasmiana_; in _Sitzungsberichte der K. Akademie der Wissenschaften_. Vienna, 1878-1885. Text and documents. _Ueber die Colloquia des Erasmus_; in Raumer's _Historisches Taschenbuch_. 1887. [9] Vischer, Wilhelm, _Erasmiana_. Basel, 1876. [10] Fruin, R., _Erasmiana_; in _Bijdragen voor vaderlandsche geschiedenis en ouheidkunde_, new series, x., 1880; 3d series, i., 1882. [11] Jean Leclerc, _Vie d'Érasme tirée de ses lettres_, etc., in _Bibliothèque choisie_. Amsterdam, 1703 _sqq._, vols. i., v., vi., viii. Of more recent biographies, that of R. B. Drummond[12] is, all things considered, the best; careful and serious, but showing the almost universal tendency to take Erasmus at his word, even while admitting his incapacity to tell the truth. [12] Drummond, Robert B., _Erasmus, his Life and Character as shown in his Correspondence and Works_. 2 vols. London, 1873. Durand de Laur[13] gives in his first volume a sketch of Erasmus' life with little critical sifting of evidence, and in the second an interesting examination of his achievements in the several lines of his activity. [13] Durand de Laur, H., _Érasme, précurseur et initiateur de l'esprit moderne._ 2 vols. Paris, 1872.