FAMILIARIUM COLLOQUIORUM OPUS

      ut postremum a Frobenio est editum, ipsius auctoris manu recognitum: doctissimis etiam scholys nuncrecens illustratum. Brevis eiusdem auctoris vita. Adiectorerum & verborum memorabilium indice locupletissimo. Pp. [xvi]+784+[16](brief life of Erasmus, plus index), large printer's device on title page, a few small decorative initials; small 8vo; contemporary stained pigskin, plain spine with raised bands, the boards with decorative blind stamped panels and central emblematic image with captions (image and text too rubbed to identify), piece chipped from centre fore-edge where a clasp would originally have been, corners worn; all edges stained dark green, with an early blind tooled decorative pattern featuring small birds perched on floral sprays (in a style similar to gauffering, but with the edges coloured rather than gilt); lacking the free endpapers, inked ownership inscription at head of upper pastedown above a much later bookplate, hinges cracking, the outer leaves neatly reinserted onto a later (but not modern) stub, lacking a section of the title page extending from the bottom fore-corner to the edge of the printing details (encompassing the date), with a neat paper repair to restore the page size and the date inserted almost illegibly by hand, occasional early marginalia and underlining, minor printing error affecting the last couple of lines of text p. 723(recto of sig. Aaa2), a few small worm holes at end (mainly to margins, but on the last few leaves slightly affecting one letter of text), some light marginal waterstains, scattered light foxing and soiling; Petrum Horst, Coloniae Agrippinae (Cologne), [1526?]. *The manuscript date on the title page is not clear, but the Epistle at the end is dated 1526. This is an early Cologne edition ['following Froben'] of the Colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536), the Dutch priest and humanist considered the greatest European scholar of his age. It includes a brief life of the author. Erasmus' Familiar Colloquies grew from a small collection of phrases and dialogue, written in Paris at the end of the fifteenth century to help his private pupils improve their command of Latin. Originally published by Johann Froben (c. 1460-1527), the celebrated printer and publisher at Basel who collaborated with Erasmus on numerous projects, the text was revised by Erasmus several times over the next few years. In its final state (1526) the original collection of phrases was expanded into 'conversation pieces in which all the topics of the day are discussed with a freedom which ensured their popularity. Later in the century and up to the eighteenth century they were a set book in schools, and there are lines in Shakespeare which directly recall Erasmus's words.' [Printing and the Mind of Man, 53]. The printer's device of Peter Horst on the title page features Geryon (or Geryones), the unconquerable giant with three heads, and the motto Concordia insuperabilis ['concord is insuperable'].