First complete edition of The praise of folly, presented in a large format. No other folio edition of the work is known. What began as a scholarly homage became a publishing phenomenon: Erasmus produced three editions with the Froben press in Basel-in 1531, 1532, and 1535-each expanding upon the last. The 1531 quarto was swiftly reprinted across Europe, and due to its success, Erasmus added two new books for the present 1532 edition (books 7 and 8), and extensively revised and reorganised the text.
Apophthegmata are concise, witty, and often morally pointed sayings or anecdotes attributed to notable historical figures, valued for the ethical and rhetorical lessons they convey. In his Institutio principis christiani (1516), Erasmus famously advised that the first secular work a prince should read was Plutarchs Apophthegmata. He took this advice to heart by compiling his own version, drawing largely from Plutarch and supplementing it with excerpts from classical authors such as Quintilian, Suetonius, Athenaeus, Valerius Maximus, Diogenes Laertius, Philostratus, Macrobius, and Stobaeus.
The work has been rubricated, with contemporary annotations in some of the margins. The binding shows mild traces of use. The work is lightly browned throughout, with a minor water stain in the head margin, a brown stain on page 530 and 531, minor stains on some of the leaves, and a small wormhole in the inner margin of the first 97 pages, without affecting the text. Otherwise an attractively rubricated copy, with ample margins. Adams E-490; Bezzel 195; Bibl. Belgica E 320; Vander Haeghen I, 15; VD16 E 2036; USTC 612553; not in De Reuck.