What became of Erasmus’ books? The most famous scholar of his day died in peaceful prosperity and in the company of celebrated and responsible friends. His zeal for useful books was insatiable. Indeed, he had taken care to insure that after his death they would pass to an appreciative noble owner, yet after his death their fate was unknown.

Erasmus and His Books provides the most comprehensive evidence available about the books of Erasmus of Rotterdam – the books he owned and his attitude towards them, when and how he acquired them, how he housed, used, and cared for them, and how, from time to time, he disposed of them.

Part 1 details the formation, growth, scope, and arrangement of Erasmus’ library and opens the door to a new understanding of the more intimate side of his daily life as a scholar at home with his books, friends, publishers, and booksellers.

Part 2 presents a carefully annotated catalogue, the Versandliste, of the more than 400 books in Erasmus’ possession at one point. Drawing upon his command of bibliographical data and his extensive knowledge of Erasmus’ correspondence and related records Egbertus van Gulik proposes as precise an identification of each of the titles as the evidence will allow.

Van Gulik’s insightful discoveries tell us what can be known of books in Erasmus’ working library and how he used them and will be of interest to students of the northern Renaissance, the history of the book, and the history of learning.

Egbertus Van Gulik's profile page

James McConica is a Professor Emeritus at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto

James K. McConica's profile page

J. Trapman's profile page

J.C. Grayson lives in Liverpool. He has translated numerous scholarly books from various languages.

J.C. Grayson's profile page

“By illuminating the Versandliste with such rich detail and such highly informed, self-consciously documented speculation, van Gulik provides the reader of his book with a way to grasp what no library catalogue or simple list of texts by itself could convey: the many-faceted book life of northern Europe’s most important humanist.”

<em>Erasmus Studies</em>

"What can be simply deemed the magnum opus of author and researcher Egbertus van Gulik, Erasmus and His Books expertly crafts a nearly complete narrative of Erasmus’s library and collecting habits. The book reflects a massive undertaking by van Gulik and, following his passing in 1998, the work of editors James McConica and Johannes Trapman to compile and organize his extensive research and existing manuscript into this volume published by the University of Toronto Press."

<em>Libraries: Culture, History, & Society</em>