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The Birth Dates of John Colet and Erasmus of Rotterdam: Fresh Documentary Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

John B. Gleason
John B. Gleason*
Affiliation:
University of San Francisco
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Extract

The date of John Colet's birth is of interest not only for his own biography but for that of his friend Erasmus. In the long letter of June 13, 1521 in which he describes at length the life and career of Colet, Erasmus mentions that when the two men first met Colet was ‘about thirty years old, two or three months younger than I.’ Erasmus celebrated his birthday on the Feast of Sts. Simon andjude (October 28), but thanks largely to his own mystifications on the subject there is no agreement among his biographers as to the year of his birth. The twenty-three direct statements about his age which have been noted in his writings, point in many different directions, from 1464 to 1472 or even later.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , Spring 1979 , pp. 73 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1979

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References

1 Allen, P. S., ed., Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, 12 vols. (Oxford, 1906-57), IV, 515.Google Scholar.

2 Smith, Preserved, Erasmus: A Study of His Life, Ideals and Place in History (New York, 1923)Google Scholar, Appendix I ‘The Year of Erasmus's Birth,’ pp. 445-446, lists these passages.

3 Ibid., p. 446.

4 (Utrecht, 1969), pp. 8-11.

5 Opus Epistolarum, V, 247.

6 Lupton, J. H., A Life of John Colet, D.D. (London, 1887), p. 238 Google Scholar.

7 Ibid., pp. 236-239.

8 Opus Epistolarum, IV, 519.

9 Cf. Thomas, Keith, ‘Age and Authority in Early Modern England,’ Proceedings of the British Academy, 72 (1976), 206 Google Scholar.

10 The procedure is explained in detail in Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry VII, 3 vols. (London, 1898-1955), I, vii-ix.

11 Ibid., p. viii.

12 The inquisitions are calendared ibid., III, nos. 52, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 70.

13 The return from Northampton rounds off the heir's age to ‘thirty and more.’ (No. 62.)

14 P.R.O., C 142/19. (I have expanded the abbreviations.) This inquisition is also extant in the transcription made for Exchequer (P.R.O., E 150/62).