t even the peeping of an ass is safe.' This Greek proverb,
used of those who go to law about trifles, refers to the story of a
potter whose wares were smashed by a donkey in the workshop going to
look out of the window. In court the potter, asked of what he
complained, replied: 'Of the peeping of an ass.' See Apuleius, _Met._
IX., 42.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS. By Quentin Metsys. 1517. Rome, Galleria Corsini.
_Facing p. 14_

One half of a diptych, the pendant being a portrait of Erasmus's friend,
Pierre Gilles (Petrus Aegidius), town clerk of Antwerp. The diptych was
sent to Sir Thomas More in London; the portrait of Gilles is now in the
collection of the Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle.

II. VIEW OF ROTTERDAM at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Contemporary engraving, hand-coloured. _Facing p. 15_

III. PORTRAIT BUST OF JOHN COLET, Dean of St. Paul's (1467-1519). By
Pietro Torrigiano. St. Paul's School, Hammersmith, London. _Facing p.
30_

John Colet, a close friend of Erasmus (see pp. 30-1), founded St. Paul's
School. The artist, a Florentine sculptor, was active in London for many
years and is best known for his effigies on some of the royal tombs in
Westminster Abbey. The attribution of this bust is due to F. Grossmann
(_Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes_, XIII, July 1950),
who identified it as a cast from Torrigiano's original bust on Colet's
tomb (destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666) and also pointed out that
Holbein's drawing of Colet in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle (No.
12199) was made from the lost monument after Colet's death.

IV. PORTRAIT OF SIR THOMAS MORE (1477-1535). Dated 1527. By Hans
Holbein. New York, Frick Collection. _Facing p. 31_

See also Holbein's drawing of Thomas More with his family, Pl. XXIX.

V. Pen and ink sketches by Erasmus. 1514. Basle, University Library (MS
A. IX. 56). _Facing p. 46_

These doodles of grotesque heads and other scribbles are found in
Erasmus's manuscript copy of the _Scholia to the Letters of St. Jerome_,
preserved in the Library of Basle University and published by Emil Major
(_Handzeichnungen des Erasmus von Rotterdam_, Basle, 1933). Erasmus
worked on this manuscript shortly after his arrival in Basle in August
1514. His edition of the _Letters of Jerome_ was published by Froben in
1516 (see p. 90).

VI. A Manuscript Page of Erasmus. Basle, University Library. _Facing p.
47_

See note on Pl. V.