Erasmus and the Renaissance Republic of Letters

Book excerpt: P.S. Allens edition of the correspondence of Erasmus, published in twelve volumes between 1906 and 1958, initiated a new epoch in the study of both Renaissance humanism and the Reformation. The 2006 conference held at Corpus Christi College, Oxford to mark the centenary of Allen's edition presented a wide-ranging overview of the current state of Erasmus scholarship, including a survey of the discoveries of letters to and from Erasmus unknown to Allen, the printing for the first time since 1529 of the opening section of an important letter to Erasmus from Germain de Brie, an account of the crucial role played by Ulrich von Hutten in the publication of the dialogue Iulius exclusus e coelis, and several studies of the influence of Erasmus's thought on the political and theological controversies of early-modern Europe.