s had, at Paris, described that art in the treatise, _De
conscribendis epistolis_, which was to appear in print in 1522. People
wrote, as a rule, with a view to later publication, for a wider circle,
or at any rate, with the certainty that the recipient would show the
letter to others. A fine Latin letter was a gem, which a man envied his
neighbour. Erasmus writes to Budaeus: 'Tunstall has devoured your letter
to me and re-read it as many as three or four times; I had literally to
tear it from his hands.'

Unfortunately fate did not always take into consideration the author's
intentions as to publicity, semi-publicity or strict secrecy. Often
letters passed through many hands before reaching their destination, as
did Servatius's letter to Erasmus in 1514. 'Do be careful about
letters,' he writes more than once; 'waylayers are on the lookout to
intercept them.' Yet, with the curious precipitation that characterizes
him, Erasmus was often very careless as to what he wrote. From an early
age he preserved and cared for his letters, yet nevertheless, through
his itinerant life, many were lost. He could not control their
publication. As early as 1509 a friend sent him a manuscript volume of
his own (Erasmus's) letters, that he had picked up for sale at Rome.
Erasmus had it burnt at once. Since 1515 he himself superintended the
publication of his letters; at first only a few important ones;
afterwards in 1516 a selection of letters from friends to him, and after
that ever larger collections till, at the end of his life, there
appeared a new collection almost every year. No article was so much in
demand on the book market as letters by Erasmus, and no wonder. They
were models of excellent style, tasteful Latin, witty expression and
elegant erudition.

The semi-private, semi-public character of the letters often made them
compromising. What one could say to a friend in confidence might
possibly injure when many read it. Erasmus, who never was aware how
injuriously he expressed himself, repeatedly gave rise to
misunderstanding and estrangement. Manners, so to say, had not yet
adapted themselves to the new art of printing, which increased the
publicity of the written word a thousandfold. Only gradually under this
new influence was the separation effected between the public word,
intended for the press, and the private communication, which remains in
writing and is read only by the recipient.

Meanwhile, with the growth of Erasm