had
produced nothing of any importance in Greek, and would therefore be
unable to do justice to the New Testament; and that accordingly he had
commissioned the agent to negotiate with a firm which by now had
established a great reputation--that of Amorbach and Froben, in Basle.
His attention had perhaps been aroused by a flattering mention of him
in a preface written in Froben's name for the pirated edition of the
_Adagia_, August 1513, to which Erasmus was referring in the letter
just quoted. Rumour had spread through Europe that Erasmus was
dead--it was repeated six months later in a book printed at
Vienna--and the Basle circle deplored the loss that this would mean to
learning.

There were other reasons for this choice, apart from the excellence of
the printers. Erasmus had never been happy in Paris. He had often been
ill beside the sluggish Seine, and had only found his health again by
leaving it. The theologians were still predominant there, and Louis
XII had a way of interfering with scholars who discovered any freedom
of thought. Standonck, for instance, the refounder of Montaigu, had
had to disappear in 1499-1500. For Erasmus to sit in Paris for two or
three years while his books were being printed, would have been at
least a penance. But Basle was very different. The Rhine, dashing
against the piers of the bridge which joined the Great and Little
towns, brought fresh air and coolness and health. The University,
founded in 1460, was active and liberally minded. The town had
recently (1501) thrown in its lot with the confederacy of Swiss
cantons, thereby strengthening the political immunity which it had
long enjoyed. Between the citizens and the religious orders complete
concord prevailed; and finally, except Paris, there was no town North
of the Alps which could vie with Basle in the splendour and number of
the books which it produced. This is how a contemporary scholar[21]
writes of the city of his adoption. 'Basle to-day is a residence for a
king. The streets are clean, the houses uniform and pleasant, some of
them even magnificent, with spacious courts and gay gardens and many
delightful prospects; on to the grounds and trees beside St. Peter's,
over the Dominicans', or down to the Rhine. There is nothing to offend
the taste even of those who have been in Italy, except perhaps the use
of stoves instead of fires, and the dirt of the inns, which is
universal throughout Germany. The climate is singularly mild