himself in a similar capacity to
Schurer at Strasburg, also giving a hand with editions of new texts.
In 1511, attracted by the fame of the good Dominican, John Cono, he
went to Basle to work for the elder Amorbach and take lessons under
Cono with the sons. When Erasmus came, Beatus at once fell under his
spell, and subordinated his own projects to the requirements of his
friend's more important undertakings.

That indeed is Beatus' great characteristic throughout his life. He
was well off, for his father 'by the blessing of God on his ingenious
endeavour had arisen to an ample estate'; and thus the son was not
obliged to seek reward. He gave himself, therefore, unstintingly to
any work that needed doing for his friends, editing, correcting,
supervising; and usually suppressing the part he had taken in it. His
own achievements are nevertheless considerable. The bibliographers
have discovered sixty-eight books in which he had a capital share; and
though a large number of these appear to be mere reprints of books
printed in France or Italy--the law of copyright in those days was, as
might be expected, uncertain--, there is a residue in which he really
did original work: some notes on the history and geography of Germany
which he composed, and editions of Pliny's Natural History, Tacitus,
Tertullian and Velleius Paterculus--the latter having an almost
romantic interest from the fortunes of the manuscript on which it is
based. A measure of the confidence which Erasmus subsequently reposed
in both his judgement and his good faith is that in 1519 and 1521,
when he had decided to publish some more of his letters, he just sent
to Beatus bundles of the rough drafts he had preserved, and told him
to select and edit them at his discretion.

A sketch of Beatus, written at his death by John Sturm of Strasburg,
the friend of Ascham, gives a picture of the life he led at
Schlettstadt during his last twenty years: the plain, simple living in
the great house inherited from his father, without luxury or display,
attended upon by an old maidservant and a young servant-pupil, given
to friends but not allowing hospitality to infringe upon his work,
lapped in such quiet as to seem almost solitude; the daily round being
dinner at ten, in the afternoon a walk in his gardens outside the city
walls, and supper at six. Gentle and accommodating, modest and
diffident in spite of his learning, reluctant to talk of himself, and
slow to take offenc