Liber cum primis pius, de praeparatione ad mortem,

£7,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

First Edition. Erasmus’s De praeparatione ad mortem was written in response to a request in June 1533 from Anne Boleyn’s father, Thomas Boleyn, for whom Erasmus had already written two works. Boleyn, to whom as Earl of Wiltshire and Ormonde (“Vuiltisheriae Ormaniae”) the work is dedicated, had asked for “libellus aliquis de praeparatione ad moriendum”, in other words an up-to-date version of the medieval Ars moriendi. The autograph manuscript survives in the Royal Library in Copenhagen, and is entitled Liber quomodo se quisque debeat praeparare ad mortem. It was written at speed and printing was almost completed at Christmas 1533, although the preliminaries were still not ready. The book was not distributed until mid-February 1534 and it was not until 11 March that two copies (“libelli aurati”) were sent to England but not, it seems, to Thomas Boleyn, who had to wait for a handsomely bound copy. The book was well received in London and strange to relate Queen Catherine of Aragon who died on 7 January 1536 and who had, as every schoolboy knows, been ousted to make room for Anne Boleyn, read her copy, literally to death (see letter 3090 from the Imperial Ambassador Chapuys, also mentioning the death of More). Whoever received the second copy sent to England, Anne, Catherine or even More, would not, one hopes, have realised quite how of evil augury such a gift was! It was an immediate success work and between its first appearance and 1540 some twenty editions were published in L

• Year: 1534

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.