nonnihil offendi stylo, consulati sunt hominem."--_Erasm. Epist._ 979.]

_Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum_.--Your Querist H.B.C. (Vol. ii., pp.
55-57.) will find, in the 53rd vol. _Edinb. Rev._ p. 180., a long
article on these celebrated letters, containing much of the information
required. It is worthy of remark, that in page 195. we are told

"In 1710 there was printed in London the _most elegant_ edition
that has ever appeared of these letters, which the editor, Mich.
Mattaire, gravely represents as the productions of their
ostensible authors."

Now this edition, though neat, has no claim to be termed most elegant,
which is hardly to be reconciled with what the reviewer says in a note,
p. 210., "that the text of this ed. of 1710 is of no authority, and
swarms with typographical blunders."

The work on its first appearance produced great excitement, and was
condemned by Pope Leo X. See _Dict. des Livres Condamnés, &c._, par
Peignot, tom. ii. p. 218.

Many amusing anecdotes and notices are to be found in Bayle's _Dict_.
See particularly sub nomine Erasmus. Burton, in his _Anatomy of Mel._
pt. i. sec. 2. Mem 3 sub 6. citing Jovius in Elogiis, says,

"Hostratus cucullatus adeo graviter ob Reuchlini librum qui
inscribitur, Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum dolore simul et pudore
sauciatus, et scipsum interfecerit."

See also _Nouv. Diction. Historique_ in the account of Gratius, O.