I just discovered that the University Library in Basel Switzerland has posted online a digital version of Erasmus' 1516 Novum Instrumentum and the Annotations. Pretty amazing world that we live in when we can have access to documents like this with the click of a mouse!
One of the things that I find amazing is the fact that Erasmus' Annotations (his notes, including his discussion of textual and translation issues) have never been completely translated from Latin into English. This is especially curious given the widespread discussion in textual studies in the English-speaking world about the role of Erasmus' Greek NT in the development of the printed Textus Receptus. There was a massive project started in 1968 at the University of Toronto to translate Erasmus' complete works, and the Annotatations on Romans were translated, but the completion of this project seems to have stalled without the rest of the Annotations being translated. Even when one reads scholarly works, one finds references to secondary sources or the passing on of undocumented Erasmus' "traditions" but few direct citation from the original Latin text with a corresponding English translation. At any rate, for those willing to wade directly into the Latin, you can now save the plane ticket to Basel, download a pdf, and read it on your machine.
JTR
1 comment:
Have some parts been translated into English? It would be of great interest, as you say. Andrew
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