“And I was a Mayden” – 16th Century English verse on a sammelband of four humanist works by Erasmus and others – including “On the Preparation for Death” written for Anne Boleyn’s father Thomas Boleyn.

“And I was a Mayden” – 16^th Century annotations on a Sammelband of four humanist works by Erasmus and others – including “On the Preparation for Death” written for Anne Boleyn’s father Thomas Boleyn.

1) Des. Erasmi Roterodami Liber cvm primis pivs de praeparatione ad mortem, nunc primum & conscriptus & aeditus. Accedvnt huic opvscvlo Epistolae aliquot serijs de rebus, in quibus item nihil est non nouum ac recens, uerum ita excyse, ut scorsim uendi queant. 

-Printed at Antwerp by Michael Hillenius, 1534. 

2) Epistolae aliquot seriis de rebus Erasmo Roterdo. Ac aliorum ad aundem antehac numquan excusae, in quibus item nihil est novum ac recens. 

-Printed at Antwerp by Michael Hillenius, 1534. 

3) Gloriosi Christi Martyris Ignatii Antiocheni Antistitis, Epistolae undecim. Item una beati Polycarpi Martyris Epistola, cum argumento Iacobi Fabri Stapulensis in easdem. 

-Printed at Strasbourg by Johannes Knobloch, 1527.

4) Beati Maximi Confessoris, Antiquissimi sane, & (ut apparet) eruditissimi Theologi, de incarnatione verbi, tum caeteris ad pietatem conducentibus quaestionibus dialogus. Interprete Bilibaldo Birckheimero. 

-Printed at Nuremberg by Johannes Petreius, 1530.

-Missing title page to first work and last page of final work.

-Collation: TP supplied in facsimile, 36 (a-d8,e3),[1]; 40 (a-e8); 51 (a-f8,g3); 21 (a-b8,c5) (missing last page c6)

-Bound in late 16^th century full calf with blind tooling. Text block slightly loosening at a few quires. Bumps to corners and marks to pages.

This sammelband brings together four important works of Christian humanism from the early sixteenth century. Bound in a 16^th Century binding, the work would have been portable reading for a humanist scholar, reflected by the annotations in the text. The most celebrated of the works is Desiderius Erasmus’s De praeparatione ad mortem (1534) which advocated for a moral preparation for death. Accompanying this is a collection of letters written by Erasmus during the reformation. The volume includes the letters of Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp (1527), key texts by Church Fathers, together with commentary by the French humanist Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples. Finally, it contains a theological dialogue by Maximus the Confessor (1530), translated by the German humanist Willibald Pirckheimer.

Interestingly, the fly leaf to Erasmus’ first work contains 16^th Century English poetry with Latin translations. The works were printed in Antwerp, a key location for books destined for the English market, so this annotation supports early readership in England. The fact the first work was written for Thomas Boleyn, would support demand for this work in Henry VIII’s England. The three English poems were likely written by a student or scholar, who then translated them into English. One reads:

“And I was a mayden as many one thot it,

For all the golde, above the wolde, I wolde not do amiss”

non mi aurri cosmi, cresi nec opes violarent

si mihi virginitas immolata foret