'I am sending you the Homilies of John Chrysostom, and hope
you will enjoy reading them. His golden words have always been
more acceptable to you than the precious metal itself from the
mint.
'I have been, as you know, at Cusanus' library, and found there
many Hebrew books which were quite unknown to me; also a few
Greek. I remember the names of the following: Epiphanius
against heresies, a very big book; Dionysius on the Hierarchy;
Athanasius against Arius; Climacus.
'These I left behind there, but I brought away with me: Basil
on the Hexaëmeron and some of his homilies on the Psalms; the
Epistles of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles; Plutarch's Lives
of Romans and Greeks, and his Symposium; some writings on
grammar and mathematics; some poems on the Christian religion,
written, I think, by Gregory Nazianzen; some prayers, in Latin
and Greek.
'If there are any of these you lack, let me know and they shall
come to you: for everything I have is at your disposal. If you
could spare the Gospels in Greek, I should be grateful for the
loan of it. You enquire what books we are using in the school.
I have followed your advice; for literature which is dangerous
to morality is most injurious.'
The library mentioned above was that of Nicholas Krebs (d. 1464), the
famous Cardinal who took part in the Council of Basle and was the
patron of Poggio. Cues on the Moselle was his birthplace, and gave him
his name Cusanus. In his later years he founded a hostel, the Bursa
Cusana, at Deventer, where he had been at school, and at Cues built a
hospital for aged men and women, with a grassy quadrangle and a chapel
of delicate Gothic; and there in a vaulted chamber supported by a
central column he deposited the manuscripts, mainly theological but
with some admixture of the classics, which he had gathered in the
course of his busy life.
In 1496 we hear of another visit to it; when Dalberg, who was a prince
of humanists, led thither Reuchlin and a party of friends on a voyage
of discovery. Their course was from Worms to Oppenheim, where his
mother was still living: by boat to Coblenz and up the Moselle to
Cues: then over the hills to Dalburg, his ancestral home, and finally
to the abbey of Sponheim, near Kreuznach, where they admired the rich
collection of manuscripts in five languages formed by the learned
historian Trithemius, who was then Abbot. Whether this gay party of
pleasure also carried off any treasures from Cues is not recorded.
But lest this view of the Adwert Academy should appear too uniformly
roseate, we will turn to the tradition of Reyner Praedinius (1510-59),
who was Rector of the town school at Groningen, and whose fame
attracted students thither from Italy, Spain, and Poland. He had in
his possession several manuscripts of Wessel's writings, some of them
unpublished; and he had been intimate with men who had known both
Wessel and Agricola. One of these--very likely Goswin of Halen--as a
boy had often served at table, when the two scholars were dining; and
had afterwards shown them the way home with a lantern. He used to say
that he had frequently pulled off Agricola's boots, when he came home
the worse for his potations; but that no one had ever seen Wessel
under the influence of wine. Wessel, indeed, lived to a green old age,
but killed himself by working too hard.