inclined to grudge time given to business:  for with Jerome beginning and all the scholars whom we mentioned coming in and out, Amorbach’s house in Klein-Basel became an ‘Academy’ which could bear comparison with Aldus’ at Venice.  It was worth Boniface’s while, too, to take his course at Basle under such circumstances; especially as in 1511 John Cono began to teach Greek and Hebrew regularly to the printer’s sons and to any one else who wished to come and learn.  It is worth noticing that not one of these young men went to Italy for his humanistic education.

Amorbach’s partner, John Froben, 1460-1527, was a man after his own heart:  open and easy to deal with, but of dogged determination and with great capacity for work.  He was not a scholar.  It is not known whether he ever went to a University, and it is doubtful whether he knew any Latin; certainly the numerous prefaces which appear in his books under his name are not his own, but came from the pens of other members of his circle.  So the division came naturally, that Amorbach organized the work and prepared manuscripts for the press, while Froben had the printing under his charge.  In later years, after Amorbach’s death, the marked advance in the output of the firm as regards type and paper and title-pages and designs may be attributed to Froben, who was man of business enough to realize the importance of getting good men to serve him—­Erasmus to edit books, Gerbell and Oecolampadius to correct the proofs, Graf and Holbein to provide the ornaments.  For thirteen years he was Erasmus’ printer-in-chief, and produced edition after edition of his works, both small and great; and whilst he lived, he had the call of almost everything that Erasmus wrote.  It is quite exceptional to find any book of Erasmus published for the first time elsewhere during these years 1514-27.  A few were given to Martens at Louvain, mostly during Erasmus’ residence there, 1517-21, one or two to Schurer at Strasburg, one or two more to a Cologne printer; but for one of these there is evidence to show that Froben had declined it, because his presses were too busy.  It is pleasant to find that the harmony of this long co-operation was never disturbed.  Erasmus occasionally lets fall a word of disapproval; but what friends have ever seen eye to eye in all matters?

When Froben died in October 1527 as the result of a fall from an upper window, Erasmus wrote with most heartfelt sorrow a eulogy of his friend.  ’He was the soul of honesty himself, and slow to think evil of others; so that he was often taken in.  Of envy and jealousy he knew as little as the blind do of colour.  He was swift to forgive and to forget even serious injuries.  To me he was most generous, ever seeking excuses to make me presents.  If I ordered my servants to buy anything, such as a piece of cloth for a new coat, he would get hold of the bill and pay it off; and he would accept nothing himself, so that it was only by similar artifices