Caelius Secundus Curio: Gelenius ~ Beatus Rhenanus: Erasmus

A group of dedication letters in books of 1531, 1536 and 1554 is here interpreted. They have in common that the humanist editor of an almost finished edition of a classical author surprisingly died, before he could write a dedication letter to a special addressee, who had become known. A friend of the deceased helped out, edited the book and wrote a dedication letter to the intended addressee. He used the oppor­tunity to include a first biographical obituary of the deceased. These are editions of Gregorius Nazianzenus, Origines and Appianus, and obituaries of Pirckheimer, Erasmus and Gelenius, composed by Erasmus, Rhenanus and Curio. Parallels of thought and words make manifest that the later writers were aware that they took up and developed the tradition of this type of letter.