[A letter to an English friend, Robert Fisher, who had been a pupil of
Erasmus in Paris in 1497 and had then gone to study law in Italy.]

4. IN EA…REGIONE] Italy was at this time regarded as being, and in fact was, more advanced than the rest of Europe in classical learning and refinement. In consequence to visit Italy was the ambition of every scholar.

SIS] In classical Latin when two reasons are given, of which one is denied and the other affirmed, the verb in the affirmation is usually in the indicative.

26. Wm. Grocin (c. 1416-1519) was one of the first to teach Greek in Oxford. He was now resident in London.

28. Thos. Linacre (c. 1460-1524) was an Oxford scholar who had recently returned from Italy and was now in London. He afterwards became one of the first physicians of his age.