Analysis of the material aspects of books has opened new fields for historical enquiry that connect humanist learning, theology, and the press. The collaboration between Erasmus of Rotterdam and the printers Johannes and Hieronymus Froben of Basel between 1514 and 1536 offers itself as a vantage point from which to observe the making of written culture for humanists, allowing investigations into the media strategies and marketing communication tools employed to produce and disseminate humanist books in early modern Europe. This contribution provides a brief survey of Froben’s editions held in the collections of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (CRRS) at Victoria University in the University of Toronto. A deep scrutiny of some of the CRRS library’s copies sheds light on the technical and economic aspects of Froben’s printing activity, while supplying significant information on Erasmus’s readership. L’analyse des aspects matériels des livres a initié de nouvelles avenues de recherche historique mettant en lien la formation humaniste, la théologie et les milieux de l’imprimerie et de la publication. La collaboration entre Érasme de Rotterdam et les imprimeurs Johannes et Hieronymus Froben de Bâle entre 1514 et 1536 constitue un cas idéal à partir duquel observer la fabrication de la culture écrite des humanistes, ouvrant la porte à des études des stratégies médiatiques et de la communication de marketing utilisées pour produire et disséminer les livres humanistes en Europe au début des temps modernes. Cet article effectue un survol des éditions de Froben présentes dans les collections du Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (CRRS) à la Victoria University in the University of Toronto. Un examen minutieux de quelques uns des livres de ces collections met en lumière certains aspects techniques et économiques de l’activité de Froben, et donne également des informations importantes au sujet du lectorat d’Érasme.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Sebastiani, V., Ricketts, W., (2025), "Froben Press Editions (1505–1559) in the Holdings of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies Library: A Brief Survey", HSSCommons: (DOI: )

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1. Renaissance and Reformation

Original publication: Sebastiani, Valentina; Ricketts, Wendell. "Froben Press Editions (1505–1559) in the Holdings of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies Library: A Brief Survey." Renaissance and Reformation 37 (3): 2015. 213-234. DOI: 10.33137/rr.v37i3.22463. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Iter Canada / Renaissance and Reformation. Copyright © the author(s). Their work is distributed by Renaissance and Reformation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.