Wild Boar in the Vineyard: Martin Luther at the Birth of the Modern World

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The Iliad of Homer
Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1517
PLIMPTON 880 1517 H37 c.1

Luther’s Wittenberg colleague and fellow reformer Philip Melanchthon owned and later inscribed to Luther this Aldine edition of the Iliad. The reformers, Melanchthon especially, were well aware that to understand scripture required knowledge of languages and literature. They revered and shared in the literary culture of the Renaissance. The first volume is inscribed: “To Martin Luther, theologian.” These portable editions were popular during the period, and the copious annotations (many by Melanchthon) show this to have been a scholar’s “working” copy.