First usage of parentheses or brackets ( and )

I have found several sources (Wikipedia, Eats Shoots & Leaves) that claim Erasmus was the first person to use parentheses (also known as brackets). He supposedly called them lunulae (because they looked like moons). But I can't find any source citations.

Can anyone provide more information about this supposed fact? In which book did Erasmus first use them? What year was the book published?

The reason I want to know is that Erasmus lived (and died) in the town where I live (Basel, Switzerland). I am trying to determine if parentheses were invented here in Basel.

Extra upvotes for answers with excessive amounts of bracket usage.

Solution 1:

Sorry, but according a (1993) book (Pause and effect: an introduction to the history of punctuation in the West (by Malcolm Beckwith Parkes)) Erasmus didn't invent parentheses (but he gave them a nice name).

A form of parenthesis had already been used in (a manuscript called) De nobilitate legum et medicinaue (from 1399) that looked like a Γ and >.

In a (1428) copy of (Cicero's) Epistolae ad familares, the marks were paired off as <>.

They subsequently became the familiar round brackets (()) (as recommended by (Gaparino) Barzizza (1359-1431) (in (his) Doctrina punctandi)).

Edit: Furthermore, if you re-read Wikipedia you'll see it says (citing (Lynne) Truss):

Desiderius Erasmus coined the term lunula to refer to the rounded parentheses (), recalling the round shape of the moon.

He coined the term lunula. It makes no claim of (Erasmus (or anyone else) inventing the mark.

Solution 2:

(Further to Hugo's answer,) John Lennard (a linguistic scholar) talks about these in his book, The poetry handbook and (in a footnote) says that Erasmus coined the term in the year 1531. My understanding (from the Wikipedia article on him) is that by this time he was indeed living in Basel - but (as Hugo notes) here he coined the term lunula but did not first use brackets.