Volume 1

Athenae Oxonienses : An exact history of all the writers and bishops who have had their education in the University of Oxford. To which are added the fasti, or annals of the said University / By Anthony A. Wood.

  • Anthony Wood
Date:
1813-20
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Athenae Oxonienses : An exact history of all the writers and bishops who have had their education in the University of Oxford. To which are added the fasti, or annals of the said University / By Anthony A. Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    GEFFRY WHITNEY, descended from those of his name of Whitney in Hereford- shirethe son of a father of both his names, was born at Naraptwich ■* in Cheshiie, spent some time in this university but more in an- other, and whether graduated I cannot tell: of this I am sure, that as the Latins have had these emblematists Andr. Alciatus, Reusnerus and Sambucus, so in England we had these in the reign of qu. Ehzabeth, Andr. Willet, Thom. Combe, and the said Geff. Whitney who hath devis'd and pubhshed, A choice of Emb/emes and [other] Deiiices. Leyden 1586 in two parts, in qu. [Bodl. Mar. 116''] for the most parte gathered out of sundrie writers, and by him Englished and moralized, land diners newly deiiised.] Fables or Epigrams. Printed much about the same time as the former, in qu. and every page hath a picture wrought from a wooden cutt. What other things he hath pubhshed I cannot tell, nor any thing else of him, only Claruit that he was living at Leyden in fifteen hundred 1586. eighty and six, at which time he was in great esteem among his countrymen for his inge- nuity. [Whitney wrote ninety verses, in English, in commendation of his friend Dousa's Odce Britan- , nica, printed by Plantin in 1586. They com- mence, ^ [The family is of very ancient date in Herefordshire. In 1378, Robert Whitney was sheriff for the county. Roger Aschani wrote a lamentation on the death of master John Whitney, which was afterwards translated by Kei,dall, and pubhshed in his Flowers of Epigrmnmes, 12mo. 1577, fol. lii. b. This was perhaps our author's uncle, as Ascham, or rather his translator, speaks of his dying young. * Yong yeres to yeeld suche fruite in courte, Where seede of vice is sowne. Is somelyme redde, in some place seen. Amongst vs seldome knowne.'j * [He dedicates one of his plates, representing a Phoenix, to his ' countrimen of the Namptwiche in Cheshire.' Althoughe I knowe that auctors witnes true, What here I write, bothe of the oulde, and newe; Which when I wayed, the newe, and eke the oulde, I thought uppon your towne destroyed with fire: And did in minde the newe Namptwiche behoulde, A spectacle for anie man's desire. Whose buildings brave, where cinders weare but late. Did represente (me thought) the Phoenix fate. And as the oulde, was manie hundreth yeares, A towne of fame, before it felt that crosse; Even so, (I hope) this wicke, that nowe appeares, A Phcenix age shall laste, and knowe no losse. Page 177. There are two instances upon record of this town sufiFer- ing by fire, the first in the year 1438, and the second in 1583, when it was nearly consumed.] ^ [This passage is taken from Meres, Palladis Tamia; or the second part of' Wit's Commonwealth, 1599.] * [This was the second edition, (an account of which will be found in Herbert, Ti/p. Antiq. 1675) since in his address to the reader he says, that he has added ' somme of the emblemes to certaine of my frendes, which' weare wantinge in my £rst« editioa.'J ' There needes no bushe, wheare nectar is to drinke; Nor helpes by arte, wheare bewtie freshe dotli bloome; Wheare sonne doth shine, in vayne wee lighte the linke; Wheare sea dothe swell, the brookes do loose their roome: Let Progne cease, wheare Philomela singes. And oaten pipe, wheare Fame her trompeS ringes. Then better staye then simply to commende The learned fruites of noble Dousa's penne, Whose worthie fame doth to the skyes ascende^ And farre, and neare, is knowne to famous men : For when hee writes: Minerua seemes to smile, Suche is his verse, and eke his sugred stile. At page 53 of the same volume, is a translation by our author of some complimentary lines to the earl of Leicester, then general of the Low Coun- tries, to whom he dedicates his EmblernesJ] DAVID ROWLAND was born in the isle of Anglesea, educated partly in grammar and partly in logic in this university, particularly as it seems in St. Mary's-hall, which he leaving without a degree conferr'd on him, became tu- tor to the son of the earl of Lenox, travelled' and obtain'd some knowledge in the modern languages. After his return he became a pro- fess'd tutor as it seems of the Gr. and Lat. tongue, and wrote for the use of his pupills A comfortable Aid for Scholars, full of variety of Sentences, gathered out of an Italian Author. Lond. 1578, in oct. and drew out of Spanish, Clar. The pleasant History of Lazarillo de Tormes a 1586, Spaniard, wherein is contained his marvellous Deeds and Life. Lond. 1586, oct. [Bodl. 8vo. C. 24. Th. Seid. A copy in Spanish, printed by Plantin in 1602, Bodl. 8vo. L. 51. Art.] After- wards it came out in two parts % the last of which was taken from the Chronicles of Toledo *' by Jean de Luna a Castilian. At length one James Blaxton translated the said history, and made the copy more full than ever 'twas, by meeting with the original MS. while he abode in Toledo, which had not suffer'd the inquisi- tor's hands; which being so done, it was printed at Lond. 1653, in oct. and after. [David Rowland also wrote, Anepytaphe of my lorde of Pembroke. This was licensed to Thomas Colwell in 1569 9.] JOHN FOX, the noted martyriologist, was born at St. Botolph's town commonly called Boston in Lincolnshire, an. 1517, became a stu- 7 [Through France and Spain. Tanner, Bibl. Brit. 645.] 8 [The second part, translated by W. P. was printed ia 4to. 1596. Herbert, Typ.Antiq. 1281.] * [RitsoD, Bibl. Fof'iica, 1802, p. 316.]