De Uiris Illustribus / On Famous Men

Equipped with a commission from Henry VIII, John Leland began to record the contents of English monastic libraries in 1533 before they were dispersed. His booklists were compiled as the primary resources for his comprehensive dictionary of British writers in four books, entitled De uiris illustribus. This remarkable testament to medieval and early modern habits of book collecting, but also to history and national identity, lay incomplete at Leland's death. The sole extant witness to the author's ambitious task is the autograph manuscript, now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Top. gen. c. 4. Although antiquaries made use of De uiris illustribus over the next generations it did not see its way into print until 1709 when Anthony Hall produced a careless edition, a significant number of passages omitted, under the title Commentarii de scriptoribus Britannicis. Hall's text has formed the basis for subsequent scholarship. This new edition is based on a thorough examination of the autograph, supplemented with readings from John Bale's epitome, now Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.7.15 (753). True to Leland's original text, this new edition shows how unreliable and misleading Hall's was in many respects. It includes a complete English translation, published on facing pages accompanying the Latin text. The translation seeks to capture Leland's own excitement with his project and also to convey his shifts in interpretation during the process of revision: the text mirrors in miniature the stages of the English reformation under Henry VIII. The extensive introduction provides a full history of the manuscript, examines sources, and shows the relationship of the text to Leland's booklists and other contemporary documents.

ISBN 1851243674   Pages 1028 ISBN13 9781851243679 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 1540 Publisher The Bodleian Library   Published in Oxford Imprint The Bodleian Library   Series title British Writers of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period Format Hardback   Height (mm) 228 Publication date 04 Aug 2010   Width (mm) 152 Translator James P. Carley   Spine width (mm) 56 DEWEY 015.42031   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

		Preface
		Abbreviations
		Introduction
		Initial Legislation and the Catholic Dilemma
1		An Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Divine Service in the Church, 1559		1
2		Petition of English Catholics to the Council of Trent [circa June 1562]		1
3		Alvaro de la Quadra, Bishop of Aquila and Spanish ambassador to England, to Francisco Vargas, Spanish ambassador to Rome, London, 7 August 1562		4
4		The Declaration of the Fathers of the Councell of Trent [August 1562]		9
5		Opinion of the Roman Inquisition [September 1562]		25
6		Pope Pius IV to Alvaro de Quadra, Rome, 2 October 1562		27
		The Beginnings of Recusancy
7		John Feckenham [8 February 1563]		30
8		Supplication of the English Exiles, Louvain, 8 March 1566		57
9		Laurence Vaux to his friends in Lancashire, 2 November 1566		60
10		Thomas Harding and Nicholas Sander to Giovanni, Cardinal Morone, Louvain, 11 June 1567		64
11		Nicholas Sander, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, and of his Saints: and that it is unlawful to breake them, and lawful to honour them (Louvain, 1567), extract		69
12		Faculties granted to Thomas Harding, Nicholas Sander, and Thomas Peacock, Rome, 14 August 1567		71
13		Giovanni Andrea Caligari to Giovanni Francesco, Cardinal Commendone, Pieve, 6 December 1567		78
14		William Allen to Jean Vendeville, Reims, 16 September 1578, extract		83
		The Excommunication and Its Interpretation
15		Pope Pius V, Regnans in Excelsis, Rome, 25 February 1570		86
16		Ad consolationem et instructionem quorundam Catholicorum angustiis constitutorum quaestiones aliquot [before April 1580]		90
		More...

'A magisterial work of textual scholarship.' -- Matthew Woodcock Sixteenth Century Journal

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