1.
Lindisfarne Gospels
–
The manuscript is one of the finest works in the unique style of Hiberno-Saxon or Insular art, combining Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic elements. The Lindisfarne Gospels are presumed to be the work of a monk named Eadfrith, current scholarship indicates a date around 715, and it is believed they were produced in honour of St. Cuthbert. During the Viking raids on Lindisfarne this jewelled cover was lost, the text is written in insular script, and is the best documented and most complete insular manuscript of the period. In the 10th century an Old English translation of the Gospels was made and this is the oldest extant translation of the Gospels into the English language. Cottons library came to the British Museum in the 18th century, Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island, is located off the coast of Northumberland in northern England. In around 635 AD, the Irish missionary Aidan founded the Lindisfarne monastery on “a small outcrop of land” on Lindisfarne, King Oswald of Northumbria sent Aidan from Iona to preach to and baptize the pagan Anglo-Saxons, following the conversion to Christianity of the Northumbrian monarchy in 627. By Aidan’s death in 651, the Christian faith was becoming well-established in the area. In the tenth century, about 250 years after the production of the book, Aldred, in his colophon he recorded the names of the four men who produced the Lindisfarne Gospels. Some scholars have argued that Eadfrith and Ethelwald did not produce the manuscript, however, Janet Backhouse argues for the validity of the statement by pointing out that, there is no reason to doubt statement because he was recording a well established tradition. Eadfrith and Ethelwald were both bishops at the monastery of Lindisfarne where the manuscript was produced, as Alan Thacker notes, the Lindisfarne Gospels are undoubtedly the work of a single hand, and Eadfrith remains regarded as the scribe and painter of the Lindisfarne Gospels. According to Aldred’s colophon, the Lindisfarne Gospels were made in honor of God and Saint Cuthbert, scholars think that the manuscript was written sometime between Cuthbert’s death in 687 and Eadfrith’s death in 721. Due to increasingly slack religious practice in Lindisfarne, Cuthbert was sent to Lindisfarne as a way to reform the religious community, in Lindisfarne Cuthbert began to take on a solitary lifestyle, eventually moving to Inner Farne Island where he built a hermitage. Cuthbert agreed to become bishop at the request of King Ecgfrith in 684, Cuthbert died on 20 March 687, and was buried in Lindisfarne. As a venerated saint his tomb attracted many pilgrims to Lindisfarne, the Lindisfarne Gospels is a Christian manuscript, containing the gospels of Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John and the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The manuscript was used for purposes to promote and celebrate the Christian religion. The Lindisfarne Gospels manuscript was produced in a scriptorium in the monastery of Lindisfarne, the pages of the Lindisfarne gospels are vellum, made from the skins of sheep or calves and evidence from the manuscript reveals that the vellum used for the Gospels was made from calfskin. The text of the manuscript is written “in a dense, dark brown ink, often almost black, which contains particles of carbon from soot or lamp black”. The pens used for the manuscript could have cut from either quills or reeds
2.
Sir Robert Cotton, 1st Baronet, of Connington
–
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet of Conington Hall in the parish of Conington in Huntingdonshire, England, was a Member of Parliament and an antiquarian who founded the Cotton library. The Cotton family originated at the manor of Cotton in Cheshire, Cotton was educated at Westminster School where he was a pupil of the antiquarian William Camden, under whose influence he began to study antiquarian topics. He began collecting notes on the history of Huntingdonshire when he was seventeen and he proceeded to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1585 and in 1589 entered the Middle Temple to study law. He began to amass a library in which the documents rivalled, then surpassed, Cotton was elected a Member of Parliament for Newtown, Isle of Wight in 1601 and as Knight of the Shire for Huntingdonshire in 1604. From the Court partys point of view, this was anti-royalist in nature, thus it was confiscated in 1630 and returned only after his death to his heirs. He was subsequently elected to Parliament for Old Sarum, Thetford, Cotton was elected to parliament for Huntingdonshire in 1604, a constituency previously represented by his grandfather. Cotton worked on the Committee on Grievances and in 1605–06 received the Bill pertaining to the Gunpowder Plot through his work on the Committee of Privileges, in 1607 he was reappointed to the Committee of Privileges. Cotton was appointed to the joint conference with the Lords during his work on the bill pertaining to the union between Scotland and England in 1606–07. In 1610 Cotton was nominated in first place to the Committee of Privileges, in 1610/11 the royal revenues were low, and Cotton wrote Means for raising the king’s estate. In this work he suggested the formation of the baronetcy a new order of social rank, higher than the knight. Cotton was not elected to the 1614 Parliament, in 1621 Cotton advised James I on the impeachment of Sir Francis Bacon concerning the respective roles of king and Parliament. In 1624 Cotton was elected to represent Old Sarum after the member, Sir Arthur Ingram. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Cotton reunited with his former school-master William Camden in the late 1580s as a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Camden was one of the greatest early antiquarians whose 1586 work Britannia was a History of early Britain, Cotton exerted little influence in the society until after his fathers death in 1592. In 1593 he was resident at the seat of Conington Castle. The plan did not receive royal approval, the trip appears to have initiated Cottons interest in Roman artefacts. The antiquarianns Reginald Bainbridge and Lord William Howard offered Cotton Roman stones while the Essex antiquarian John Barkham arranged to send him Roman relics, Cottons antiquarian studies influenced many people of his time and he was often looked to by other antiquarians for ideas. I have beene att Cattericke wher I was informed of 2Romaine monuments weh were found in a 1620 and are now in my Io, of Arundells keeping
3.
Antiquarian
–
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives. Today the term is used in a pejorative sense, to refer to an excessively narrow focus on factual historical trivia. The Kaogutu or Illustrated Catalogue of Examined Antiquity compiled by Lü Dalin is one of the oldest known catalogues to systematically describe and classify ancient artifacts which were unearthed. Interests in antiquarian studies of ancient inscriptions and artifacts waned after the Song Dynasty, Books on antiquarian topics covered such subjects as the origin of customs, religious rituals, and political institutions, genealogy, topography and landmarks, and etymology. By contrast, antiquarian works as a form are organized by topic. Major antiquarian Latin writers with surviving works include Varro, Pliny the Elder, Aulus Gellius, the Roman emperor Claudius published antiquarian works, none of which is extant. Some of Ciceros treatises, particularly his work on divination, show strong antiquarian interests, roman-era Greek writers also dealt with antiquarian material, such as Plutarch in his Roman Questions and the Deipnosophistae of Athenaeus. The aim of Latin antiquarian works is to collect a number of possible explanations. The antiquarians are often used as sources by the ancient historians, despite the importance of antiquarian writing in the literature of ancient Rome, some scholars view antiquarianism as emerging only in the Middle Ages. Antiquarianisms wider flowering is more associated with the Renaissance, and with the critical assessment. The development of genealogy as a scientific discipline went hand-in-hand with the development of antiquarianism, genealogical antiquaries recognised the evidential value for their researches of non-textual sources, including seals and church monuments. Many early modern antiquaries were also chorographers, that is to say, they recorded landscapes, in England, some of the most important of these took the form of county histories. They increasingly argued that empirical evidence could be used to refine. Antiquaries had always attracted a degree of ridicule, and since the century the term has tended to be used most commonly in negative or derogatory contexts. Nevertheless, many practising antiquaries continue to claim the title with pride, Antiquary was the usual term in English from the 16th to the mid-18th centuries to describe a person interested in antiquities. From the second half of the 18th century, however, antiquarian began to be used widely as a noun. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, a distinction was perceived to exist between the interests and activities of the antiquary and the historian
4.
Bibliophilia
–
Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books, and a bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves books. The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often amassing a large, Bibliophiles do not necessarily want to possess the books that they love, an alternative would be unusual bindings, autographed copies, etc. The New York Public Library follows the same practice, according to Arthur H. Minters, the private collecting of books was a fashion indulged in by many Romans, including Cicero and Atticus. The term bibliophile entered the English language in 1824, lord Spencer and the Marquess of Blandford were noted bibliophiles. J. P. Morgan was also a noted bibliophile, in 1884, he paid $24,750 for a 1459 edition of the Mainz Psalter. Antiquarian book trade in the United States Book collecting The Book Club of Detroit Caxton Club The Club of Odd Volumes Grolier Club Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles Merriam-Webster, a Gentle Madness, Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books, Henry Holt and Company, Inc. The love of books, The Philobiblon translated by E. C. Thomas, london, Frances Lincoln ISBN 0-7112-2685-7 Thomas Frognall Dibdin. The Committed Reader, Reading for Utility, Pleasure, and Fulfillment in the Twenty-First Century, forbes article on bibliomania by Finn-Olaf Jones, December 12,2005
5.
British Library
–
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and the second largest library in the world by number of items catalogued. It holds well over 150 million items from many countries, as a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the UK. The Library is a public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media. The Librarys collections include around 14 million books, along with holdings of manuscripts. In addition to receiving a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland, the Library adds some three million items every year occupying 9.6 kilometres of new shelf space. Prior to 1973, the Library was part of the British Museum, the Euston Road building is classified as a Grade I listed building, of exceptional interest for its architecture and history. The British Library was created on 1 July 1973 as a result of the British Library Act 1972. Prior to this, the library was part of the British Museum. In 1983, the Library absorbed the National Sound Archive, which holds many sound and video recordings, with over a million discs, the core of the Librarys historical collections is based on a series of donations and acquisitions from the 18th century, known as the foundation collections. From 1997 to 2009 the main collection was housed in this new building. Construction work on the Newspaper Storage Building was completed in 2013, the collection has now been split between the St Pancras and Boston Spa sites. The British Library Document Supply Service and the Librarys Document Supply Collection is based on the site in Boston Spa. Collections housed in Yorkshire, comprising low-use material and the newspaper and Document Supply collections, the Library previously had a book storage depot in Woolwich, south-east London, which is no longer in use. The new library was designed specially for the purpose by the architect Colin St John Wilson, facing Euston Road is a large piazza that includes pieces of public art, such as large sculptures by Eduardo Paolozzi and Antony Gormley. It is the largest public building constructed in the United Kingdom in the 20th century, in December 2009 a new storage building at Boston Spa was opened by Rosie Winterton. The building was Grade I listed on 1 August 2015, in England, Legal Deposit can be traced back to at least 1610. The other five libraries are, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the University Library at Cambridge, the Trinity College Library at Dublin, in 2003 the Ipswich MP Chris Mole introduced a Private Members Bill which became the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003. The Act extends United Kingdom legal deposit requirements to electronic documents, such as CD-ROMs, the Library also holds the Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections which include the India Office Records and materials in the languages of Asia and of north and north-east Africa
6.
Dissolution of the Monasteries
–
Although the policy was originally envisaged as increasing the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property was sold off to fund Henrys military campaigns in the 1540s. Professor George W. Bernard argues, The dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s was one of the most revolutionary events in English history. one adult man in fifty was in religious orders. Very few English houses had been founded later than the end of the 13th century, there was a Medieval proverb in England that said if the Abbot of Glastonbury married the Abbess of Shaftesbury, the heir would have more land than the King of England. The 200 houses of friars in England and Wales constituted a distinct wave of foundations almost all occurring in the 13th century. Friaries, for the most part, were concentrated in urban areas, however, the religious changes in England under Henry VIII and Edward VI were of a different nature from those taking place in Germany, Bohemia, France, Scotland and Geneva. Bernard says there was concern in the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries about the condition of the monasteries. Pastoral care was seen as more important and vital than the monastic focus on contemplation, prayer. English monasticism in the 1530s may have faced grave and urgent problems, Henry wanted to change this, and in November 1529 Parliament passed Acts reforming apparent abuses in the English Church. These Acts sought to demonstrate that establishing royal jurisdiction over the Church would ensure progress in religious reformation where papal authority had been insufficient, the monasteries were next in line. The stories of monastic impropriety, vice and excess that were to be collected by Thomas Cromwells visitors may have been biased and exaggerated. Levels of monastic debt were increasing, and average numbers of professed religious were falling, only a minority of houses could now support the twelve or thirteen professed religious usually regarded as the minimum necessary to maintain the full canonical hours of the Divine Office. Extensive monastic complexes dominated English towns of any size, but most were less than half full, renaissance princes throughout Europe were facing severe financial difficulties due to sharply rising expenditures, especially to pay for armies, fighting ships and fortifications. Most tended, sooner or later, to resort to plundering monastic wealth, protestant princes would justify this by claiming divine authority, Catholic princes would obtain the agreement and connivance of the Papacy. Monastic wealth, regarded everywhere as excessive and idle, offered a standing temptation for cash-strapped secular, in terms of popular esteem however, the balance tilted the other way. By the time Henry VIII turned his mind to the business of monastery reform, the first case was that of the so-called Alien Priories. As a result of the Norman Conquest some French religious orders held substantial property through their daughter monasteries in England, some of these were merely granges, agricultural estates with a single foreign monk in residence to supervise things, others were rich foundations in their own right. Such estates were a source of income for the Crown in its French wars. If the property with which a house had been endowed by its founder were to be confiscated or surrendered, then the house ceased to exist, whether its members continued in the religious life or not
7.
Francis Bacon
–
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, PC KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England, after his death, he remained extremely influential through his works, especially as philosophical advocate and practitioner of the scientific method during the scientific revolution. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism and his works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued this could be achieved by use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. This marked a new turn in the rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, Bacon was generally neglected at court by Queen Elizabeth, but after the accession of King James I in 1603, Bacon was knighted. He was later created Baron Verulam in 1618 and Viscount St. Alban in 1621, because he had no heirs, both titles became extinct upon his death in 1626, at 65 years of age. Bacon died of pneumonia, with one account by John Aubrey stating that he had contracted the condition while studying the effects of freezing on the preservation of meat. Francis Bacon was born on 22 January 1561 at York House near the Strand in London, the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon by his wife, Anne Bacon. His mothers sister was married to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, biographers believe that Bacon was educated at home in his early years owing to poor health, which would plague him throughout his life. He received tuition from John Walsall, a graduate of Oxford with a leaning toward Puritanism. Bacons education was conducted largely in Latin and followed the medieval curriculum and he was also educated at the University of Poitiers. It was at Cambridge that he first met Queen Elizabeth, who was impressed by his precocious intellect and his studies brought him to the belief that the methods and results of science as then practised were erroneous. His reverence for Aristotle conflicted with his rejection of Aristotelian philosophy, on 27 June 1576, he and Anthony entered de societate magistrorum at Grays Inn. A few months later, Francis went abroad with Sir Amias Paulet, the state of government and society in France under Henry III afforded him valuable political instruction. For the next three years he visited Blois, Poitiers, Tours, Italy, and Spain, during his travels, Bacon studied language, statecraft, and civil law while performing routine diplomatic tasks. On at least one occasion he delivered diplomatic letters to England for Walsingham, Burghley, the sudden death of his father in February 1579 prompted Bacon to return to England. Sir Nicholas had laid up a sum of money to purchase an estate for his youngest son, but he died before doing so. Having borrowed money, Bacon got into debt, Bacon stated that he had three goals, to uncover truth, to serve his country, and to serve his church
8.
Walter Raleigh
–
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer. He was cousin to Sir Richard Grenville and younger half-brother of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and he is also well known for popularising tobacco in England. Raleigh was born to a Protestant family in Devon, the son of Walter Raleigh, later, he became a landlord of property confiscated from the native Irish. He rose rapidly in the favour of Queen Elizabeth I and was knighted in 1585, Raleigh was instrumental in the English colonisation of North America and was granted a royal patent to explore Virginia, which paved the way for future English settlements. In 1591, he secretly married Elizabeth Throckmorton, one of the Queens ladies-in-waiting, without the Queens permission, for which he, after his release, they retired to his estate at Sherborne, Dorset. In 1594, Raleigh heard of a City of Gold in South America and sailed to find it, publishing an exaggerated account of his experiences in a book that contributed to the legend of El Dorado. After Queen Elizabeth died in 1603, Raleigh was again imprisoned in the Tower, this time for being involved in the Main Plot against King James I, in 1616, he was released to lead a second expedition in search of El Dorado. During the expedition, men led by his top commander ransacked a Spanish outpost and he returned to England and, to appease the Spanish, was arrested and executed in 1618. Raleigh was one of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, in 2002, he was featured in the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Little is known about Raleighs birth, some historians believe that he was born on 22 January 1552, although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography currently favours a date of 1554. He grew up in the house of Hayes Barton, a farmhouse near the village of East Budleigh and he was the youngest of five sons born to Catherine Champernowne in two successive marriages. His half-brothers John Gilbert, Humphrey Gilbert, and Adrian Gilbert, Catherine Champernowne was a niece of Kat Ashley, Elizabeths governess, who introduced the young men at court. Raleighs family was highly Protestant in religious orientation and had a number of near escapes during the reign of Roman Catholic Queen Mary I of England, in the most notable of these, his father had to hide in a tower to avoid execution. As a result, Raleigh developed a hatred of Roman Catholicism during his childhood, in matters of religion, Elizabeth was more moderate than her half sister Mary. In 1569, Raleigh left for France to serve with the Huguenots in the French religious civil wars, in 1572, Raleigh was registered as an undergraduate at Oriel College, Oxford, but he left a year later without a degree. Raleigh proceeded to finish his education in the Inns of Court, in 1575, he was registered at the Middle Temple. At his trial in 1603, he stated that he had never studied law and his life is uncertain between 1569 and 1575, but in his History of the World he claimed to have been an eyewitness at the Battle of Moncontour in France. In 1575 or 1576, Raleigh returned to England, between 1579 and 1583, Raleigh took part in the suppression of the Desmond Rebellions
9.
James Ussher
–
James Ussher was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. The year before Christ 4004, that is, around 6 pm on 22 October 4004 BC according to the proleptic Julian calendar, Ussher was born in Dublin to a well-to-do family. His maternal grandfather, James Stanihurst, had been speaker of the Irish parliament, Usshers father, Arnold Ussher, was a clerk in chancery who married James Stanihursts daughter, Margaret, who was reportedly a Roman Catholic. Usshers younger, and only surviving, brother, Ambrose, became a scholar of Arabic. According to his chaplain and biographer, Nicholas Bernard, the brother was taught to read by two blind, spinster aunts. A gifted polyglot, he entered Dublin Free School and then the newly founded Trinity College, Dublin on 9 January 1594 and he had received his Bachelor of Arts degree by 1598, and was a fellow and MA by 1600. Ussher went on to become Chancellor of St Patricks Cathedral, Dublin in 1605 and he became Professor of Theological Controversies at Trinity College and a Bachelor of Divinity in 1607, Doctor of Divinity in 1612, and then Vice-Chancellor in 1615 and vice-provost in 1616. In 1613, he married Phoebe, daughter of a previous Vice-Provost, Luke Challoner, in 1615, he was closely involved with the drawing up of the first confession of faith of the Church of Ireland. In 1619 Ussher travelled to England, where he remained for two years and his only child was Elizabeth, who married Sir Timothy Tyrrell, of Oakley, Buckinghamshire. She was the mother of James Tyrrell and he became prominent after meeting James I. In 1621 James nominated him Bishop of Meath and he became a national figure in Ireland, becoming Privy Councillor in 1623 and an increasingly substantial scholar. A noted collector of Irish manuscripts, he made available for research to fellow-scholars such as his friend. From 1623 until 1626 he was again in England and was excused from his duties to study church history. He was nominated Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh in 1625 and succeeded Christopher Hampton, after his consecration in 1626, Ussher found himself in turbulent political times. Ussher was a convinced Calvinist and viewed with dismay the possibility that people he regarded as anti-Christian papists might achieve any sort of power. He called a meeting of the Irish bishops in his house in November 1626. The Judgement was not published until it was out at the end of a series of sermons against the Graces given at Dublin in April 1627. In the end, the Graces were not confirmed by the Irish Parliament, during a four-year interregnum between Lord Deputies from 1629 on, there was an increase in efforts to impose religious conformity on Ireland
10.
Beowulf
–
Beowulf is an Old English epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative lines. It may be the oldest surviving poem in Old English and is commonly cited as one of the most important works of Old English literature. A date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars, the only certain dating pertains to the manuscript, the author was an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, referred to by scholars as the Beowulf poet. The poem is set in Scandinavia, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendels mother attacks the hall and is also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and later king of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon, after his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a tower on a headland in his memory. The full poem survives in the known as the Nowell Codex. It has no title in the manuscript, but has become known by the name of the storys protagonist. In 1731, the manuscript was damaged by a fire that swept through Ashburnham House in London that had a collection of medieval manuscripts assembled by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton. The Nowell Codex is currently housed in the British Library, the poem may have been brought to England by people of Geatish origins. Others have associated this poem with the court of King Alfred the Great or with the court of King Cnut the Great. The poem deals with legends, was composed for entertainment, though Beowulf himself is not mentioned in any other Anglo-Saxon manuscript, scholars generally agree that many of the other personalities of Beowulf also appear in Scandinavian sources. This does not only people, but also clans and some of the events. Three halls, each about 50 metres long, were found during the excavation, the majority view appears to be that people such as King Hroðgar and the Scyldings in Beowulf are based on real historical people from 6th-century Scandinavia. 19th-century archeological evidence may confirm elements of the Beowulf story, Eadgils was buried at Uppsala according to Snorri Sturluson. When Eadgils mound was excavated in 1874, the finds supported Beowulf and they showed that a powerful man was buried in a large barrow, c 575, on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. These remains include a Frankish sword adorned with gold and garnets and he was dressed in a costly suit made of Frankish cloth with golden threads, and he wore a belt with a costly buckle
11.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
–
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance. It is one of the best known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of motifs, the beheading game and the exchange of winnings. The Green Knight is interpreted by some as a representation of the Green Man of folklore and by others as an allusion to Christ. Written in stanzas of verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel, it draws on Welsh, Irish. Gawain accepts and beheads him with his blow, at which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his head, and reminds Gawain of the appointed time. In his struggles to keep his bargain, Gawain demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honour is called into question by a test involving Lady Bertilak, the lady of the Green Knights castle. The poem survives in a manuscript, the Cotton Nero A. x. which also includes three religious narrative poems, Pearl, Purity and Patience. All are thought to have been written by the unknown author, dubbed the Pearl Poet or Gawain Poet. In Camelot on New Years Day, King Arthurs court is exchanging gifts, a gigantic figure, entirely green in appearance and riding a green horse, rides unexpectedly into the hall. He wears no armor but bears an axe in one hand, the splendid axe will belong to whoever takes him on. Arthur himself is prepared to accept the challenge when it no other knight will dare. The giant bends and bares his neck before him and Gawain neatly beheads him in one stroke, Gawain and Arthur admire the axe, hang it up as a trophy and encourage Guinevere to treat the whole matter lightly. As the date approaches, Sir Gawain sets off to find the Green Chapel, also present is an old and ugly lady, unnamed but treated with great honour by all. Gawain tells them of his New Years appointment at the Green Chapel, Bertilak laughs, explains that the Green Chapel is less than two miles away and proposes that Gawain rest at the castle till then. Before going hunting the next day Bertilak proposes a bargain, he will give Gawain whatever he catches on the condition that Gawain give him whatever he might gain during the day. After Bertilak leaves, Lady Bertilak visits Gawains bedroom and behaves seductively, when Bertilak returns and gives Gawain the deer he has killed, his guest gives a kiss to Bertilak without divulging its source. The next day the lady comes again, Gawain again courteously foils her advances and she comes once more on the third morning, this time offering Gawain a gold ring as a keepsake. He gently but steadfastly refuses but she pleads that he at least take her belt, a girdle of green and gold silk which, tempted, as he may otherwise die the next day, Gawain accepts it, and they exchange three kisses
12.
Edward Coke
–
Sir Edward Coke SL PC was an English barrister, judge and, later, opposition politician, who is considered to be the greatest jurist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Born into a family, Coke was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, before leaving to study at the Inner Temple. Following a promotion to Attorney General he led the prosecution in several cases, including those against Robert Devereux, Sir Walter Raleigh. As a reward for his services he was first knighted and then made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and these actions eventually led to his transfer to the Chief Justiceship of the Kings Bench, where it was felt he could do less damage. Coke then successively restricted the definition of treason and declared a royal letter illegal, with no chance of regaining his judicial posts, he instead returned to Parliament, where he swiftly became a leading member of the opposition. In America, Cokes decision in Dr, the surname Coke, or Cocke, can be traced back to a William Coke in the hundred of South Greenhoe, now the Norfolk town of Swaffham, in around 1150. The family was prosperous and influential – members from the 14th century onwards included an Under-Sheriff, a Knight Banneret, a barrister. The name Coke was pronounced /ˈkuːk/ during the Elizabethan age, although it is now pronounced /ˈkʊk/, the origins of the name are uncertain, theories are that it was a word for river among early Britons, or was descended from the word Coc, or leader. Another hypothesis is that it was an attempt to disguise the word cook, Cokes father, Robert Coke, was a barrister and Bencher of Lincolns Inn who built up a strong practice representing clients from his home area of Norfolk. Over time, he bought several manors at Congham, Westacre and Happisburgh and was granted a coat of arms, Cokes mother, Winifred Knightley, came from a family even more intimately linked with the law than her husband. This connection later served Edward well, winifreds father later married Agnes, the sister of Nicholas Hare. Edward Coke was born on 1 February 1552 in Mileham, one of eight children, the other seven were daughters – Winifred, Dorothy, Elizabeth, Ursula, Anna, Margaret and Ethelreda – although it is not known in which order the children were born. Two years after Robert Coke died on 15 November 1561, his widow married Robert Bozoun, at the age of eight in 1560, Coke began studying at the Norwich Free Grammar School. The students were taught rhetoric based on the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Coke was taught at Norwich to value the forcefulness of freedom of speech, something he later applied as a judge. Some accounts relate that he was a diligent student who applied himself well, after leaving Norwich in 1567 he matriculated to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied for three years until the end of 1570, when he left without gaining a degree. Little is known of his time at Trinity, though he studied rhetoric. His biographers felt he had all the intelligence to be a good student, after leaving Trinity College he travelled to London, where he became a member of Cliffords Inn in 1571. Coke also studied various writs till they turned honey sweet on his tongue, at the Inner Temple he began the second stage of his education, reading legal texts such as Glanvilles Treatises and taking part in moots
13.
John Pym
–
John Pym was an English parliamentarian, leader of the Long Parliament and a prominent critic of Kings James I and then Charles I. He was one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest by King Charles I in the House of Commons of England in 1642 sparked the Civil War, in addition to this Pym went ahead and started to accuse William Laud of trying to convert England back to Catholicism. Pym was born in Brymore, Cannington, Somerset, into minor nobility and his father died when he was very young and his mother remarried, to Sir Anthony Rous. Pym was educated in law at Broadgates Hall in 1599 and went on to the Middle Temple in 1602. In May 1614, he married Anne Hooke of Bramshott in Hampshire, aunt of Robert Hooke and daughter of John Hooke and Anthony Rouss sister Barbara, who bore five of his children. This marriage established Pym as a member of the Rous circle and he entered politics through the influence of the Earl of Bedford, working for the Exchequer in Wiltshire before entering Parliament for Calne, Wiltshire in 1614. Despite his Puritanism he gained a reputation in Parliament, although he was relentless in his campaigning against Roman Catholics. After the dissolution of Parliament in 1621 he was one of those placed under house-arrest in January 1622, in 1624 he changed his seat, representing Tavistock, Devon, for the rest of his career. In 1626 he was one of the movers of the attempted impeachment of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. He also supported Edward Coke who presented the Petition of Right to Charles in 1628, Charles I later granted Maynwaring and Sibthorpe royal pardons and signaled his support by naming Sibthorpe a royal chaplain. In the interval between Parliaments he was treasurer of the Providence Island Company from 1630, linking him to a small, intense group of Puritan opponents to the King. In the Short Parliament of 13 April to 4 May 1640 he made one of the speeches that led to its dissolution, what would become the Long Parliament first met in November 1640—Pym had avoided an accusation of treason and rose to leader of the opposition to the king. He was notable in defending the powers of Parliament, he initiated the attacks on the Earl of Strafford and William Laud. It is probable that he used popular supporters to stage riots. However, many moderate Members of Parliament were alienated by the radical momentum, led by the Puritan opposition to Charles I. Pym was one of Five Members sought for arrest when the King entered the House of Commons on 5 January 1642 but, forewarned, they had already fled, to return to some acclamation a week later. This shows how great an emphasis Charles placed on Pyms leadership of the Puritan opposition group, when the English Civil War began in 1642, Pym became involved in solving the financial problems of the Parliamentary side, heading the Committee of Safety from 4 July 1642. These two things laid firm foundations for Parliaments success in 1645–6 because it now had financial and military resources far beyond those of the Royalists, Pym died, probably of cancer, at Derby House on 8 December 1643 and was buried in Westminster Abbey
14.
John Selden
–
John Selden was an English jurist and a scholar of Englands ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath showing true intellectual depth and breadth and he was born at Salvington, in the parish of West Tarring, West Sussex, and was baptised at St Andrews, the parish church. The cottage in which he was survived until 1959 when it was destroyed by a fire caused by an electrical fault. His father, another John Selden, had a small farm, Selden was educated at the free grammar school at Chichester, The Prebendal School, and in 1600 he went on to Hart Hall, Oxford. In 1603 he was admitted to Cliffords Inn, London, in 1604 he moved to the Inner Temple, and in 1612 he was called to the bar. His earliest patron was Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, the antiquary, for some reason, Selden very rarely practised in court, but his practice in chambers as a conveyancer and consulting counsel was large and apparently lucrative. In 1618, his History of Tithes appeared, although it had passed censorship and licensing, this dissertation on the historical basis of the tithe system caused anxiety among the bishops and provoked the intervention of the king. The author was summoned before the Privy Council and was compelled to retract his opinions, also, his work was suppressed, and he was forbidden to reply to anyone who might come forward to answer it. This all seems to have caused Seldens entry into politics and he and several others were imprisoned, at first in the Tower and later under the charge of Sir Robert Ducie, sheriff of London. In 1623 he was returned to the House of Commons for the borough of Lancaster and he was also nominated reader of Lyons Inn, an office he declined to undertake. For this the benchers of the Inner Temple fined him £20, nevertheless, after a few years, he became a master of the bench. In the first parliament of Charles I, it appears from the returns of members printed in 1878 that contrary to the assertion of all his biographers, he had no seat. In Charless second parliament, he was elected for Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, in the following year, in Darnells Case, he was counsel for Sir Edmund Hampden in the Court of Kings Bench. In 1628 he was returned to the parliament of Charles for Ludgershall, Wiltshire. There he remained for eight months, deprived for a part of the time of the use of books and he was then removed, under less rigorous conditions, to the Marshalsea, until Archbishop Laud arranged for him to be freed. Some years before, he had been appointed steward to the Earl of Kent, to seat, Wrest in Bedfordshire. He was not elected to the Short Parliament of 1640, but to the Long Parliament, summoned in the autumn, he was returned without opposition for Oxford University. He opposed the resolution against episcopacy which led to the exclusion of the bishops from the House of Lords and he was equally opposed to the court on the question of the commissions of lieutenancy of array and to the parliament on the question of the militia ordinance
15.
John Eliot (statesman)
–
Sir John Eliot was an English statesman who was serially imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he eventually died, by King Charles I for advocating the rights and privileges of Parliament. The son of Richard Eliot and Bridget Carswell, he was born at Cuddenbeak and he was baptised on 20 April at St Germans Church, immediately next to Port Eliot. The Eliot family were an old Devon family that had settled in Cornwall and he also spent some months travelling in France, Spain and Italy, in company, for part of the time, with young George Villiers, afterwards 1st Duke of Buckingham. Eliot was only twenty-two when he began his career as Member of Parliament for St Germans in the Addled Parliament of 1614. It was not long before the energy with which he performed the duties in his office involved him in difficulties. A few weeks after his release, Eliot was elected Member of Parliament for Newport, in the first Parliament of Charles I, in 1625, he urged the enforcement of the laws against the Roman Catholics. Meanwhile, he had continued the friend and supporter of Buckingham, Buckinghams incompetence, however, and the bad faith with which both he and the King continued to treat the parliament, alienated Eliot. Distrust of his former friend quickly grew in Eliots mind to a certainty of his criminal ambition and he immediately demanded an inquiry into the recent disaster at Cádiz. On 27 March, he made an open and daring attack upon Buckingham and his administration. On 8 May, he was one of the managers who carried Buckinghams impeachment to the Lords and, on 10 May, he delivered the charges against him, next day, Eliot was sent to the Tower. When the Commons declined to proceed with business as long as Eliot and Sir Dudley Digges were in confinement, they were released, in February the great question of the right of the King to levy tonnage and poundage came up for discussion. In consequence, Eliot, with eight members, was imprisoned on 4 March in the Tower. He refused to answer in his examination, relying on his parliamentary privilege and, while some of the prisoners appear to have had certain liberty allowed to them, Eliots confinement in the Tower was made exceptionally severe. In the spring of 1632, he fell into a decline, in October he petitioned Charles for permission to go into the country, but leave could be obtained only at the price of submission and was finally refused. He died of consumption on 27 November 1632, and was buried at St Peters Ad Vincula Church within the Tower. When his son requested permission to move the body to St Germans, Charles refused, saying, Eliot was a great orator, inspired by enthusiasm and high ideals, which he was able to communicate to his hearers by his eloquence. In 1668, the House of Lords reversed his conviction, restating the law in Strodes case, affirming that the conviction. was an illegal judgment, Richard Eliot was the wayward second son of Sir John Eliot and Rhadigund Geddy. Richard went to the University of Oxford at his fathers suggestion and he became embroiled at Oxford in various difficulties, which are mentioned without further detail in his fathers writings
16.
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford
–
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I, from 1632–40 he was Lord Deputy of Ireland, where he established a strong authoritarian rule. Recalled to England, he became an advisor to the King, attempting to strengthen the royal position against Parliament. When Parliament condemned him to death, Charles signed the death warrant, Thomas Wentworth was born on 13 April 1593 in London. He was the son of Sir William Wentworth, of Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham, a member of an old Yorkshire family, in 1622 Wentworths first wife Margaret Clifford died. He represented Pontefract in the Happy Parliament of 1624, but appears to have no active part. He expressed a wish to avoid complications and do first the business of the commonwealth. Yet he had never taken up an attitude of antagonism to the King and his position was very different from that of the regular opposition. He was anxious to serve the Crown, but he disapproved of the Kings policy, in January 1626 Wentworth asked for the presidency of the Council of the North, and was favourably received by Buckingham. In 1627, he refused to contribute to the forced loan, in 1628, Wentworth was one of the more vocal supporters of the Petition of Right, which attempted to curb the power of the King. Once Charles had accepted the Petition, Wentworth felt it appropriate to support the crown, saying The authority of a king is the keystone which closeth up the arch of order and he was consequently branded a turncoat. In the parliament of 1628, Wentworth joined the leaders in resistance to arbitrary taxation and imprisonment. He led the movement for a bill which would have secured the liberties of the subject as completely as the Petition of Right afterwards did, but in a manner less offensive to the King. Later in the session he quarrelled with Eliot, because he wanted to come to a compromise with the Lords, so as to leave room for the King to act unchecked in special emergencies. On 22 July 1628, not long after the prorogation, Wentworth was created Baron Wentworth and this implied no change of principle. When once the breach was made it naturally grew wider, partly from the each party put into its work. As yet Wentworth was not directly involved in the government of the country, however, following the assassination of Buckingham, in December 1628, he became Viscount Wentworth and not long afterwards president of the Council of the North. Whoever, he said, ravels forth into questions the right of a king and of a people shall never be able to wrap them up again into the comeliness and order he found them
17.
Robert Dudley (explorer)
–
Sir Robert Dudley was an English explorer and cartographer. In 1594, he led an expedition to the West Indies, the illegitimate son of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, he inherited the bulk of the Earls estate in accordance with his fathers will, including Kenilworth Castle. In 1603–1605, he tried unsuccessfully to establish his legitimacy in court, after that he left England forever, finding a new existence in the service of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. There, he worked as an engineer and shipbuilder, and designed and published DellArcano del Mare and he was also a skilled navigator and mathematician. In Italy, he styled himself Earl of Warwick and Leicester, as well as Duke of Northumberland, Robert Dudley was the son of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and his lover Douglas Sheffield, daughter of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham. He grew up in the houses of his father and his fathers friends and his mother married Sir Edward Stafford in November 1579, and then left for Paris. Leicester was fond of his son and often made trips to see him, Dudley was given an excellent education and was enrolled at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1587, with the status of filius comitis. There, his mentor was Thomas Chaloner, who became his close friend. His will gave Dudley a large inheritance, including the castle and estate at Kenilworth, and on the death of his uncle, Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, the lordships of Denbigh and Chirk. In early 1591, Dudley was contracted to marry Frances Vavasour with the consent of Queen Elizabeth I, later that year, Vavasour secretly married another man and was banished from court. In turn, the 17-year-old Dudley married Margaret, a sister of Sir Thomas Cavendishs, Dudley was excluded from court for this secret marriage, but only for a few days. Margaret was given two ships by her father Robert, named the Leicester and the Roebuck, in 1594, Dudley assembled a fleet of ships, including his flagship, the galleon Beare, as well as the Beares Whelpe, and the pinnaces Earwig and Frisking. He intended to use them to harass the Spaniards in the Atlantic, the Queen did not approve of his plans, because of his inexperience and the value of the ships. She did commission him as a general but insisted that he sail to Guiana, Dudley recruited 275 veteran sailors, including the navigator Abraham Kendal, and the captains Thomas Jobson and Benjamin Wood. Dudleys fleet sailed on 6 November 1594, but a storm separated the ships. Dudley sent word to the captain of the Beares Whelp to join him in the Canary Islands or Cabo Blanco, at first, Dudleys trip proved unlucky, the Earwig sank, and most of the vessels he encountered were friendly. Dudley led only one raid in the Gulf of Lagos, in December, the expedition finally managed to capture two Spanish ships at Tenerife. Dudley renamed them Intent and Regard, manned them with his sailors and he sailed to Cabo Blanco, expecting to meet the Beares Whelpe there, but it did not show up
18.
Great Britain
–
Great Britain, also known as Britain, is a large island in the north Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2, Great Britain is the largest European island, in 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the worlds third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of it, the island is dominated by a maritime climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island. The term Great Britain often extends to surrounding islands that form part of England, Scotland, and Wales. A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the union of the Kingdom of England, the archipelago has been referred to by a single name for over 2000 years, the term British Isles derives from terms used by classical geographers to describe this island group. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, with the Roman conquest of Britain the Latin term Britannia was used for the island of Great Britain, the oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle, or possibly by Pseudo-Aristotle, in his text On the Universe, Vol. III. To quote his works, There are two large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and Ierne. The name Britain descends from the Latin name for Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The French form replaced the Old English Breoton, Breoten, Bryten, Breten, Britannia was used by the Romans from the 1st century BC for the British Isles taken together. It is derived from the writings of the Pytheas around 320 BC. Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, described the group as αἱ Πρεττανικαὶ νῆσοι. The peoples of these islands of Prettanike were called the Πρεττανοί, Priteni is the source of the Welsh language term Prydain, Britain, which has the same source as the Goidelic term Cruithne used to refer to the early Brythonic-speaking inhabitants of Ireland. The latter were later called Picts or Caledonians by the Romans, the Greco-Egyptian scientist Ptolemy referred to the larger island as great Britain and to Ireland as little Britain in his work Almagest. The name Albion appears to have out of use sometime after the Roman conquest of Britain. After the Anglo-Saxon period, Britain was used as a term only. It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I styled himself King of Great Brittaine, France, Great Britain refers geographically to the island of Great Britain, politically to England, Scotland and Wales in combination
19.
Strand, London
–
Strand is a major thoroughfare in the City of Westminster, Central London. The roads name comes from the Old English strond, meaning the edge of a river, the street was popular with the British upper classes between the 12th and 17th centuries, with many historically important mansions being built between the Strand and the river. These included Essex House, Arundel House, Somerset House, Savoy Palace, Durham House, the aristocracy moved to the West End over the 17th century, following which the Strand became well known for coffee shops, restaurants and taverns. The street was a point for theatre and music hall during the 19th century. At the east end of the street are two churches, St Mary le Strand and St Clement Danes. Several authors, poets and philosophers have lived on or near the Strand, including Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the street has been commemorated in the song Lets All Go Down the Strand, now recognised as a typical piece of Cockney music hall. The street is the link between the two cities of Westminster and London. It runs eastward from Trafalgar Square, parallel to the River Thames, traffic travelling eastbound follows a short crescent around Aldwych, connected at both ends to the Strand. The road marks the boundary of the Covent Garden district. The name was first recorded in 1002 as strondway, then in 1185 as Stronde and it is formed from the Old English word strond, meaning the edge of a river. Initially it referred to the bank of the once much wider Thames. The name was applied to the road itself. In the 13th century it was known as Densemanestret or street of the Danes, Strand Bridge was the name given to Waterloo Bridge during its construction, it was renamed for its official opening on the second anniversary of the coalition victory in the Battle of Waterloo. London Bus routes 6,23,139 and 176 all run along the Strand, as do numerous night bus services. During Roman Britain, what is now the Strand was part of the route to Silchester, known as Iter VIII on the Antonine Itinerary, and it was briefly part of a trading town called Lundenwic that developed around 600 AD, and stretched from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych. Alfred the Great gradually moved the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards, leaving no mark of the old town, and the area returned to fields. In the Middle Ages, the Strand became the route between the separate settlements of the City of London and the royal Palace of Westminster. The landmark Eleanors Cross was built in the 13th century at the end of the Strand at Charing Cross by Edward I commemorating his wife Eleanor of Castile
20.
Ashburnham House
–
Ashburnham House is an extended seventeenth-century house on Little Deans Yard in Westminster, London, United Kingdom, which since 1882 has been part of Westminster School. It is occasionally open to the public, when its staircase, the masonry embrasures in the front room on the ground floor expose the houses mediaeval origins from before the sixteenth-century dissolution of the Monastery, and perhaps from before the Conquest. There has been a building on the site since the eleventh century, the Ashburnham family lived in the house for less than eighty years until John, 1st Earl Ashburnham sold the lease to the Crown in 1730. These books and manuscripts now form the heart of the collections of the British Library, a fire in Ashburnham House on 23 October 1731 damaged many items, a contemporary records Dr. Bentley leaping from a window with the priceless Codex Alexandrinus under one arm. The manuscript of Beowulf was among those that damage, a fact reported in The Gentlemans Magazine. In 1739 the Dean and Chapter bought back the property from the Crown for ₤500, and it reverted to the use of the Priors direct equivalent, the sub-dean. The house was the location of Westminsters first day-house, also known as Ashburnham House
21.
Royal manuscripts, British Library
–
They are still catalogued with call numbers using the prefix Royal in the style Royal MS2. As a collection, the Royal manuscripts date back to Edward IV, the collection was expanded under Henry VIII by confiscations in the Dissolution of the Monasteries and after the falls of Henrys ministers Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell. The date and means of entry into the collection can only be guessed at in many if not most cases, now the collection is closed in the sense that no new items have been added to it since it was donated to the nation. Fortunately the collection escaped relatively lightly in the fire of 1731 at Ashburnham House, the Cotton Library was one of the founding collections of the British Museum in 1753, and four years later the Royal collection was formally donated to the new institution by the king. It moved to the new British Library when this was established in 1973, the 9,000 printed books that formed the majority of the Old Royal Library were not kept as a distinct collection in the way the manuscripts were, and are dispersed among the librarys holdings. A few Anglo-Saxon manuscripts owned by royalty have survived after being presented to the church, among them a Gospel Book, VII, given to Christ Church, Canterbury by King Athelstan in the 920s, which probably rejoined the collection at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. However these works are scattered among a variety of libraries, by the late Middle Ages luxury manuscripts would generally include the heraldry of the commissioner, especially in the case of royalty, which is an important means of identifying the original owner. The careful inventories of the French royal library have no English equivalent until a list compiled at Richmond Palace in 1535, by 1340 there were only 18 books left, although this probably did not include Edwards personal books. The wills of Henrys son, Henry V refer to a Biblia Magna, E. IX, with fine historiated initials illuminated in London by several artists from the school of Herman Scheerre of Cologne. A considerable number of texts were left to family members, staff. Two of Henry Vs younger brothers were notable collectors and he also used the dominant English position in France to buy the French royal library of the Louvre, from which a few examples remain in the Royal manuscripts. About fifty of the Royal manuscripts were acquired by Edward IV and he was not a scholarly man, and had to fight his way to the throne after inheriting the Yorkist claim to the throne at the age of eighteen after his father and elder brother died in battle. He reigned from 1461 until 1470, when machinations among the nobles forced a six-month period of exile in Burgundy. He stayed for some of this period in Bruges at the house of Louis de Gruuthuse, a nobleman in the intimate circle of Philip the Good. Philip had the largest and finest library of illuminated manuscripts in Europe, with perhaps 600, in 1470 his library was in its early stages, but must already have been very impressive for Edward. As well as numbers of miniatures, the borders were decorated in increasingly inventive and elaborate fashion. Many of Edwards manuscripts reflected this taste, like that of Philip, his court displayed an increase in ceremonial formality, and interest in chivalry. Most of his books are popular works in French, with several modern and ancient histories
22.
Richard Bentley
–
Richard Bentley was an English classical scholar, critic, and theologian. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Bentley was the first Englishman to be ranked with the great heroes of classical learning and was known for his literary and textual criticism. Bentley was born at Oulton near Rothwell, Leeds, West Yorkshire and his father was Thomas Bentley of Oulton. His grandfather, Captain James Bentley, had suffered for the Royalist cause following the English Civil War, Bentleys mother, the daughter of a stonemason, had some education, and was able to give her son his first lessons in Latin. After attending grammar school in Wakefield, Bentley was an undergraduate at St Johns College, Cambridge and he afterwards obtained a scholarship and took the degree of B. A. in 1680. He never became a Fellow, but was appointed to be the headmaster of Spalding Grammar School before he was 21, during his six years as tutor, Bentley also made a comprehensive study of Greek and Latin writers, storing up knowledge which he used later. In 1689, Stillingfleet became bishop of Worcester, and Bentleys pupil went to Wadham College, Oxford, Bentley soon met Dr John Mill, Humphrey Hody, and Edward Bernard. Here he studied the manuscripts of the Bodleian, Corpus Christi and he collected material for literary studies. Among these are a corpus of the fragments of the Greek poets, the Oxford press was about to bring out an edition from the unique manuscript of the Greek Chronicle in the Bodleian Library. It was a history of John of Antioch, called John Malalas or John the Rhetor. The editor, Dr John Mill, principal of St Edmund Hall, asked Bentley to review it, Bentley wrote the Epistola ad Johannem Millium, which is about 100 pages included at the end of the Oxford Malalas. This short treatise placed Bentley ahead of all living English scholars, to the small circle of classical students, it was obvious that he was a critic beyond the ordinary. In 1690, Bentley had taken deacons orders, in 1692 he was nominated first Boyle lecturer, a nomination repeated in 1694. He was offered the appointment a third time in 1695 but declined it, in the first series of lectures, he endeavours to present Newtonian physics in a popular form, and to frame them into proof of the existence of an intelligent Creator. He had some correspondence with Newton, then living in Trinity College, Cambridge, the second series, preached in 1694, has not been published and is believed to be lost. After being ordained, Bentley was promoted to a stall in Worcester Cathedral. In 1693 the curator of the library became vacant, and his friends tried to obtain the position for Bentley. The new librarian, a Mr Thynne, resigned in favour of Bentley, in 1695 Bentley received a royal chaplaincy and the living of Hartlebury
23.
Cotton Genesis
–
The Cotton Genesis is a 4th- or 5th-century Greek Illuminated manuscript copy of the Book of Genesis. It was a manuscript with many miniatures. It is one of the oldest illustrated biblical codices to survive to the modern period, most of the manuscript was destroyed in the Cotton library fire in 1731, leaving only eighteen charred, shrunken scraps of vellum. From the remnants, the manuscript appears to have more than 440 pages with approximately 340-360 illustrations that were framed and inserted into the text column. Many miniatures were copied in the 17th century and are now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. The manuscript contains the text of the Book of Genesis on 35 parchment leaves, the original codex contained 165 leaves, in the quarto size. It is written in letters, in one column per page. The nomina sacra usually are written in an abbreviated forms, ΚΣ, ΚΝ, ΘΣ, ΘΝ, for κυριος, κυριον, θεος, the miniatures were executed in a late antique style, retaining classical illusionistic qualities. Herbert Kessler and Kurt Weitzmann argue that the manuscript was produced in Alexandria, according to Tischendorf it was written in the 5th century. The manuscript arrived in England, and was acquired by Sir Robert Cotton in the 17th century and his collection passed to the British Museum. It was brought from Philippi by two Greek bishops, who presented it to King Henry VIII, whom they informed that tradition reported it to have been the identical copy which had belonged to Origen. In 1731, while the codex was at Ashburnham House with the rest of the collection, afterwards the rest of the codex was divided in two parts. One part of it was moved to the British Museum, another to the Bodleian Library, until the middle of the 19th century it was thought to be the oldest manuscript of the Septuagint. According to Thomas Hartwell Horne it was not only the most ancient, according to Swete the manuscript even before the fire had been imperfect. Most of the London fragments of the codex were deciphered and published by Constantin von Tischendorf in 1857, vienna Genesis – another illuminated Greek manuscript of the Book of Genesis Early Christian art and architecture Calkins, Robert G. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages. Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press,1983, alfred Rahlfs, Verzeichnis der griechischen Handschriften des Alten Testaments, für das Septuaginta-Unternehmen, Göttingen 1914, p. 107-108. Constantin von Tischendorf, Monumenta sacra inedita, XIII, XXII-XXXVI, Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Age of spirituality, late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century, no. 408-409,1979, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ISBN9780870991790 Weitzmann, late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination
24.
Codex Alexandrinus
–
The Codex Alexandrinus is a fifth-century manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Septuagint and the New Testament. It is one of the four Great uncial codices, along with the Codex Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus, it is one of the earliest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible. Brian Walton assigned Alexandrinus the capital Latin letter A in the Polyglot Bible of 1657 and this designation was maintained when the system was standardized by Wettstein in 1751. Thus, Alexandrinus held the first position in the manuscript list and it derives its name from Alexandria where it resided for a number of years before it was brought by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Cyril Lucaris from Alexandria to Constantinople. Then it was given to Charles I of England in the 17th century, until the later purchase of Codex Sinaiticus, it was the best manuscript of the Greek Bible deposited in Britain. Today, it rests along with Codex Sinaiticus in one of the showcases in the Ritblat Gallery of the British Library, a full photographic reproduction of the New Testament volume is available on the British Librarys website. As the text came from different traditions, different parts of the codex are not of equal textual value. The text has been edited several times since the 18th century, the codex is in quarto, and now consists of 773 vellum folios, bound in four volumes. Three volumes contain the Septuagint, Greek version of the Old Testament, the fourth volume contains the New Testament with 31 NT leaves lost. In the fourth volume 1 and 2 Clement are also missing leaves, the codex contains a nearly complete copy of the LXX, including the deuterocanonical books 3 and 4 Maccabees, Psalm 151 and the 14 Odes. The Epistle to Marcellinus attributed to Saint Athanasius and the Eusebian summary of the Psalms are inserted before the Book of Psalms and it also contains all of the books of the New Testament. In addition, the codex contains 1 Clement and the known as 2 Clement. The books of the Old Testament are thus distributed, Genesis —2 Chronicles, Hosea —4 Maccabees, the New Testament books follow in order, Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, General epistles, Pauline epistles, Book of Revelation. Damaged, Gen 14, 14-17,15, 1-5,15, 16-19,16, 6-9, Defects due to leaves, Genesis 1, 20-25,1, 29-2,3, Lev 8,6,7,16, Sirach 50, 21f,51,5. The ornamented colophon of the Epistle to Philemon has been cut out, the manuscript measures 12.6 ×10.4 inches and most of the folios were originally gathered into quires of eight leaves each. In modern times it was rebound into sets of six leaves each, the text in the codex is written in two columns in uncial script, with between 49 and 51 lines per column and 20 to 25 letters per line. The beginning lines of each book are written in red ink, words are written continuously in a large, round and well-formed uncial hand. There are no accents and breathing marks, except a few added by a later hand, the punctuation was written by the first hand
25.
Charlotte Clayton, Baroness Sundon
–
Charlotte Clayton, Baroness Sundon was a British Lady in Waiting. Charlotte Dyce was a woman of the bedchamber to Queen Caroline from 1714 until 1737 and she was the granddaughter of Sir Lewis Dyve of Bromham in Bedfordshire. She married William Clayton, a Treasury official, at some date before 1715, in 1735 she became Lady Sundon when her husband was made first Baron Sundon. She enjoyed a lot of influence with the Queen and she was mistrusted by Robert Walpole who suspected that it was her opinions that were making the Queen uncooperative and it was alleged that she even proposed that she and Walpole could rule the country
26.
Westminster School
–
Westminster School is an English independent day and boarding school located within the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It has the highest Oxford and Cambridge university acceptance rates of any school or college in the world. With origins before the 12th century, the tradition of Westminster probably dates back as far as AD960. Boys are admitted to the Under School at age seven and to the school at age thirteen. The school has around 750 pupils, around a quarter are boarders, most of whom go home at weekends and it is one of the original seven public schools as defined by the Public Schools Act 1868. Charging up to £7,800 per term for day pupils and £11,264 for boarders in 2014/15, Westminster is the 13th most expensive HMC day school and 10th most expensive HMC boarding school in the UK. In 1540, Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in England, including that of the powerful Abbots of Westminster, the Royal College of St. Peter carried on with forty Kings Scholars financed from the royal purse. By this point Westminster School had certainly become a public school, during Mary Is brief reign the Abbey was reinstated as a Roman Catholic monastery, but the school continued. Elizabeth I refounded the School in 1560, with new statutes to select 40 Queens Scholars from boys who had attended the school for a year. Queen Elizabeth frequently visited her scholars, although she never signed the statutes nor endowed her scholarships, Elizabeth I appointed William Camden as headmaster, and he is the only layman known to have held the position until 1937. Regardless of politics, he thrashed Royalist and Puritan boys alike without fear or favour, Busby also took part in Oliver Cromwells funeral procession in 1658, when Robert Uvedale, a Westminster schoolboy, succeeded in snatching the Majesty Scutcheon draped on the coffin. Busby remained in office throughout the Civil War and the Commonwealth, when the school was governed by Parliamentary Commissioners, and well into the Restoration. In 1679, a group of scholars killed a bailiff, ostensibly in defence of the Abbeys traditional right of sanctuary, dr Busby obtained a royal pardon for his scholars from Charles II and added the cost to the school bills. Until the 19th century, the curriculum was made up of Latin and Greek. After the Public Schools Act 1868, in response to the Clarendon Commission on the financial and other malpractices at nine pre-eminent public schools, the school began to approach its modern form. It was legally separated from the Abbey, although the organisations remain close, there followed a scandalous public and parliamentary dispute lasting a further 25 years, to settle the transfer of the properties from the Canons of the Abbey to the School. School statutes have been made by Order in Council of Queen Elizabeth II, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford and the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge are ex officio members of the schools governing body. Westminster Under School was formed in 1943 in the school buildings in Westminster
27.
The Battle of Maldon
–
The Battle of Maldon is the name given to an Old English poem of uncertain date celebrating the real Battle of Maldon of 991, at which the Anglo-Saxons failed to prevent a Viking invasion. Only 325 lines of the poem are extant, both the beginning and the ending are lost, the poem is told entirely from the perspective of the English, and names many individuals that Mitchell and Robinson believe were real Englishmen. The poem as we have it begins with the Anglo-Saxon warriors dismounting to prepare for battle, a Viking messenger offers the English ealdorman Byrhtnoth peace if he will consent to pay tribute. Byrhtnoth angrily refuses, telling the messenger that he fight the heathen Vikings in defense of his land. Not all the English are portrayed as heroic however, one, Godric the son of Odda, flees the battle with his brothers and, most improperly, the poem as it has come down to us ends with another Godric disappearing from view. This time, it is Godric, the son of Æthelgar, advancing into a body of Vikings, ofermōde, occurring in line 89, has caused much discussion. Literally high spirits or overconfidence, ofermōde is usually translated as pride, both Glenn and Alexander translate it as arrogance and Bradley as extravagant spirit. In 1731, the only manuscript of the poem was destroyed in the fire at Ashburnham House that also damaged and destroyed several other works in the Cotton library. The poem has come down to us thanks to the transcription of it made c,1724, which was published by Thomas Hearne in 1726. After being lost, the transcription was found in the Bodleian Library in the 1930s. Who made this original transcription is still unclear, some favouring John Elphinstone, according to some scholars, the poem must have been written close to the events that it depicts, given the historical concreteness and specificity of the events depicted in the poem. According to Irving, the events told with such clarity could only have been composed shortly after the events had taken place. While this may seem strange to an audience, who are used to “realistic fiction. Niles, in his essay “Maldon and Mythopoesis”, also argues for a composition date. He states that the three references to Æthelred the Unready necessitate an early composition date, before Æthelred had achieved his reputation for ineffectiveness. This argument hinges upon Byrhtnoth’s, and the poet’s, degree of knowledge of Aethelred’s ill reputation, if Byrhtnoth had known of Aethelred’s nature, would he have been willing to sacrifice himself for an undeserving king, effectively throwing away his own life and those of his men. Niles indicates that this not appear to be supportable through the actions. Apparently Byrhtnoth did not know of the nature, and most likely the poet himself did not know of the king’s nature either
28.
Iconography
–
The word iconography comes from the Greek εἰκών and γράφειν. A secondary meaning is the production of images, called icons, in the Byzantine and Orthodox Christian tradition. In art history, an iconography may also mean a depiction of a subject in terms of the content of the image, such as the number of figures used, their placing. Sometimes distinctions have been made between iconology and iconography, although the definitions, and so the distinction made, varies, when referring to movies, genres are immediately recognizable through their iconography, motifs that become associated with a specific genre through repetition. Gian Pietro Bellori, a 17th-century biographer of artists of his own time, describes and analyses, not always correctly, many works. Lessings study of the classical figure Amor with a torch was an early attempt to use a study of a type of image to explain the culture it originated in. These early contributions paved the way for encyclopedias, manuals, mâles lArt religieux du XIIIe siècle en France translated into English as The Gothic Image, Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century has remained continuously in print. In the United States, to which Panofsky immigrated in 1931, students such as Frederick Hartt, the period from 1940 can be seen as one where iconography was especially prominent in art history. These are now being digitised and made online, usually on a restricted basis. For example, the Iconclass code 71H7131 is for the subject of Bathsheba with Davids letter, whereas 71 is the whole Old Testament and 71H the story of David. A number of collections of different types have been classified using Iconclass, notably types of old master print, the collections of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. These are available, usually on-line or on DVD, the system can also be used outside pure art history, for example on sites like Flickr. Central to the iconography and hagiography of Indian religions are mudra or gestures with specific meanings, the symbolic use of colour to denote the Classical Elements or Mahabhuta and letters and bija syllables from sacred alphabetic scripts are other features. Under the influence of art developed esoteric meanings, accessible only to initiates. The art of Indian Religions esp, for example, Narasimha an incarnation of Vishnu though considered a wrathful deity but in few contexts is depicted in pacified mood. Conversely, in Hindu art, narrative scenes have become more common in recent centuries, especially in miniature paintings of the lives of Krishna. Eventually the Church would succeed in weeding most of these out, after the period of Byzantine iconoclasm iconographical innovation was regarded as unhealthy, if not heretical, in the Eastern Church, though it still continued at a glacial pace. More than in the West, traditional depictions were often considered to have authentic or miraculous origins, the Eastern church also never accepted the use of monumental high relief or free-standing sculpture, which it found too reminiscent of paganism
29.
Speaker (politics)
–
The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer. The title was first used in 1399 in England, the speakers official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the powers to members who break the procedures of the chamber or house. The speaker often also represents the body in person, as the voice of the body in ceremonial, the title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerford in the Parliament of England. By convention, speakers are normally addressed in Parliament as Mister Speaker, if a man, or Madam Speaker, in other cultures other styles are used, mainly being equivalents of English chairman or president. Many bodies also have a pro tempore, designated to fill in when the speaker is not available. The Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives is the officer of the Australian House of Representatives. The President of the Australian Senate is the officer of the Australian Senate. Now constitutional community highlights changes also in this role, in Canada, the Speaker of the House of Commons is the individual elected to preside over the House of Commons, the elected lower house. The speaker is a Member of Parliament and is elected at the beginning of new parliament by fellow MPs. The Speakers role in presiding over Canadas House of Commons is similar to that of speakers elsewhere in countries that use the Westminster system. The Speaker does not vote except in the case of a tie, by convention, if required to vote, the Speaker will vote in favour of continuing debate on a matter, but will not ultimately vote for a measure to be approved. The Speaker of the Senate of Canada is the officer of the Senate of Canada. The Speaker represents the Senate at official functions, rules on questions of procedure and parliamentary privilege. The Speaker of the Senate is appointed by the Governor General of Canada from amongst sitting senators upon the advice of the Prime Minister, the Speaker has a vote on all matters. In the event of a tie, the matter fails, at the provincial level, the presiding officer of the provincial legislatures is called the Speaker in all provinces except Quebec, where the term President is used. The presiding officer fulfills the role as the Speaker of the House of Commons. In the United Kingdom, the Speaker of the House of Commons is the elected to preside over the elected House of Commons
30.
Arthur Onslow
–
Arthur Onslow PC was an English politician. He set a record for length of service when repeatedly elected to serve as Speaker of the House of Commons, Onslow was born in Kensington, the elder son of Foot Onslow and his wife Susannah née Anlaby. He was educated at The Royal Grammar School, Guildford and Winchester College and matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford in 1708 and he was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1713, but had no great practice in law. When George I came to the throne, Onslows uncle Sir Richard Onslow was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, when Richard left office in 1715, Arthur obtained a place as receiver general of the Post Office. He became Recorder of Guildford in 1719, as his Post Office position was not compatible with a parliamentary seat, he passed it on to his younger brother Richard when he entered Parliament in 1720 for Guildford. On 8 October 1720, Onslow married Anne Bridges, daughter of John Bridges of Thames Ditton, Surrey, and the niece and coheir of Henry Bridges of Imber Court. After his father-in-law died in the mid-1720s, Onslow came into the estate, which had increased through the addition of the holding of Anns sister, Rose. Inheriting estates from his wifes family considerably improved Onslows financial position, Onslow made Imber Court in Thames Ditton his principal seat. Onslow and Anne had two children, George Onslow, 1st Earl of Onslow Anne Onslow In February 1720, Onslow had been returned as Whig Member of Parliament for Guildford at a by-election and he represented that borough until Parliament was dissolved in 1727. During this period, he was known to have declared against a proposal to levy Roman Catholics in 1722, in 1726, he was one of the Commons managers for the trial of Macclesfield for corruption. On 23 January 1728, Onslow was unanimously elected Speaker of the House of Commons and he would be unanimously re-elected Speaker in 1735,1741,1747 and 1754, setting a record for length of service in that office. On 25 July 1728, he was sworn of the Privy Council, the following year, on 13 May 1729, he was made Chancellor and Keeper of the Great Seal to Queen Caroline, who was godmother to his son George in 1731. Onslows speakership was distinguished by his integrity in a corrupt. His great achievement as Speaker was to assert the independence, authority, while he continued to participate in ordinary political activity, speaking and voting in committee, he did not hesitate to oppose Government policy when necessary. Onslow saw his role to be the protection and defense of Parliament in the established by the Glorious Revolution. He insisted on rigidly observing parliamentary forms and procedure, which he viewed as a protection to independent MPs, but his devotion to precedent led him to condemn the reporting of parliamentary debates as breach of privilege. On 20 April 1734, Onslow received the office of Treasurer of the Navy. In 1742, after casting his vote on a political issue
31.
Creative Commons
–
Creative Commons is an American non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses free of charge to the public and these licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. An easy-to-understand one-page explanation of rights, with associated visual symbols, Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright, but are based upon it. The result is an agile, low-overhead and low-cost copyright-management regime, Wikipedia uses one of these licenses. The organization was founded in 2001 by Lawrence Lessig, Hal Abelson, the first article in a general interest publication about Creative Commons, written by Hal Plotkin, was published in February 2002. The first set of licenses was released in December 2002. In 2003 the Open Content Project, a 1998 precursor project by David A. Wiley, announced the Creative Commons as successor project, matthew Haughey and Aaron Swartz also played a role in the early stages of the project. As of January 2016 there were an estimated 1.1 billion works licensed under the various Creative Commons licenses, as of March 2015, Flickr alone hosts over 306 million Creative Commons licensed photos. Creative Commons is governed by a board of directors and their licenses have been embraced by many as a way for creators to take control of how they choose to share their copyrighted works. Beyond that, Creative Commons has provided institutional, practical and legal support for individuals and groups wishing to experiment, Creative Commons attempts to counter what Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, considers to be a dominant and increasingly restrictive permission culture. Lessig describes this as a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, as of 2017, they are Paul Keller, Jonathan Nightingale, Chris Thorne. As of 2015, there are more than 100 affiliates working in over 75 jurisdictions to support, Creative Commons Korea is the affiliated network of Creative Commons in South Korea. In March 2005, CC Korea was initiated by Jongsoo Yoon, the major Korean portal sites, including Daum and Naver, have been participating in the use of Creative Commons licences. In January 2009, the Creative Commons Korea Association was consequently founded as an incorporated association. Since then, CC Korea has been promoting the liberal. Since March 15,2012 he has been detained by the Syrian government in Damascus at Adra Prison, on October 17,2015 Creative Commons Board of Directors approved a resolution calling for Bassel Khartabil release. All current CC licenses require attribution, which can be inconvenient for works based on other works. Critics also worried that the lack of rewards for content producers will dissuade artists from publishing their work, Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig countered that copyright laws have not always offered the strong and seemingly indefinite protection that todays law provides
32.
British Museum
–
The British Museum is dedicated to human history, art and culture, and is located in the Bloomsbury area of London. The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician, the museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. Although today principally a museum of art objects and antiquities. Its foundations lie in the will of the Irish-born British physician, on 7 June 1753, King George II gave his formal assent to the Act of Parliament which established the British Museum. They were joined in 1757 by the Old Royal Library, now the Royal manuscripts, together these four foundation collections included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving copy of Beowulf. The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public, sloanes collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary, the body of trustees decided on a converted 17th-century mansion, Montagu House, as a location for the museum, which it bought from the Montagu family for £20,000. The Trustees rejected Buckingham House, on the now occupied by Buckingham Palace, on the grounds of cost. With the acquisition of Montagu House the first exhibition galleries and reading room for scholars opened on 15 January 1759. During the few years after its foundation the British Museum received several gifts, including the Thomason Collection of Civil War Tracts. A list of donations to the Museum, dated 31 January 1784, in the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays. Gifts and purchases from Henry Salt, British consul general in Egypt, beginning with the Colossal bust of Ramesses II in 1818, many Greek sculptures followed, notably the first purpose-built exhibition space, the Charles Towneley collection, much of it Roman Sculpture, in 1805. In 1816 these masterpieces of art, were acquired by The British Museum by Act of Parliament. The collections were supplemented by the Bassae frieze from Phigaleia, Greece in 1815, the Ancient Near Eastern collection also had its beginnings in 1825 with the purchase of Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities from the widow of Claudius James Rich. The neoclassical architect, Sir Robert Smirke, was asked to draw up plans for an extension to the Museum. For the reception of the Royal Library, and a Picture Gallery over it, and put forward plans for todays quadrangular building, much of which can be seen today. The dilapidated Old Montagu House was demolished and work on the Kings Library Gallery began in 1823, the extension, the East Wing, was completed by 1831. The Museum became a site as Sir Robert Smirkes grand neo-classical building gradually arose
33.
Hans Sloane
–
His name was later used for streets and places such as Hans Place, Hans Crescent and Sloane Square in London, and also to Sir Hans Sloane Square in his birthplace, Killyleagh. Sloane was born on 16 April 1660 at Killyleagh in County Down and he was the seventh son of Alexander Sloane, agent for James Hamilton, second Viscount Claneboye and later first Earl of Clanbrassil. Sloanes family had migrated from Ayrshire in Scotland, but settled in the north of Ireland under James I and his father died when he was six years old. As a youth, Sloane collected objects of natural history and other curiosities and this led him to the study of medicine, which he went to London, where he studied botany, materia medica, surgery and pharmacy. His collecting habits made him useful to John Ray and Robert Boyle, after four years in London he travelled through France, spending some time at Paris and Montpellier, and stayed long enough at the University of Orange-Nassau to take his MD degree there in 1683. He returned to London with a collection of plants and other curiosities, of which the former were sent to Ray. Sloane was elected to the Royal Society in 1685, at the same time attracted the notice of Thomas Sydenham, who gave him valuable introductions to practice. Jamaica was fast emerging as a source of profit to British merchants based on the cultivation of sugar. He became secretary to the Royal Society in 1693, and edited the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for twenty years, Sloane married Elizabeth Langley Rose, the widow of Fulke Rose of Jamaica, and daughter of alderman John Langley. They had three daughters, Mary, Sarah and Elizabeth, and one son, Hans, of the four children only Sarah and Elizabeth survived infancy. Sarah married George Stanley of Paultons and Elizabeth married Charles Cadogan, Sloane encountered cacao while he was in Jamaica, where the locals drank it mixed with water, though he is reported to have found it nauseating. Many recipes for mixing chocolate with spice, eggs, sugar, after returning from Jamaica, Sloane may have devised his own recipe for mixing chocolate with milk, though if so, he was not the first. By the 1750s, a Soho grocer named Nicholas Sanders claimed to be selling Sloanes recipe as a medicinal elixir, by the nineteenth century, the Cadbury Brothers sold tins of drinking chocolate whose trade cards also invoked Sloanes recipe. His practice as a physician among the classes was large, fashionable. He served three successive sovereigns, Queen Anne, George I and George II, in 1716, Sloane was created a baronet, making him the first medical practitioner to receive a hereditary title. In 1719 he became president of the Royal College of Physicians, in 1722, he was appointed physician-general to the army, and in 1727 first physician to George II. In 1727 he succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as president of the Royal Society and he was a founding governor of Londons Foundling Hospital, the nations first institution to care for abandoned children. Sloanes fame is based on his judicious investments rather than what he contributed to the subject of science or even of his own profession
34.
Harleian Library
–
The Harleian Library, Harley Collection, Harleian Collection and other variants is one of the main closed collections of the British Library in London. The collection is 7660 manuscripts, including 2200 illuminated manuscripts, more than 14,000 original legal documents and it was formed by Robert Harley and his son Edward. In 1753, it was purchased for £10,000 by the British government, together with the collections of Sir Robert Cotton and Hans Sloane it formed the basis of the British Museums collection of manuscripts, which moved to the new British Library in 1973. The collection contains illuminated manuscripts spanning the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance, there are important early British manuscripts, many from Western Europe, and several Byzantine manuscripts in Greek and other languages. 7334 Harleian prayerbook Cotton Library British Library Journal vol.15 is devoted to Robert Harley, C. E. and C. R. Wright, eds. The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715–1726,2 vols, the foundation collections at the Catalogue of Illuminated manuscripts List of medicine and alchemist manuscripts PDF,192 KB Trilingual Psalter Harley Bestiary The Book of Nunnaminster
35.
Vitellius
–
Vitellius was Roman Emperor for eight months, from 16 April to 22 December AD69. Vitellius was proclaimed emperor following the succession of the previous emperors Galba and Otho. His claim to the throne was challenged by legions stationed in the eastern provinces. War ensued, leading to a defeat for Vitellius at the Second Battle of Bedriacum in northern Italy. Once he realised his support was wavering, Vitellius prepared to abdicate in favor of Vespasian but was executed in Rome by Vespasians soldiers on 22 December 69 and he was the son of Lucius Vitellius Veteris and his wife Sextilia, and had one brother, Lucius Vitellius the Younger. Suetonius recorded two different accounts of the origins of the Vitellia, one making them descendants of past rulers of Latium, Suetonius makes the sensible remark that both accounts might have been made by either flatterers or enemies of Vitellius—except that both were in circulation before Vitellius became emperor. Suetonius also recorded that when Vitellius was born his horoscope so horrified his parents that his father tried to prevent Aulus from becoming a consul. He married secondly, around the year 50, a woman named Galeria Fundana, perhaps the granddaughter of Gaius Galerius, Prefect of Egypt in 23. They had two children, a son called Aulus Vitellius Germanicus or Novis, the Younger, and a daughter, Vitellia, who married the Legatus Decimus Valerius Asiaticus. He was Consul in 48, and assumed Proconsul of Africa in either 60 or 61 and he owed his elevation to the throne to Caecina and Fabius Valens, commanders of two legions on the Rhine. More accurately, he was proclaimed Emperor of the armies of Germania Inferior and Superior, the armies of Gaul, Brittania and Raetia sided with them shortly afterwards. By the time that they marched on Rome, however, it was Otho, and not Galba, in fact, he was never acknowledged as Emperor by the entire Roman world, though at Rome the Senate accepted him and decreed to him the usual Imperial honours. He advanced into Italy at the head of a licentious and rough soldiery, to reward his victorious legionaries, Vitellius disbanded the existing Praetorian Guard and installed his own men instead. For these banquets, he had himself invited over to a different nobles house for each one, other writers, namely Tacitus and Cassius Dio, disagree with some of Suetonius assertions, even though their own accounts of Vitellius are scarcely positive ones. Despite his short reign he made two important contributions to Roman government which outlasted him and he also expanded the offices of the Imperial Administration beyond the imperial pool of Freedmen allowing those of the Equites to take up positions in the Imperial Civil Service. Vitellius also banned astrologers from Rome and Italy on 1 October,69, some astrologers responded to his decree by anonymously publishing a decree of their own, Decreed by all astrologers in blessing on our State Vitellius will be no more on the appointed date. In response, Vitellius executed any astrologers he came across, in July 69, Vitellius learned that the armies of the eastern provinces had proclaimed a rival emperor, their commander, Titus Flavius Vespasianus. As soon as it was known that the armies of the East, Dalmatia, Tacitus Histories state that Vitellius awaited Vespasians army at Mevania
36.
Nowell Codex
–
The Nowell Codex is the second of two manuscripts found in the bound volume Cotton Vitellius A. xv, one of the four major Anglo-Saxon poetic manuscripts. It is most famous as the containing the unique copy of the epic poem Beowulf. Due to the fame of Beowulf, the Nowell codex is also known simply as the Beowulf manuscript. The manuscript is located within the British Library with the rest of the Cotton collection, the current codex is a composite of at least two manuscripts, the first manuscript and the second manuscript. The main division is into two totally distinct books which were not bound together until the 17th century. The first of these, originally owned by the Southwick Priory, dates from the 12th century and it is the second, older manuscript that is more famous. This second manuscript is known as the Nowell codex, after Laurence Nowell, whose name is inscribed on its first page, at some point it was combined with the first codex. It was then acquired by Sir Robert Cotton, in his library, it was placed on the first shelf as the 15th manuscript of the bookcase that had a bust of Vitellius, giving the collection its name. The Nowell codex is dated around the turn of the first millennium. Recent editions have specified a date in the decade after 1000. Vitellius A. xv was heavily damaged in 1731 when a partially destroyed the Cotton library. The second codex begins with three works, a life of Saint Christopher, Wonders of the East, and a translation of a Letter of Alexander to Aristotle. These are followed by Beowulf, which takes up the bulk of the volume, and Judith, the somewhat eclectic contents of this codex have led to much critical debate over why these particular works were chosen for inclusion. One theory which has gained considerable currency is that the compiler saw a thematic link, Anglo-Saxon literature Beowulf Caedmon manuscript Exeter Book Liber Monstrorum Vercelli Book R. D. Fulk, ed. and trans. The Beowulf Manuscript, Complete Texts and The Fight at Finnsburg, ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press. Originally published by Rutgers, State University of New Jersey Press,1981, full digital coverage of the manuscript on the British Librarys Digitised Manuscripts website
37.
Nero
–
Nero was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, during his reign, the redoubtable general Corbulo conducted a successful war and negotiated peace with the Parthian Empire. His general Suetonius Paulinus crushed a revolt in Britain, Nero annexed the Bosporan Kingdom to the empire and may have begun the First Jewish–Roman War. In 64 AD, most of Rome was destroyed in the Great Fire of Rome, Suetonius, writing a generation later, claims that many Romans believed Nero himself had started the fire, in order to clear land for his planned palatial complex, the Domus Aurea. In 68, the rebellion of Vindex in Gaul and later the acclamation of Galba in Hispania drove Nero from the throne, facing a false report of being denounced as a public enemy who was to be executed, he committed suicide on 9 June 68. His death ended the Julio-Claudian dynasty, sparking a period of civil wars known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Neros rule is often associated with tyranny and extravagance and he is known for many executions, including that of his mother, and the probable murder by poison of his stepbrother Britannicus. Nero was rumored to have had captured Christians dipped in oil and this view is based on the writings of Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio, the main surviving sources for Neros reign, but a few sources paint Nero in a more favourable light. Some sources, including some mentioned above, portray him as an emperor who was popular with the common Roman people, some modern historians question the reliability of ancient sources when reporting on Neros tyrannical acts. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero, was born on 15 December 37 in Antium and he was the only son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger, sister of Emperor Caligula. Neros father, Gnaeus, was the son of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Gnaeus was thus the grandson of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and probably Aemilia Lepida on his fathers side, and the grandson of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor on his mothers side. Thus, Nero had as his paternal grandmother Antonia Major, through Octavia, Nero was the great-nephew of Caesar Augustus. Neros father had employed as a praetor and was a member of Caligulas staff when the latter travelled to the East. Neros father was described by Suetonius as a murderer and a cheat who was charged by Emperor Tiberius with treason, adultery, Tiberius died, allowing him to escape these charges. Neros father died of edema in 39 when Nero was two, Neros mother was Agrippina the Younger, a great-granddaughter of Caesar Augustus and his wife Scribonia through their daughter Julia the Elder and her husband Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Agrippinas father, Germanicus, was a grandson of Augustuss wife, Livia, on one side and Mark Antony, Germanicus mother Antonia Minor was a daughter of Octavia Minor and Mark Antony. Germanicus was also the son of Tiberius. Agrippina poisoned her second husband Passienus Crispus, so many ancient historians also accuse her of murdering her third husband, the emperor Claudius
38.
Pearl Poet
–
The Pearl Poet, or the Gawain Poet, is the name given to the author of Pearl, an alliterative poem written in 14th-century Middle English. Its author appears also to have written the poems Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Patience, save for the last, all these works are known from a single surviving manuscript, the British Library holding Cotton Nero A. x. This body of work includes some of the most well-regarded poetry written in Middle English, some scholarship has argued to assign the poem to one John Massey, a member of the landed gentry from Cheshire. This attribution of the poems of Cotton Nero A. x is not widely accepted, however, reflected in the ongoing use of the labels Pearl Poet or Gawain Poet. All four poems of the Cotton Nero A. x manuscript are in the same Middle English dialect, localised to the area of north-western Staffordshire and south-eastern Cheshire, in the English Midlands. This may merely indicate the dialect of the responsible for copying the poems. Any other information must be deduced from the themes, as there is neither a definite authorial attribution within them nor any tradition as to the authors identity. However, the writer of the Cotton Nero A, despite this, the Pearl Poet must have been educated and probably of a certain social standing, perhaps a member of a family of landed gentry. J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V, the Pearl Poet began writing during a time that newly emerging English literature and language was beginning to take hold. This new literature drew upon three older traditions which were Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, and continental, the poets writing was also influenced by contemporary political and social surroundings during the 14th century. Enough features survive, however, that even those people unable to read the poems in the translation are able to profit from the knowledge of the verse forms. In Latin, Purity, Patience, and Pearl show the Pearl Poets knowledge of the Vulgate Bible, in Pearl, the poet shows clear knowledge of not only the Apocalypse of St. John, but also many other parts of the Bible. It is possible that the poet consulted Latin commentaries on the Apocalypse, what most interested the poet, however, was the literal sense of Biblical sources as opposed to their typological or allegorical significance. Pearl also shows the poets understanding of mystical theology, there is no need to suggest any extraordinary learning on the poets part, most of the devotional writings were widely and easily understood. It is difficult to find evidence that the shared knowledge of classical poets, such as Virgil and Ovid. The chronology of the revival in which these works are a significant part of cannot be established with any precision. It is assumed that the revival began in the south-west midlands, while Cheshire monasteries were not as well endowed as those in the south-west midlands, they would have included the main Latin works used as sources by the alliterative poets. Dating the works written by the Gawain-poet is most problematic because the works could have written as early as the 1360s or as late as the manuscript itself
39.
Magna Carta
–
Magna Carta Libertatum, commonly called Magna Carta, is a charter agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. Neither side stood behind their commitments, and the charter was annulled by Pope Innocent III, at the end of the 16th century there was an upsurge in interest in Magna Carta. Lawyers and historians at the believed that there was an ancient English constitution, going back to the days of the Anglo-Saxons. Both James I and his son Charles I attempted to suppress the discussion of Magna Carta, until the issue was curtailed by the English Civil War of the 1640s and the execution of Charles. The political myth of Magna Carta and its protection of ancient personal liberties persisted after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 until well into the 19th century. In the 21st century, four exemplifications of the original 1215 charter remain in existence, held by the British Library, there are also a handful of the subsequent charters in public and private ownership, including copies of the 1297 charter in both the United States and Australia. The original charters were written on parchment sheets using quill pens, in heavily abbreviated medieval Latin, each was sealed with the royal great seal, very few of the seals have survived. The four original 1215 charters were displayed together at the British Library for one day,3 February 2015, to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. Magna Carta originated as an attempt to achieve peace between royalist and rebel factions in 1215, as part of the events leading to the outbreak of the First Barons War. England was ruled by King John, the third of the Angevin kings, although the kingdom had a robust administrative system, the nature of government under the Angevin monarchs was ill-defined and uncertain. Following the defeat of his allies at the Battle of Bouvines, John had to sue for peace, John was already personally unpopular with many of the barons, many of whom owed money to the Crown, and little trust existed between the two sides. John held a council in London in January 1215 to discuss potential reforms, both sides appealed to Pope Innocent III for assistance in the dispute. John also began recruiting mercenary forces from France, although some were sent back to avoid giving the impression that the King was escalating the conflict. Letters backing John arrived from the Pope in April, but by then the rebel barons had organised into a military faction and they congregated at Northampton in May and renounced their feudal ties to John, marching on London, Lincoln, and Exeter. Johns efforts to moderate and conciliatory had been largely successful. The King offered to submit the problem to a committee of arbitration with the Pope as the supreme arbiter, John met the rebel leaders at Runnymede, a water-meadow on the south bank of the River Thames, on 10 June 1215. Here the rebels presented John with their demands for reform. By 15 June, general agreement had been made on a text, and on 19 June and it focused on the rights of free men—in particular the barons
40.
Exemplified copy
–
The People of the State of New York. Exemplifications can only be attested and executed by either the authority holding the record or the issuing authority, exemplified copies are also usually an extract or transcript made directly from the original. g. Fair copy, imitative copy, and so forth, certified copies of birth and death records from New York City, Los Angeles, Georgia, and in certain other locations in the US can, if requested, be accompanied by a letter of exemplification. This is the first step in a process leading to authentication or an apostille, in Canada and Australia and certain other common-law jurisdictions, exemplifications may be made of any official document by a notary public. More specifically, the term refers to a copy of a legal pleading in its entirety. In this sense it is known as a triple certificate or 3-way certificate. Its authenticity is sworn to by the clerk of the court where the judgement was rendered and counter-authenticated by the judicial officer of that Court. The clerk then swears to the authenticity of the signature, incumbency. The certificate page with the authentication is called the exemplification. A copy of this type is required by other states and countries when copies are being submitted for filing in their local court. Certified copy Examples of exemplification pages from United States courts
41.
Huchoun
–
Huchoun or Huchown of the Awle Ryale is a poet conjectured to have been writing sometime in the 14th century. Current opinion is that there is evidence to support this. The little that is known about Huchoun comes from the Chronicle of Andrew of Wyntoun and he made a gret Gest of Arthure And þe Awntyr of Gawane, Þe Pistil als of Suet Susane. He was curyousse in his stille, Fayr of facunde and subtile, And ay to pleyssance hade delyte, interest in the otherwise unknown figure of Huchoun - a diminutive form of Hugh, i. e. Of the works Andrew of Wyntoun mentions, the easiest to identify was Þe Pistil als of Suet Susane and this has been fairly firmly associated with The Pistel of Swete Susan, an alliterative poem surviving in 5 manuscripts. The Gest of Arthure, also called Gest Historyalle and described by Wyntoun, has been tentatively identified as the well-known Alliterative Morte Arthure. The Awntyr of Gawane is less certain, Neilson advanced that it represented the great alliterative work Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Huchoun was therefore also credited with Patience, Pearl, and Cleanness. The fact that a hand had written Hugo de at the head of the manuscript of these works was also taken as supporting evidence. Beyond the matter of what he may have written, who Huchoun was is uncertain, william Dunbar, in his Lament for the Makaris, mentions a poet called gude Sir Hew of Eglyntoun, whose works are now lost. Hugh of Eglington was a knight who was brother-in-law to Robert II of Scotland, the biggest problem with this identification is that the poems ascribed by Neilson to Huchoun / Hugh of Eglington are of varying dialects, none of them Scottish. Even the poem most likely to be authentically Huchouns own work, two possibilities suggested by Neilson are that a Scottish poet wrote in a southern dialect, perhaps after being educated in England, or that the Scotticisms were translated by later scribes. Other candidates for Huchoun from different parts of England have much less detailed evidence to prove their case. Current academic opinion takes the line that Huchoun, if he existed, may have written swete Susan, the Oxford Companion to English Literature. Ward and Trent, eds. et al, the Cambridge history of English and American literature, An encyclopedia in eighteen volumes
