Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
John Leland (antiquary)
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Library tours, 1533–36== In 1533, the king appears to have entrusted Leland with a document, "a moste gratius commission" (or ''principis diploma'' as he called it in Latin), which authorized him to examine and use the libraries of all religious houses in England.<ref>Leland, ''De uiris illustribus'', ed. Carley, pp. lii–liii.</ref> Leland spent the next few years travelling from house to house, for the most part shortly before they were dissolved, compiling numerous lists of significant or unusual books in their libraries.<ref>Leland's routes and their dates are discussed in Leland, ''De uiris illustribus'', ed. Carley, pp. lxi–xcv.</ref> About 1535, he met the ex-[[Carmelite]] churchman and fellow antiquary [[John Bale]], who much admired his work and offered his assistance.<ref name=ODNB /> In 1536, not long after the [[Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535]] commanding the dissolution of lesser monasteries was passed, Leland lamented the spoliation of monastic libraries and addressed [[Thomas Cromwell]] in a letter seeking aid for the rescue of books.<ref name=ODNB /><ref name=Shrank100>Shrank, ''Writing the Nation in Reformation England 1530–1580'', p. 100</ref> He complained that {{blockquote|The Germans perceive our desidiousness, and do send daily young scholars hither that spoileth [books], and cutteth them out of libraries, returning home and putting them abroad as monuments of their own country.<ref name=Shrank100/>}} In the 1530s and 1540s, the royal library was reorganised to accommodate hundreds of books that were previously kept in monastic collections. Leland himself describes how Henry's palaces at [[Greenwich Palace|Greenwich]], [[Hampton Court Palace|Hampton Court]] and [[Westminster Palace|Westminster]] were adapted for the purpose. Leland's part in this is uncertain. In humanist fashion, Leland styled himself ''antiquarius'', a title which was at one time interpreted as referring to a formal appointment as "king's antiquary": however, it is now understood to have been merely Leland's own preferred way of describing himself.<ref>Momigliano, "Ancient History and the Antiquarian", pp. 313–4.</ref> There is no evidence that he personally oversaw the relocation of the books to their new home or received a librarian's wages. What he did do was to compile his lists of important volumes, and to take measures to encourage their preservation.
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
John Leland (antiquary)
(section)
Add topic