79-472: John Aubrey FRS (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary , natural philosopher and writer. He was a pioneer archaeologist , who recorded (often for the first time) numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England, and who is particularly noted for his systematic examination of the Avebury henge monument. The Aubrey holes at Stonehenge are named after him, although there
158-600: A libel case. Wood was eventually prosecuted for insinuations against the judicial integrity of the school of Clarendon. One of the two statements called in question was founded on information provided by Aubrey and this may explain the estrangement between the two antiquaries and the ungrateful account that Wood gives of Aubrey's character. It is now famous: "a shiftless person, roving and magotie-headed, and sometimes little better than crased. And being exceedingly credulous, would stuff his many letters sent to A. W. with folliries and misinformations, which would sometimes guid him into
237-735: A Chair (all of whom are Fellows of the Royal Society ). Members of the 10 Sectional Committees change every three years to mitigate in-group bias . Each Sectional Committee covers different specialist areas including: New Fellows are admitted to the Society at a formal admissions day ceremony held annually in July, when they sign the Charter Book and the Obligation which reads: "We who have hereunto subscribed, do hereby promise, that we will endeavour to promote
316-428: A list of some 5,000 place-names, but managed to provide derivations for only a relatively small proportion of them: many are correct, but some are wildly wrong. The manuscript is now Bodleian MS Aubrey 5. The only work published by Aubrey in his lifetime was his Miscellanies (1696; reprinted with additions in 1721), a collection of 21 short chapters on the theme of "hermetick philosophy" (i.e. supernatural phenomena and
395-584: A modern perspective) was flawed by the number of excisions Clark had made in the interests of "decency". In the 20th century, a number of more popular editions appeared, which often included the expurgated passages, but were in other respects far more selective: these included versions edited by John Collier (under the title The Scandal and Credulities of John Aubrey ; 1931), Anthony Powell (1949), Oliver Lawson Dick (1949), Richard Barber (1975), and John Buchanan-Brown (2000; with an introduction by Michael Hunter ). The most scholarly and complete edition, and now
474-458: A pavement square of blue marble about 14" square; O RARE BEN JONSON." Of William Shakespeare : "His comedies will remain wit as long as the English tongue is understood, for that he handles mores hominum [the ways of mankind]. Now our present writers reflect so much on particular persons and coxcombeities that twenty years hence they will not be understood." Aubrey also wrote of Francis Bacon that "he
553-642: A student of the Middle Temple . He spent a pleasant time at Trinity in 1647, making friends among his Oxford contemporaries, and collecting books. He spent much of his time in the country. In 1649, Aubrey discovered the megalithic remains at Avebury , which he later mapped and discussed in his important antiquarian work Monumenta Britannica . He was to show Avebury to Charles II at the King's request in 1663. His father died in 1652, leaving Aubrey large estates, but with them some complicated debts. Aubrey said his memory
632-520: A survey of Surrey . Aubrey carried out the work, but in the event Ogilby's project was curtailed, and he did not use the material. Aubrey, however, continued to add to his manuscript until 1692. The manuscript is now Bodleian MS Aubrey 4. In a much-revised form (with both additions and excisions) it was published by Richard Rawlinson as the Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey in five volumes in 1718–19. The Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme
711-420: A survey of other early urban and military sites, including Roman towns, "camps" ( hillforts ), and castles; (3) a review of other archaeological remains, including sepulchral monuments, roads, coins and urns; and (4) a series of more analytical pieces, including four exercises attempting to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Of these last,
790-523: A type of scholar at Merton. In 1652, Wood amused himself with ploughing and bell-ringing . "Having had from his most tender years an extraordinary ravishing delight in music", he began to teach himself the violin and took his BA examinations. He engaged a music-master and obtained permission to use the Bodleian Library , "which he took to be the happiness of his life". He received the MA degree in 1655, and in
869-592: A wider appreciation of his contributions to scholarship. In the Doctor Who serial The Stones of Blood (1978)—which features a neolithic stone circle—the Fourth Doctor quips, "I always thought that Druidism was founded by John Aubrey in the seventeenth century as a joke. He had a great sense of humour, John Aubrey." In 2008, Aubrey's Brief Lives was a five-part drama serial on Radio 4. Writer Nick Warburton intertwined some of Aubrey's biographical sketches with
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#1732852101216948-1321: Is a significant honour. It has been awarded to many eminent scientists throughout history, including Isaac Newton (1672), Benjamin Franklin (1756), Charles Babbage (1816), Michael Faraday (1824), Charles Darwin (1839), Ernest Rutherford (1903), Srinivasa Ramanujan (1918), Jagadish Chandra Bose (1920), Albert Einstein (1921), Paul Dirac (1930), Winston Churchill (1941), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1944), Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1945), Dorothy Hodgkin (1947), Alan Turing (1951), Lise Meitner (1955), Satyendra Nath Bose (1958), and Francis Crick (1959). More recently, fellowship has been awarded to Stephen Hawking (1974), David Attenborough (1983), Tim Hunt (1991), Elizabeth Blackburn (1992), Raghunath Mashelkar (1998), Tim Berners-Lee (2001), Venki Ramakrishnan (2003), Atta-ur-Rahman (2006), Andre Geim (2007), Bai Chunli (2014), James Dyson (2015), Ajay Kumar Sood (2015), Subhash Khot (2017), Elon Musk (2018), Elaine Fuchs (2019) and around 8,000 others in total, including over 280 Nobel Laureates since 1900. As of October 2018 , there are approximately 1,689 living Fellows, Foreign and Honorary Members, of whom 85 are Nobel Laureates. Fellowship of
1027-725: Is confirmed by the Council in April, and a secret ballot of Fellows is held at a meeting in May. A candidate is elected if they secure two-thirds of votes of those Fellows voting. An indicative allocation of 18 Fellowships can be allocated to candidates from Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences; and up to 10 from Applied Sciences, Human Sciences and Joint Physical and Biological Sciences. A further maximum of six can be 'Honorary', 'General' or 'Royal' Fellows. Nominations for Fellowship are peer reviewed by Sectional Committees, each with at least 12 members and
1106-455: Is considerable doubt as to whether the holes that he observed are those that currently bear the name. He was also a pioneer folklorist , collecting together a miscellany of material on customs, traditions and beliefs under the title "Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme". He set out to compile county histories of both Wiltshire and Surrey , although both projects remained unfinished. His "Interpretation of Villare Anglicanum" (also unfinished)
1185-482: Is in the Bodleian. On 29 July 1693, Wood was condemned and fined in the vice-chancellor's court for certain libels against the late Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon . He was punished by being banished from the university until he recanted, the offending pages being burnt. The proceedings were printed in a volume of Miscellanies , published by Edmund Curll in 1714. Wood was attacked by Bishop Burnet in A letter to
1264-421: Is nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society (a proposer and a seconder), who sign a certificate of proposal. Previously, nominations required at least five fellows to support each nomination by the proposer, which was criticised for supposedly establishing an old boy network and elitist gentlemen's club . The certificate of election (see for example ) includes a statement of the principal grounds on which
1343-532: Is poor, and his taste and judgment are frequently warped by prejudice, but his two great works and unpublished collections form a priceless source of information on Oxford and her worthies. He was always suspected of being a Roman Catholic , and invariably treated Jacobites and Papists better than Dissenters in the Athenae , but he died in communion with the Church of England . Wood's original manuscript (purchased by
1422-520: The Ashmolean Museum : they are now in the Bodleian Library, as MSS Aubrey 6–8. As private, manuscript texts, the "Lives" were able to contain the richly controversial material which is their chief interest today, and Aubrey's chief contribution to the formation of modern biographical writing. When he allowed Anthony Wood to use the texts, however, he entered the caveat that much of the content of
1501-573: The Athenae was written, as well as several large volumes of Wood's correspondence and all his diaries, are preserved in the Bodleian. A fictionalised version of Anthony Wood is one of four narrators in Iain Pears ' 1998 novel An Instance of the Fingerpost , which is set in the early 1660s. Wood regularly wrote in his diaries and in other writings. With this, he wrote several accounts of life in Oxford in
1580-755: The Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry (1693), and defended by his nephew Thomas Wood , in a Vindication of the Historiographer , to which is added the Historiographer's Answer (1693), reproduced in the subsequent editions of the Athenae . The nephew also defended his uncle in An Appendix to the Life of Bishop Seth Ward (1697). After a short illness Anthony Wood died, and was buried in the outer chapel of St John Baptist ( Merton College ), in Oxford, where he had superintended
1659-636: The Cottonian Library , and William Prynne showed him the same civility for the Tower records. On 22 October 1669, he was sent for by the delegates of the press, "that whereas he had taken a great deal of paines in writing the Hist. and Antiq. of the Universitie of Oxon , they would for his paines give him an 100 li. for his copie, conditionally, that he would suffer the book to be translated into Latine". He accepted
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#17328521012161738-606: The Fasti , or Annals for the said time. Wood contemplated publishing a third volume of the Athenae , printed in the Netherlands. The third appeared subsequently as "a new edition, with additions, and a continuation by Philip Bliss " (1813–1820, 4 vols. 4to). The Ecclesiastical History Society proposed to bring out a fourth edition, which stopped at the Life , ed. by Bliss (1848, 8vo; see Cent. Mag., N.S., xxix. 135, 268). Bliss's interleaved copy
1817-456: The Gentleman's Magazine (3rd ser., ix. x. xi.). Wood bequeathed his library (127 manuscripts and 970 printed books) to the Ashmolean Museum , and the keeper, William Huddesford , printed a catalogue of the manuscripts in 1761. In 1858 the whole collection was transferred to the Bodleian Library , where 25 volumes of Wood's manuscripts had been since 1690. Many of the original papers from which
1896-616: The Naturall Historie was published by John Britton in 1847 for the Wiltshire Topographical Society. The Antiquities were published (again, with certain omissions) by John Edward Jackson in 1862 as Wiltshire: the Topographical Collections of John Aubrey . In 1673, the royal cosmographer and cartographer John Ogilby , planning a national atlas and chorography of Britain, licensed Aubrey to undertake
1975-452: The University of Oxford . Unmarried, he led a life devoted to scholarship and antiquarian pursuits. Anthony Wood was born in Oxford on 17 December 1632, as the fourth son of Thomas Wood (1581–1643), BCL of Oxford , and his second wife, Mary (1602–1667), daughter of Robert Pettie and Penelope Taverner. Wood was sent to New College School in 1641, and at the age of twelve was removed to
2054-674: The Welsh Marches . His maternal grandfather, Isaac Lyte, lived at Lytes Cary Manor , Somerset, now owned by the National Trust . Richard Aubrey, his father, owned lands in Wiltshire and Herefordshire. For many years an only child, he was educated at home with a private tutor, he was "melancholy" in his solitude. His father was not intellectual, preferring field sports (hunting) to learning. Aubrey read such books as came his way, including Bacon 's Essays , and studied geometry in secret. Aubrey
2133-426: The post-nominal letters FRS . Every year, fellows elect up to ten new foreign members. Like fellows, foreign members are elected for life through peer review on the basis of excellence in science. As of 2016 , there are around 165 foreign members, who are entitled to use the post-nominal ForMemRS . Honorary Fellowship is an honorary academic title awarded to candidates who have given distinguished service to
2212-451: The "Lives" in the early morning while his hosts were sleeping off the effects of the night before. These texts were, as Aubrey entitled them, Schediasmata , "pieces written extempore, on the spur of the moment". Time after time, he leaves marks of omission in the form of dashes and ellipses for dates and facts, inserting fresh information whenever it is presented to him. The margins of his notebooks are dotted with notes-to-self, most frequently
2291-437: The 1970s did the full breadth and innovation of his scholarship begin to be more widely appreciated. He published little in his lifetime, and many of his most important manuscripts (for the most part preserved in the Bodleian Library ) remain unpublished, or published only in partial form. Aubrey was born at Easton Piers or Percy, near Kington St Michael , Wiltshire, to a long-established and affluent gentry family with roots in
2370-581: The Bodleian in 1846) was first published by John Gutch as The History and Antiquities of the Colleges and Halls in the University of Oxford , with a continuation (1786–1790, 2 vols. 4to), and The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford (1792–1796, 3 vols. 410), with a portrait of Wood. To these can be added The Antient and Present State of the City of Oxford, chiefly collected by A. à Wood, with additions by
2449-704: The King's health in Interregnum Herefordshire, but with equal enthusiasm attended meetings in London of the republican Rota Club . In 1663, Aubrey became a member of the Royal Society . He lost estate after estate due to lawsuits, until 1670 when he parted with his last piece of property and ancestral home, Easton Piers. From this time he was dependent on the hospitality of his numerous friends; in particular, Sir James Long, 2nd Baronet , and his wife Lady Dorothy of Draycot House, Wiltshire. In 1667, Aubrey had made
John Aubrey - Misplaced Pages Continue
2528-540: The Latin " quaere ". This exhortation, to "go and find out" is often followed. In his life of Thomas Harcourt , Aubrey notes that one Roydon, a brewer living in Southwark , was reputed to be in possession of Harcourt's petrified kidney: "I have seen it", he writes approvingly; "he much values it". Aubrey himself valued the evidence of his own eyes above all, and he took great pains to ensure that, where possible, he noted not only
2607-606: The Lives was "not fitt to be let flie abroad" while the subjects and the author were still living. Aubrey's relationship with Wood was to become increasingly fraught. Aubrey asked Wood to be "my index expurgatorius": a reference to the Church's list of banned books, which Wood seems to have taken not as a warning, but as a licence to simply extract pages of notes to paste into his own proofs. In 1692, Aubrey complained bitterly that Wood had mutilated forty pages of his manuscript, perhaps for fear of
2686-597: The Rev. Sir J. Peshall (1773, 4to; the text is garbled and the editing very imperfect). The Survey of the Antiquities of the City of Oxford, composed in 1661–66 by Anthony Wood , edited by Andrew Clark , was issued by the Oxford Historical Society (1889–1899, 3 vols. 8vo). Modius Salium, a Collection of Pieces of Humour was published at Oxford in 1751, 12mo. Some letters between John Aubrey and Wood were published in
2765-536: The Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society ( FRS , ForMemRS and HonFRS ) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge , including mathematics , engineering science , and medical science ". Fellowship of the Society, the oldest known scientific academy in continuous existence,
2844-439: The Royal Society has been described by The Guardian as "the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar " with several institutions celebrating their announcement each year. Up to 60 new Fellows (FRS), honorary (HonFRS) and foreign members (ForMemRS) are elected annually in late April or early May, from a pool of around 700 proposed candidates each year. New Fellows can only be nominated by existing Fellows for one of
2923-655: The Society, we shall be free from this Obligation for the future". Since 2014, portraits of Fellows at the admissions ceremony have been published without copyright restrictions in Wikimedia Commons under a more permissive Creative Commons license which allows wider re-use. In addition to the main fellowships of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS & HonFRS), other fellowships are available which are applied for by individuals, rather than through election. These fellowships are research grant awards and holders are known as Royal Society Research Fellows . In addition to
3002-532: The Universitie of Oxon . He meticulously researched and documented the history of Oxford , producing significant works such as the Historia et Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis and the Athenae Oxonienses . Despite criticism for errors and suspected biases, his works remain invaluable. Wood had free access to university records, consulted with notable scholars, and faced controversy, including banishment from
3081-467: The acquaintance of Anthony Wood at Oxford, and when Wood began to gather materials for his Athenae Oxonienses , Aubrey offered to collect information for him. From time to time he forwarded memoranda in a uniquely casual, epistolary style, and in 1680 he began to promise the work Minutes for Lives , which Wood was to use at his discretion. Aubrey died of an apoplexy while travelling, in June 1697, aged 71, and
3160-480: The award of Fellowship (FRS, HonFRS & ForMemRS) and the Research Fellowships described above, several other awards, lectures and medals of the Royal Society are also given. Anthony Wood (antiquary) Anthony Wood (17 December 1632 – 28 November 1695), who styled himself Anthony à Wood in his later writings, was an English antiquary . He was responsible for a celebrated Hist. and Antiq. of
3239-597: The cause of science, but do not have the kind of scientific achievements required of Fellows or Foreign Members. Honorary Fellows include the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (2022), Bill Bryson (2013), Melvyn Bragg (2010), Robin Saxby (2015), David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville (2008), Onora O'Neill (2007), John Maddox (2000), Patrick Moore (2001) and Lisa Jardine (2015). Honorary Fellows are entitled to use
John Aubrey - Misplaced Pages Continue
3318-582: The concourse of Westminster Hall , coming back after lunch to find them changed), he recorded an inaccurate and bawdy anecdote about Chaloner's death, but subsequently found it to be in fact about James Chaloner . Aubrey let the initial story stand in his text, while highlighting the error in a marginal note. In 1680, Aubrey began work on his collection of biographical sketches, which he entitled "Schediasmata: Brief Lives". He presented them to Anthony Wood in 1681 but continued to work on them until 1693, when he deposited his manuscripts (in three folio volumes) in
3397-481: The county's natural history. Some of his interim observations were read to the Royal Society in 1668 and 1675–6. In 1685 Aubrey recast the work, now modelling it on Robert Plot 's Natural History of Oxford-shire (published in 1677); and it was effectively finished by 1690–91, when he transcribed a fair copy. Shortly afterwards the Royal Society commissioned another transcript, at a cost of £7. In 1693 Aubrey asked his brother William Aubrey and Thomas Tanner to bring
3476-498: The county. His erstwhile friend and fellow-antiquary Anthony Wood predicted that he would one day break his neck while running downstairs in haste to interview some retreating guest or other. Aubrey was an apolitical Royalist , who enjoyed the innovations characteristic of the Interregnum period while deploring the rupture in traditions and the destruction of ancient buildings brought about by civil war and religious change. He drank
3555-496: The digging of his own grave only a few days before. He was described as "a very strong lusty man," of uncouth manners and appearance, not so deaf as he pretended, of reserved and temperate habits, not avaricious and a despiser of honours. He received neither office nor reward from the university which owed so much to his labours. He never married, and led a life of self-denial, entirely devoted to antiquarian research. Bell-ringing and music were his chief relaxations. His literary style
3634-486: The essay on architecture, "Chronologia Architectonica", written in 1671, was the most detailed, and (although in its unpublished state it remained little known) is now regarded as a highly perceptive milestone in the development of architectural history. The manuscript of Monumenta Britannica is now Bodleian MSS Top.Gen.c.24 and 25. An edition of the first three parts (reproduced, following unorthodox editing principles, partly in facsimile , and partly in printed transcript)
3713-515: The fellowships described below: Every year, up to 52 new fellows are elected from the United Kingdom, the rest of the Commonwealth of Nations , and Ireland, which make up around 90% of the society. Each candidate is considered on their merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Fellows are elected for life on the basis of excellence in science and are entitled to use
3792-420: The final resting places of people, but also of their portraits and papers. Though his work has frequently been accused of inaccuracy, this charge is misguided. In most cases, Aubrey simply wrote what he had seen, or heard. When transcribing hearsay , he displays a careful approach to the ascription of sources. For example, in his life of Thomas Chaloner (who, Aubrey notes, was himself fond of spreading rumours in
3871-486: The following year published a volume of sermons by his late brother Edward. Wood began, systematically, to copy monumental inscriptions and to search for antiquities in the city and neighbourhood. He went through the Christ Church, Oxford registers, "at this time being resolved to set himself to the study of antiquities." John Wallis , the keeper, allowed him free access to the university registers in 1660; "here he layd
3950-431: The foundation of that book which was fourteen years afterwards published, viz. Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon ". He also came to know the Oxford collections of Brian Twyne to which he was greatly indebted, and those of the assiduous antiquary Ralph Sheldon . He steadily investigated the muniments of all the colleges, and in 1667 made his first journey to London, where he visited William Dugdale , who introduced him into
4029-438: The free Lord Williams's School at Thame , where his studies were interrupted by Civil War skirmishes. He was then placed under the tuition of his brother Edward (1627–1655), of Trinity College, Oxford , and, as he tells us, "while he continued in this condition his mother would alwaies be soliciting him to be an apprentice which he could never endure to heare of". He was entered at Merton College in 1647, and made postmaster,
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#17328521012164108-530: The good of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, and to pursue the ends for which the same was founded; that we will carry out, as far as we are able, those actions requested of us in the name of the Council; and that we will observe the Statutes and Standing Orders of the said Society. Provided that, whensoever any of us shall signify to the President under our hands, that we desire to withdraw from
4187-561: The material. A controversial book for its time, "Lives" bluntly mocked the scandalous lives of eminent figures. For instance, Aubrey wrote of John Milton : "His complexion exceeding faire—he was so faire that they called him the Lady of Christ's College." He wrote of William Butler : "The Dr. lying at the Savoy in London, next the water side where was a balcony look't into the Thames, a patient came to him that
4266-452: The most successful one-man production ever seen, with Dotrice giving over 1800 performances across forty years on both sides of the Atlantic. For many, the play became an essential means of understanding a "vanished time" and one version of it. Aubrey scholars, however, have sometimes seen the production as over-emphasising its subject's eccentricities and lack of organisation, to the detriment of
4345-566: The occult), including "Omens", "Prophesies", "Transportation in the Air", "Converse with Angels and Spirits", "Second-Sighted Persons", etc. Its contents mainly comprised documented reports of supernatural manifestations. The work did much to bolster Aubrey's posthumous reputation as a superstitious and credulous eccentric. Aubrey's papers also included "Architectonica Sacra"; and "Erin Is God" (notes on ecclesiastical antiquities). Aubrey's "Adversaria Physica"
4424-404: The offer and set to work to prepare his English manuscript for the translators, Richard Peers and Richard Reeve , both appointed by John Fell , Dean of Christ Church, who undertook the expense of printing. In 1674, appeared Historia, et antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis , handsomely reprinted "e Theatro Sheldoniano " in two folio volumes, the first devoted to the university in general and
4503-599: The paths of errour". A large part of the "Lives" was published in 1813 as Letters Written by Eminent Persons in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries . A near-complete transcript, Brief Lives , Chiefly of Contemporaries, Set Down by John Aubrey, Between the Years 1669 and 1696 , was edited for the Clarendon Press in 1898 by the Rev. Andrew Clark . This remained the standard edition for scholarly use for many years, but (from
4582-509: The post nominal letters HonFRS . Statute 12 is a legacy mechanism for electing members before official honorary membership existed in 1997. Fellows elected under statute 12 include David Attenborough (1983) and John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne (1991). The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the British royal family for election as Royal Fellow of the Royal Society . As of 2023 there are four royal fellows: Elizabeth II
4661-489: The project to completion, but despite their best intentions they failed to do so. The manuscript of the Naturall Historie is now Bodleian MSS Aubrey 1 and 2. The Royal Society's copy, which includes material (mainly on supernatural phenomena) that Aubrey afterwards removed from his own manuscript, is now Royal Society MS 92. The surviving manuscript of the Antiquities is now Bodleian MS Aubrey 3. A highly selective edition of
4740-546: The proposal is being made. There is no limit on the number of nominations made each year. In 2015, there were 654 candidates for election as Fellows and 106 candidates for Foreign Membership. The Council of the Royal Society oversees the selection process and appoints 10 subject area committees, known as Sectional Committees, to recommend the strongest candidates for election to the Fellowship. The final list of up to 52 Fellowship candidates and up to 10 Foreign Membership candidates
4819-476: The second to the colleges. Copies were widely distributed, and university and author received much praise; in the following year the magnificent series of illustrations linked to the history were separately published as David Loggan 's Oxonia Illustrata , which contained instructions on where to insert the plates in Wood's history; copies of the history 'with the cuts' became a special gift object for noble visitors to
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#17328521012164898-402: The standard edition for reference purposes, is Kate Bennett (ed.), Brief Lives with An Apparatus for the Lives of our English Mathematical Writers (2 volumes, Oxford, 2015), which was described on publication by Michael Hunter as "the edition we have been waiting for". The "Lives" present a number of difficult editorial problems as to what should be included or excluded, and how best to present
4977-413: The story of the turbulent friendship between Aubrey and Anthony Wood. Abigail le Fleming produced and directed. In 2015, Ruth Scurr published John Aubrey: My Own Life , a semi-fictional "diary" or "autobiography" of Aubrey, which draws heavily on Aubrey's own surviving scattered writings (with minor adaptation and modernisation), but is essentially an artificial construction by Scurr. Fellow of
5056-537: The university. Wood was disappointed with the Latin translation, and Bishop Barlow told a correspondent that "not only the Latine but the history itself is in many things ridiculously false". Despite the carping, Wood's meticulously researched text, with extensive footnotes to original sources, remains a worthy successor to Dugdale's work which had been his inspiration. In 1678 the university registers which had been in Wood's custody for eighteen years were removed, as it
5135-433: The work into two separate projects, on the antiquities and the natural history of the county respectively. The work on the antiquities (which he entitled Hypomnemata Antiquaria ) was closely modelled on Dugdale, and was largely finished by 1671: Aubrey deposited his draft in the Ashmolean Museum in two manuscript volumes. Unfortunately, one of these was withdrawn by his brother in 1703 and subsequently lost. He then turned to
5214-418: The work. Aubrey began work on compiling material for a natural historical and antiquarian study of Wiltshire in 1656. Independently, in 1659, a self-appointed committee of Wiltshire gentry determined that a county history should be produced on the model of William Dugdale 's Antiquities of Warwickshire . It was agreed that Aubrey would deal with the northern division of the county. Aubrey chose to divide
5293-421: Was "not tenacious" by 17th-century standards but from the early 1640s he kept thorough (if haphazard) notes of observations in natural philosophy, his friends' ideas, and antiquities. He began to write "Lives" of scientists in the 1650s. In 1659, Aubrey was recruited to contribute to a collaborative county history of Wiltshire , leading to his unfinished collections on the antiquities and the natural history of
5372-527: Was Aubrey's collection of material on customs, traditions, ceremonies, beliefs, old wives' tales and rhymes—or what today would be termed folklore . It was compiled over many years, but written up between 1687 and 1689. The manuscript came into the hands of White Kennett , and as a result it is not with Aubrey's other collections in the Bodleian: it is in the British Library , as Lansdowne MS 231. An edition
5451-503: Was a Pederast ." At somewhat greater length, Aubrey also wrote a life of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes (author of Leviathan ), entitled "The Life of Mr Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury": this is now Bodleian MS Aubrey 9. It is often grouped with the Brief Lives , but is really a separate and self-contained work. It served as the basis for Richard Blackburne's Latin biography, Vitae Hobbianae auctarium , published in 1681. The life of Hobbes
5530-465: Was a scientific commonplace book, which by 1692 amounted to a folio "an inch thick". It is lost, although extracts have survived in the form of copies. Aubrey wrote two plays, both comedies intended for Thomas Shadwell . The first has not survived; the second, "Countrey Revell", remained unfinished. In 1967, English director Patrick Garland created a one-man show, Brief Lives , based on Dick's edition of Aubrey's work. Starring Roy Dotrice , it became
5609-488: Was buried in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford . Aubrey approached the work of the biographer much as his contemporary scientists had begun to approach the work of empirical research by the assembly of vast museums and small collection cabinets. Collating as much information as he could, he left the task of verification largely to Wood, and thereafter to posterity. As a hanger-on in great houses, he had little time and little inclination for systematic work, and he wrote
5688-614: Was educated at the Malmesbury grammar school under Robert Latimer. (Latimer had numbered the philosopher Thomas Hobbes among his earlier pupils, and Aubrey first met Hobbes, whose biography he would later write, at Latimer's house.) He then studied at the grammar school at Blandford Forum , Dorset. Aubrey entered Trinity College, Oxford , in 1642, but his studies were interrupted by the English Civil War . His earliest antiquarian work dates from this period in Oxford. In 1646 he became
5767-579: Was feared that he would be implicated in the Popish Plot . To relieve himself from suspicion he took the Oath of Supremacy . During this time he had been gradually completing his great work, which was produced by a London publisher in 1691–1692, 2 vols. folio, Athenae Oxonienses : an Exact History of all the Writers and Bishops who have had their Education in the University of Oxford from 1500 to 1690 , to which are added
5846-429: Was grievously tormented with an ague. The Dr. orders a boat to be in readiness under his window, and discoursed with the patient (a gent) in the balcony, when on a signal given, 2 or 3 lusty fellows came behind the gent, and threw him a matter of 20 feet into the Thames. This surprise absolutely cured him." Of Ben Jonson : "He lies buried in the north aisle in the path of square stone … with this inscription only on him, in
5925-499: Was included in Clark's 1898 edition of Brief Lives , but not in Bennett's 2015 edition. The Monumenta Britannica was Aubrey's principal collection of archaeological material, written over some thirty years between about 1663 and 1693. It falls into four parts: (1) "Templa Druidum", a discussion of supposed "druidic" temples, notably Avebury and Stonehenge ; (2) "Chorographia Antiquaria",
6004-421: Was not a Royal Fellow, but provided her patronage to the society, as all reigning British monarchs have done since Charles II of England . Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1951) was elected under statute 12, not as a Royal Fellow. The election of new fellows is announced annually in May, after their nomination and a period of peer-reviewed selection. Each candidate for Fellowship or Foreign Membership
6083-423: Was published by John Fowles and Rodney Legg in two volumes in 1980–82. This edition has, however, been criticised for doing Aubrey "less than justice" on various grounds: for a failure to consolidate what were essentially drafts and working notes into a coherent whole, for silent omissions and rearrangements, for inadequate and occasionally inaccurate annotation, and for the omission of the important fourth part of
6162-469: Was published by James Britten for the Folklore Society in 1881. It was more satisfactorily re-edited in 1972 by John Buchanan-Brown. Aubrey's Interpretation of Villare Anglicanum (its preface dated 31 October 1687) was the first attempt to devote a work entirely to the subject of English place-names . It is, however, unfinished (or, as Gillian Fellows-Jensen observes, "hardly begun"). Aubrey compiled
6241-492: Was the first attempt to compile a full-length study of English place-names . He had wider interests in applied mathematics and astronomy, and was friendly with many of the greatest scientists of the day. Aubrey was the author of Brief Lives , a collection of short biographical pieces. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, thanks largely to the popularity of Brief Lives , Aubrey was regarded as little more than an entertaining but quirky, eccentric and credulous gossip. Only in
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