Rerum Scoticarum Historia
by George Buchanan
| Rerum Scoticarum Historia | |
 Title page from Rerum Scoticarum Historia, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary. | |
| Author | George Buchanan |
| Published | Amsterodami: Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium |
| Date | 1643 |
| Language | Latin |
George Buchanan (1506-1582) was a noted Scottish humanist, historian, and poet.[1] He was educated at St. Andrews University and Paris. His career was characteristically humanistic: that of teacher, tutor for the children of nobility, translator, and poet. While a Latin teacher in Paris, his attacks on the Franciscans landed him in jail for heresy. He later escaped and taught in various locations around Europe, where he translated Latin and wrote original dramas.[2] By 1562, he had returned to Scotland and gained a place in the court of Queen Mary.[3] His place at the Scottish court continued after Mary's abdication and imprisonment and Buchanan served for some time as one of the tutors to King James.[4]
Buchanan’s "most substantial work",[5] Rerum Scoticarum Historia, is a monumental but unreliable history of Scotland, completed shortly before his death.[6] It was immediately translated into other European languages and for at least two centuries it remained the primary source of Scottish history for most foreigners.[7] "Its different parts are of unequal merit ... [t]he first of its twenty books contain the best portions, a description of the physical characteristics of the country, and an erudite collection of passages from Greek and Latin writers relating to Britain."[8] Perhaps of more interest to eighteenth century colonials, "[t]he doctrine that underlay Buchanan's political theory was ... fundamental to his historical writings. He stated that the source of power was the people, that the king must accept limitations upon the authority committed to him, and that it was lawful to resist and punish tyrants."[9]
Bibliographic Information
Author: George Buchanan.
Title: Rerum Scoticarum Historia.
Published: Amsterodami: Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1643.
Edition:
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Wythe referred to Buchanan's History in a letter to Jefferson from 1786. The title is also listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as Buchanani historia Scotiae. 8vo. Thomas Jefferson gave Wythe's copy to his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The precise edition owned by Wythe is unknown. Numerous octavo editions were published beginning in 1643. George Wythe's Library[10] on LibraryThing indicates as much without choosing an edition. The Brown Bibliography[11] lists the 1727 edition in part based on the existence of that edition in Jefferson's library.[12]
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Fully bound in contemporary white sheepskin with hand-painted lettering on spine, including volume number. The cover is stitched to leaves using small leather strips across the front and back of the spine. Purchased from Sequitur Books.
View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
External Links
References
- ↑ The Columbia Encyclopedia, s.v. "Buchanan, George" (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013- ), accessed October 3, 2013 http://www.credoreference.com/entry/columency/buchanan_george.
- ↑ Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, s.v. "Buchanan, George" (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2012-), accessed October 3, 2013 http://www.credoreference.com/entry/ebconcise/buchanan_george.
- ↑ D. M. Abbott, "Buchanan, George (1506–1582)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004- ), accessed 8 Oct 2013. (Subscription required for access.)
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Chambers Biographical Dictionary. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011. s.v. "Buchanan, George," http://www.credoreference.com/entry/chambbd/buchanan_george (accessed October 3, 2013.)
- ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. "Buchanan, George (1506-1582)" (New York: Macmillan and Co., 1886), 192.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Abbott, "Buchanan, George."
- ↑ LibraryThing, s. v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on April 21, 2013, http://www.librarything.com/profile/GeorgeWythe
- ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
- ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, ""Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson 2nd ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1983), 1:190-191 (no.104).
