Galeni pergamensis de temperamentis, et de inaequali intemperie

Galeni pergamensis de temperamentis, et de inaequali intemperie

Thomas Linacre, known to his contemporaries as one of the most learned scholars of an epoch when learning was highly prized, but in after times chiefly as the founder of the College of Physicians in London, was born at Canterbury, probably about the year 1460. Of his parentage and descent nothing certain is known, though some of his biographers have assumed, apparently without any evidence except the name, that he was connected with the family of Linacre in Derbyshire. It is clear from a passage in Linacres will that he had a brother, sisters, and other relatives (the brother strange to say, bearing the same baptismal nameThomas) but further the family history cannot be traced. This fact will appear less surprising, if we remember that Linacre like many scholars of his time, was never married, and lived for many years an almost monastic life, little influenced by family or social ties. More important than his descent was his education, and in this Linacre was unusually happy; for not a little of the success and eminence of his[6] after life may be traced to the bias which the young scholars mind received from his earliest teacher. The Cathedral school of Canterbury within the monastery of Christ Church where Linacre became a pupil was at that time under the direction of William Tilly, otherwise called William of Selling, an Augustinian monk, and a scholar of a type at that time rare in England. Originally educated at Oxford, elected a Fellow of the newly founded College of All Souls, and afterwards received as a monk in the Monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, Selling found the means to travel in Italy, where he not only studied the Canon Law, but, what is more to the present purpose, during a stay at Bologna, studied Greek and became the pupil of Angelo Politiano. After two years stay in Italy, he returned home, became Prior of Christ Church, and later on was sent as Envoy from Henry VII. to the papal court; an event which proved of great importance to Linacre. At the time of which we are now speaking, he was only Master of the Grammar School, whether appointed before or after his first journey to Italy we do not know. In any case it is clear that he had already those tastes and pursuits from which his pupil Linacre derived not only his determining impulse to the life of a scholar, but especially that love of Greek literature which runs like a thread through the great physicians life and is the clue to much of his versatile literary activity. At the mature age (especially according to the customs of the day) of twenty, Linacre was sent to Oxford. At what College or Hall he studied is uncertain, though it is assumed, on trivial grounds that he must have entered at Canterbury Hall. The only fact which is certain is that after four years residence at the University, in 1484, he was elected a fellow of All Souls College. It has been thought by Dr Noble[7] Johnson, the best biographer of Linacre, that this election must have implied relationship to Archbishop Chichele, the founder, and thus also to Selling, assuming that the latter owed his preferment also to family connexions. But the entry in the College books (which though not contemporary is a copy thought to have been made about 1571 of the original record) has no indication of his being of founders kin. It is simply Thomas Lynaker, medicus insignis. The omission to specify kinship to the founder is regarded by Dr Leighton the present Warden of All Souls (he was himself good enough to inform me) as decisive that no such kinship existed, and the supposition of any family tie between Linacre and Chichele or Selling must therefore be regarded as entirely baseless[1]. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 58978
Author: Galen
Release Date: Feb 27, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: Latin

Contributors

Editor: Payne, Joseph Frank, 1840-1910

Translator: Linacre, Thomas, 1460-1524