Gerard Langbaine, the elder (1609 – 10 February 1658) was an English academic and clergyman, known as a scholar, royalist, and Provost of Queen's College, Oxford during the siege of the city.
He was the son of William Langbaine, born at Barton, Westmoreland, and was educated at the free school at Blencow, Cumberland.
He entered Queen's College, Oxford, as 'bateller' 17 April 1625, and was elected 'in munus servientis ad mensam' 17 June 1626.
In 1642 he acted as a member of the delegacy, nicknamed by the undergraduates 'the council of war,' which provided for the safety of the city and for Sir John Byron's royalist troops while stationed there.
[2] In 1638 Langbaine published a translation of the history of the Council of Trent by Guillaume Ranchin, and dedicated it to Christopher Potter.
Ben Jonson gave him a copy of Vossius' Greek Historians, which he annotated and ultimately presented to Ralph Bathurst.
In the case of the Bodleian, surviving notes show that Langbaine led a group of two dozen Oxford men who at least planned to divide the library's contents by topic and survey its contents; the interest now in this effort is that the list overlaps strongly with the 'Oxford Club' around John Wilkins at Wadham College, one of the main components which would come to form the Royal Society,[6] John Fell printed from Langbaine's notes Platonicorum aliquot qui etiam num supersunt, Authorum Graecorum, imprimis, mox et Latinorum syllabus Alphabeticus, and appended it to his Alcinoi in Platonieam Philosophiam Introductio.
[8] In 1651 Langbaine published The Foundation of the University of Oxford, with a Catalogue of the principal Founders and special Benefactors of all the Colleges, and total number of Students, and a similar work relating to Cambridge.
[10] He also helped Robert Sanderson and Richard Zouch to draw up Reasons of the Present Judgment of the University concerning the Solemn League and Covenant (1647), and translated the work into Latin (1648).
The official Answer of the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars ... to the Petition, Articles of Grievance, and reasons for the City of Oxon, presented to the Committee for regulating the University, 24 July 1649, Oxford, 1649, is assigned to Langbaine.
Langbaine married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Charles Sunnybank, canon of Windsor, and widow of Christopher Potter, his predecessor in the provostship of Queen's College.