Polydore Vergil
[6] He was probably in the service of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, before 1498, as in the dedication of his Proverbiorum Libellus (April 1498) he styles himself Guido's client.
It contained what was read as implied criticism of both Thomas Wolsey and Henry VIII, and as a result Vergil was imprisoned in April in the Tower of London.
[4] From prison Vergil wrote to Wolsey, begging that the approaching Christmas season – a time which witnessed the restitution of a world – might also see his pardon: his letter's tone has been described as "almost blasphemous".
The initial controversy between the two authors that arose from their rival claims for priority (Erasmus still believed as late as 1533 that his work had been the earlier) gave place to a sincere friendship.
Book II covered, among other topics, the origins of law, time, military science, money, precious metals and art.
Book III covered, again among other topics, the origins of agriculture, architecture, towns, theatres, tools and materials, maritime navigation, commerce and prostitution.
For the edition of 1521, Vergil added five more books, devoted to the initia institorum rei Christianae, i.e. the origins of Christian rites and institutions.
As a consequence it was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (papal list of prohibited books) in 1564: an expurgated text, sanctioned by Gregory XIII, was published in 1576.
[4] This treatise, in three books, takes the form of a Latin dialogue between Vergil and his Cambridge friend Robert Ridley[4] on the subject of the natural and the supernatural, and whether credence should be given to such alleged phenomena as prodigious events and portents.
Although he stated in prefatory notes that the manuscript was written in Vergil's hand – an assessment fully supported by the palaeographic evidence – it was at one time sometimes attributed to Federico Veterani.
A possible explanation is that Vergil left it in the care of Veterani, who inscribed the colophon to associate it with his other treasures so that it would not be lost or damaged during the Papal invasion in Urbino in 1516.
The most plausible interpretation of the evidence is that Vergil intended to present a fine manuscript (rather than a printed book) to Henry VIII, and commissioned the work from Veterani, the most famous copyist of the day.
The revisions included rewordings for political reasons, a greater emphasis on the civic history of London, and stylistic improvements of the Latin for European readers.
However, Vergil added a new book (XXVII) giving an account of Henry VIII's reign to 1537, and which included a highly critical portrait of Wolsey.
Denys Hay finds it reasonable to suppose that at first Vergil planned this book to describe events up to 1530, but that he postponed the publication of it due to the political uncertainties in England, enabling him to extend the terminal date.
For this reason, he remarked, the English, Scots and French would find things reported in his pages far differently from the way they were used to hearing them within their own countries.
[4] Vergil opened the Anglica Historia with a passage heavily influenced by Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico: Britannia omnis...diuiditur in partes quatuor: quarum unam incolunt Angli, aliam Scoti, tertiam Vualli, quartam Cornubienses.
[28]In an early English translation, this is rendered as: The whole Countrie of Britaine...is divided into iiij partes; wherof the one is inhabited of Englishmen, the other of Scottes, the third of Wallshemen, and the fowerth of Cornishe people.
[29][30]Vergil published a Commentariolum in Dominicam Precem ("Commentary on the Lord's Prayer") at Basel in 1525, accompanying an edition of the De Inventoribus Rerum.
[36] In continental Europe, Vergil is principally remembered for the De Inventoribus Rerum and the Adagia: these are the works which secured his reputation before he ever came to England, and which he himself regarded as his masterpieces, writing "I, Polydore, was the first of the Romans to treat of these two matters".
[39][40] A particularly controversial element of Vergil's work in England was the scepticism he expressed – first in his edition of Gildas, and then in the Anglica Historia – towards the traditional account of the early history of Britain derived from Geoffrey of Monmouth, and in particular towards the question of the historicity of King Arthur.
This criticism touched a patriotic nerve with the antiquary John Leland, who responded forcefully, first in an unpublished tract, written perhaps in 1536, the Codrus sive Laus et Defensio Gallofridi Arturii contra Polydorum Vergilium ("Codrus", a reference to Vergil, was a type-name drawn from Juvenal for an offensive hack-poet); and afterwards in a longer published treatment, the Assertio inclytissimi Arturii regis Britannia (1544).
[41][42] Although Leland was critical of Vergil's views in the Assertio, he treated his opponent with respect, acknowledging his intelligence and his mastery of Latin style.
[44] An anonymous contemporary described him as "that most rascall dogge knave in the worlde", claiming that "he had the randsackings of all the Englishe lybraryes, and when he had extracted what he pleased he burnt those famous velome manuscripts, and made himself father to other mens workes".
John Caius in 1574, for example, asserted that Vergil had "committed as many of our ancient and manuscript historians to the flames as would have filled a waggon, that the faults of his own work might pass undiscovered".
[46] William Lambarde in 1576 commented that "as [Vergil] was by office Collector of the Peter pence to the Popes gain and lucre, so sheweth he himselfe throughout by profession, a covetous gatherer of lying Fables, fained to advaunce the Popish Religion, Kingdome, and Myter".
[49] In the 19th century, Vergil's importance to English historiography finally began to be acknowledged, as "historians of Tudor England realized the scope of his achievement in the Anglica Historia".
