great, and his learning not less than his labors. his Grammar may be said to be the only one we yet possess: for that edited
at Oxford in 1711 is but an extract from Hickes, and the principal merit of Mrs Elstob’s is that it is written in English,
without any thing original in it. some others have been written, taken also and almost entirely from Hickes. in his time there
was too exclusive a prejudice in favor of the Greek and Latin languages. they were considered as the standards of perfection,
and the endeavor generally was to force other languages to a conformity with these models. but nothing can be more radically
unlike than the frames of the antient languages, Southern and Northern, of the Greek and Latin languages from those of the
Gothic family. of this last are the A-S. and English; and had D
r. Hickes, instead of keeping his eye fixed on the Gr. & Lat. languages, as his standard, viewed the A-S. in it’s conformity
with the English only, he would greatly have enlarged the advantages for which we are already so much indebted to him. his
labors however have advanced us so far on the right road, and a correct pursuit of it will be a just homage to him.
This part of the Essay contains an analysis with some criticism of the work of Hickes.
George Hickes, 1642-1715, English non-juror, was suspended for refusing the oath of allegiance in 1689, the year of the publication of
this work. He was one of the greatest scholars of the day, the author of a number of books, and the editor of many others.
For the Typis Junianis in which this book is printed, see no. 4864.
Runólfur Jónsson [Runolph Jonas], d. 1654, first published his
Grammatica Islandica in 1651. An edition was published in Oxford in 1688, the year before the publication of Hickes’s work.
Edward Bernard, 1638-1697, Savilian professor of Astronomy at Oxford. This is the first appearance in print of his
Etymologicon Britannicum. For a further note on him, see no. 6.
[4836]
104
Gibson’s
Saxon Chronicale.
4
to.
1815 Catalogue, page 165, no. 124, as above.
CHRONICUM SAXONICUM.
Chronicon
Saxonicum. Ex MSS Codicibus Nunc Primum integrum Edidit, ac
Latinum fecit Edmundus Gibson. A. B. è Collegio Reginæ . . .
Oxonii: E
Theatro Sheldoniano
a. d.
mdcxcii
. [1692]
DA150 .A588
First Edition. 4to. 178 leaves, engraved vignette of the Sheldonian Theatre on the title-page,
Saxon and
Latin text in parallel columns, with notes below, engraved folded map of England. The title as above (with Imprimatur on the back
dated
Aug. 15, 1692) is followed by a leaf with title reading:
Chronicon
Saxonicum, seu Annales Rerum in Anglia Præcipue Gestarum, A Christo nato ad Annum usque MCLIV. deducti, ac jam demum
Latinitate donati. Cum Indice Rerum Chronologico. Accedunt Regulæ ad Investigandas Nominum Locorum Origines. Et Nominum Locorum ac Virorum
In Chronico Memoratorum Explicatio. Operâ & Studio Edmundi Gibson. A. B. è Collegio Reginæ
, with imprint as before. On sig. Nn
1 is the half-title for
Regulæ ad Investigandas Nominum Locorum Origines. Nominum Locorum & Virorum In Hoc Chronico Memoratorum, Explicatio, with continuous signatures but separate pagination.
Lowndes IV, 2196.
STC A3185.
Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit. II, 880.
Jefferson bought his copy from the Rev. Samuel Henley; the title is included in the list of the books appended by Jefferson
to his letter to Henley dated from Paris March 3, 1785, and is in the separate list made by Jefferson of the books in that purchase.
Edmund Gibson, 1669-1748, published this work while still at Oxford, having been attracted towards Anglo-Saxon studies through the influence
of George Hickes, q.v. Among other appointments held by Gibson before he became Bishop of London in 1720 was that of Librarian
of Lambeth Palace, during which time he began a catalogue of the library.
This being the first of the Anglo-Saxon texts in this part of Jefferson’s catalogue, his remarks on this subject, from his
Essay on Anglo-Saxon, are quoted here:
As we are possessed in America of the printed editions of A-S. writings, they furnish a fit occasion for this country to make
some return to the older nations for the
