Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

BELLENDEN, WILLIAM

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 698 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

BELLENDEN, See also:WILLIAM , Scottish classical See also:scholar. Hardly anything is known of him. He lived in the reign of See also:James I. (VI. of See also:Scotland) ,who appointed him magister libellorum sup plicum or See also:master of See also:requests. See also:King James is also said to have provided Bellenden with the means of living independently at See also:Paris, where he became See also:professor at the university, and See also:advocate in the See also:parliament. The date of his See also:birth cannot be fixed, and it can only be said that he died later than 1625. The first of the See also:works by which he is known was published anonymously in 16o8, with the See also:title Ciceronis Princeps, a laborious compilation of all See also:Cicero's remarks on the origin and principles of See also:regal See also:government, digested and systematically arranged. In 1612 there appeared a similar See also:work, devoted to the See also:consideration of consular authority and the See also:Roman See also:senate, Ciceronis See also:Consul, Senator, Senatusque See also:Romanus. His third work, De Statu Prisci Orbis, 1615, is a See also:good outline of See also:general See also:history. All three works were combined in a single large See also:volume, entitled De Statu Libri Tres, 1615, which was first brought into due See also:notice by Dr See also:Samuel See also:Parr, who, in 1787, published an edition with a See also:preface, famous for the elegance of its Latinity, in which he eulogized See also:Burke, See also:Fox and See also:Lord See also:North as the " three See also:English luminaries." The greatest of Bellenden's works is the extensive See also:treatise De Tribus Luminibus Romanorum, printed and published posthumously at Paris in 1633. The See also:book is unfinished, and treats only of the first luminary, Cicero; the others intended were apparently See also:Seneca and See also:Pliny. It contains a most elaborate history of See also:Rome and its institutions, See also:drawn from Cicero, and thus forms a storehouse of all the See also:historical notices contained in that voluminous author.

It is said that nearly all the copies were lost on the passage to See also:

England. One of the few that survived was placed in the university library at See also:Cambridge, and freely drawn upon by Conyers Middieton, the librarian, in his History of the See also:Life of Cicero. Both See also:Joseph See also:Warton and Dr Parr accused See also:Middleton of deliberate See also:plagiarism, which was the more likely to have escaped detection owing to the small number of existing copies of Bellenden's work.

End of Article: BELLENDEN, WILLIAM

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
BELLENDEN (BALLANTYNE Or BANNATYNE), JOHN (fl. 1533... 		[next]
BELLEROPHON, or BELLEROPHONTES

Site © 2006 - Net Industries