Author: GRESWELL (William Parr), translator:
Title: Memoirs of Angelus Politianus, Actius Sincerus Sannazarius, Petrus Bembus, Hieronymus Fracastorius, Marcus Antonius Flaminius, and the Amalthei: Translations from their Poetical Works; and Notes & Observations concerning other literary characters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Description: Manchester,, Printed by R. & W. Dean & Co. for Cadell and Davies..., 1801. 8vo, 202 x 120 mms., pp. [ii], ii, 211 [212 Errata], fine contemporary polished calf, gilt borders on covers, spine ornately gilt in compartments; upper rear front joint cracked, lacks label, but a very good copy, from the Spetchley Park sale. The book collector, bibliographer, Church of England clergyman William Parr Greswell (bap. 1765, d. 1854) rather remarkably educated his seven sons at home, and five went on to Oxford University and had distinguished careers. The Monthly Review for 1801 was impressed with the work: "The personages, of whom the author now before us has given biographical sketches, are interesting to all lovers of sound learning and classical taste....[H]e has contrived to make it both interesting and instructive, to whose who may not be previously acquainted with the state of letters in which Politan flourished. The narrative concerning this diligent, profound, and elegant critic is, indeed, rendered sufficiently captivating of readers of taste and curiosity.... As, however, we cannot dwell longer on this agreeable and amusing work, having already bestowed on it more attention that we can always afford in analysing so small a volume, we shall conclude our account with recommending it to those lovers of literature, who are curious in exploring every vestige of the productions which contributed to illustrate the happy era of the Medicean family." He work did not fare well with a later reviewer in the Retrospective Review in 1824 who condemned it as careless and unmethodical.

Keywords: Biography literary history literature


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