Thomas Hearne (antiquarian)

Thomas Hearne or Hearn (Latin: Thomas Hearnius, July 1678Template:Snd10 June 1735) was an English diarist and prolific antiquary, particularly remembered for his published editions of many medieval English chronicles and other important historical texts.

Life

Hearne was born at Littlefield Green in the parish of White Waltham, Berkshire, the son of George Hearn, the parish clerk. Having received his early education from his father, he showed such taste for study that a wealthy neighbour, Francis Cherry of Shottesbrooke (c. 1665–1713), a celebrated nonjuror, interested himself in the boy, and sent him to the school at Bray "on purpose to learn the Latin tongue". Soon Cherry took him into his own house, and his education was continued at Bray until Easter 1696 when he matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.Template:Sfn

At the university, he attracted the attention of Dr John Mill (1645–1707), the principal of St Edmund Hall, who employed him to compare manuscripts and in other ways. Having taken the degree of B.A. in 1699 he was made assistant keeper of the Bodleian Library, where he worked on the catalogue of books, and in 1712 he was appointed second keeper. In 1715 Hearne was elected Architypographus and Esquire Bedell in civil law in the university, but objection having been made to his holding this office together with that of second librarian, he resigned it in the same year.Template:Sfn

A nonjuror himself, he refused to take the oaths of allegiance to King George I, and early in 1716 he was deprived of his librarianship, and "he was, in fact, locked out of the library".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> However, he continued to reside in Oxford, and occupied himself in editing the English chroniclers. Hearne refused several important academic positions, including the librarianship of the Bodleian and the Camden professorship of ancient history, rather than take the oaths. He died on 10 June 1735, and was buried in the graveyard of St Peter-in-the-East, now deconsecrated.Template:Sfn

The readers of Hearne's works were devoted to them because of the depth of scholarship. He corresponded, for example, with Dr Henry Levett, an early English physician and medical doctor at Charterhouse, London. In November 1715, indicating the devotion of Hearne's readers, he reminded Dr Levett that "you formerly desired to be a subscriber for every Thing I published. I have accordingly put you down for one copy of Acts of the Ap. in Capitals".<ref>Remarks and Collections of Thomas Hearne, Thomas Hearne, David Watson Rannie, Charles Edward Doble, Herbert Edward Salter, Printed for the Oxford Historical Society at the Clarendon Press, 1901</ref>

Works

Hearne's most important work was done as editor of many of the English chronicles. Until the appearance of the Rolls Series, his editions were in some cases the only ones existent. Some have praised them for being well prepared and sourced.Template:Sfn

Among the most important of a long list are:

• Benedict of Peterborough's (Benedictus Abbas) De vita et gestis Henrici II. et Ricardi I. (1735)
• John of Fordun's Scotichronicon (1722)
• the monk of Evesham's Historia vitae et regni Ricardi II (1729)
• Robert Mannyng's translation of Piers Langtoft's Chronicle (1725)
• the work of Thomas Otterbourne and John Whethamstede as Duo rerum Anglicarum scriptores veteres (1732)
• Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle (1724)
• the Vita Henrici V of Tito Livio Frulovisi (1716)
• Walter of Hemingburgh's Chronicon (1731)
• William of Newburgh's Historia rerum Anglicarum (1719).Template:Sfn

He also edited:

• John Leland's Itinerary (1710–1712) and the same author's Collectanea (1715)
• William Camden's Annales rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha (1717)
• Sir John Spelman's Life of Alfred (1709)
• William Roper's Life of Sir Thomas More (1716).Template:Sfn

He brought out editions of:

• Livy (1708)
• Pliny's Epistolae et panegyricus (1703)
• Acts of the Apostles (1715).

Among his other compilations were:

• Ductor historicus, a Short System of Universal History (1698, 1704, 1705, 1714, 1724)
• A Collection of Curious Discourses by Eminent Antiquaries (1720)
• Reliquiae Bodleianae (1703).

Hearne left his manuscripts to William Bedford, who sold them to Dr Richard Rawlinson, who in his turn bequeathed them to the Bodleian. Two volumes of extracts from his voluminous diary were published by Philip Bliss (Oxford, 1857), and afterwards an enlarged edition in three volumes appeared (London, 1869). A large part of his diary entitled Remarks and Collections, 1705–1714, edited by C. E. Doble and D. W. Rannie, has been published by the Oxford Historical Society (1885–1898). Bibliotheca Hearniana, excerpts from the catalogue of Hearne's library, was edited by Beriah Botfield (1848).Template:Sfn

Criticism

Hearne's work in publishing old manuscripts was not appreciated by all. Among Hearne's contemporaries, Alexander Pope has written numerous text disparaging his works. In An Epistle to Burlington, Pope dismissed Hearne's publications as unappealing and "monkish," while in The Dunciad he satirises Hearne as a pedant named Wormius, dropping into mock-Old English to do so. This in turn led Hearne in his diary to insult Pope's lack of scholarship.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After Hearne's death, Pope published an assessment of Hearne and his works in 1735. Pope indirectly mocks Hearne's habit of appending poetical fragments (of dubious literary merits and unclear provenance) within his publications and gives lengthy corrections to various editorial mistakes Hearne has made. Pope concludes his assessment with a wholly negative portrayal of Hearne:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

A number of subsequent writers also find Hearne's editorial practice to be problematic, and his antiquarian approach no longer compatible with contemporary scholarship. J. Horace Round noted some scholars who assessed Hearne as an "industrious but uncritical antiquaries who had no conception of the duties of an editor of [sic] the importance of accuracy," whose work are littered with unreliable remarks due to his "superficial examination" of old documents.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Some of Hearne's editions which scholars now consider to be misattributed include:

• Thomae Sprotti Chronica (1719). Hearne's title is misleading; The work is attributable to end of the 14th century, which is far too late for Thomas Sprott the Benedictine chronicler (fl. 1292).<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref>
• Vita et gesta Henrici quinti (1727). Hearne wrongly attributed the work to Thomas Elmham. The author now goes under the designation Pseudo-Elmham.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

References

• {{#if: |

   |{{#ifeq: Hearne, Thomas |
                |{{#ifeq: |
                             |
                             |
                           }}
                |
               }}
  }}{{#ifeq:  |
   |{{#ifeq:  |
                                    |This article
                                    |One or more of the preceding sentences
                                   }} incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 
  }}{{#invoke:template wrapper|{{#if:|list|wrap}}|_template=cite EB1911
   |_exclude=footnote, inline, noicon, no-icon, noprescript, no-prescript, _debug

   | noicon=1
  }}{{#ifeq:  ||}}

References

• Impartial Memorials of the Life and Writings of Thomas Hearn by several hands (1736)
• William Dunn Macray, Annals of the Bodleian Library (1890).
• Hearne's autobiography in W. Huddesford's Lives of Leland, Hearne and Wood (Oxford, 1772)
• Frederic Ouvry's Letters addressed to Thomas Hearn, privately printed (London, 1874)

External links

• Template:Cite video, a video by CGP Grey describing a lengthy research tangent on the given name Tiffany due to a dubious and ultimately unverifiable footnote in Hearne's edition of the Scotichronicon.