View source for Edward Gibbon

{{Short description|British essayist, historian and politician (1737–1794)}}
{{use British English|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{for-multi|the English MP (1707–70)|Edward Gibbon (died 1770)|the English composer (1568–1650)|Edward Gibbons}}
{{Lead too short|date=August 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-suffix    = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|size=100%}}
| image               = Edward Emily Gibbon.jpg
| image_size          = 220
| caption             = Portrait by [[Joshua Reynolds]], 1779
| birth_date          = 8 May 1737
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=yes|1794|1|16|1737|4|27}}
| birth_place         = [[Putney]], [[Surrey]], England
| death_place         = London, England
| office1             = [[Member of Parliament]]<br/> for [[Lymington (UK Parliament constituency)|Lymington]]
| term1               = 1781–1784
| predecessor1        = [[Samuel Salt]]<br />[[Edward Craggs-Eliot, 1st Baron Eliot|Edward Eliot]]
| successor1          = [[Samuel Salt]]<br />Wilbraham Tollemache
| office2             = [[Member of Parliament]]<br/> for [[Liskeard (UK Parliament constituency)|Liskeard]]
| term2               = 1774–1780
| predecessor2        = [[Sir Harry Burrard, 1st Baronet, of Lymington|Harry Burrard]]<br />[[Thomas Dummer]]
| successor2          = Harry Burrard<br />[[William Manning (British politician)|William Manning]]
| nationality         = [[British people|British]]
| party               = [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]]
| occupation          = Politician
| profession          = Essayist, historian, 
| signature           = Edward Gibbon signature EMWEA.png
| education           = [[Magdalen College, Oxford]]
}}

'''Edward Gibbon''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|g|ɪ|b|ən}}; 8 May 1737<ref>[[Old Style|O.S.]] 27 April. Gibbon's birthday is 27 April 1737 of the old style (O.S.) Julian calendar; England adopted the new style (N.S.) Gregorian calendar in 1752, and thereafter Gibbon's birthday was celebrated on 8 May 1737 N.S.</ref>{{spaced ndash}}16 January 1794) was a British essayist, historian and politician. His most important work, ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for the quality and [[irony]] of its prose, its use of [[primary sources]], and its [[polemical]] [[Criticism of religion|criticism]] of [[organized religion]].<ref>The most recent and also the first critical edition, in three volumes, is that of David Womersley. For commentary on Gibbon's irony and insistence on primary sources whenever available, see Womersley, "Introduction". While the larger part of Gibbon's [[Criticism of Christianity|caustic view]] of [[Christianity]] is declared within the text of chapters XV and XVI, Gibbon rarely neglects to note its baleful influence throughout the remaining volumes of the ''Decline and Fall''.</ref>

==Early life: 1737–1752==
Edward Gibbon was born in 1737, the son of [[Edward Gibbon (died 1770)|Edward]] and Judith Gibbon, at Lime Grove in the town of [[Putney]], [[Surrey]]. He had five brothers and one sister, all of whom died in infancy. His grandfather, also named Edward, had lost his assets as a result of the [[South Sea Company|South Sea bubble]] stock-market collapse in 1720 but eventually regained much of his wealth. Gibbon's father thus inherited a substantial estate.<ref>D. M. Low, ''Edward Gibbon. 1737–1794'' (London: Chatto & Windus, 1937), p. 7.</ref> His paternal grandmother, Catherine Acton, was granddaughter of [[Sir Walter Acton, 2nd Baronet]].<ref>Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 106th edition, vol. 1, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1999, p. 28</ref> Gibbon described himself as "a puny child, neglected by my Mother, starved by my nurse." At age nine, he was sent to Dr. Woddeson's school at [[Kingston upon Thames]] (now [[Kingston Grammar School]]), shortly after which his mother died.  He then took up residence in the [[Westminster School]] boarding house, owned by his adored "Aunt Kitty", Catherine Porten. Soon after she died in 1786, he remembered her as rescuing him from his mother's disdain, and imparting "the first rudiments of knowledge, the first exercise of reason, and a taste for books which is still the pleasure and glory of my life".<ref>Norton, ''Letters'', vol. 3, 10/5/[17]86, 45–48.</ref> From 1747 Gibbon spent time at the family home in [[Buriton]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://buriton.org.uk/history/local-luminaries-famous-people-from-the-area/|title=Local Luminaries}}</ref> By 1751, Gibbon's reading was already extensive and pointed toward his future pursuits: [[Laurence Echard]]'s ''Roman History'' (1713), William Howel(l)'s ''An Institution of General History'' (1680–85), and several of the 65 volumes of the acclaimed ''[[Universal History (Sale et al)|Universal History from the Earliest Account of Time]]'' (1747–1768).<ref>Stephen, ''DNB'', p. 1130; Pocock, ''Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon'', 29–40. At age 14, Gibbon was "a prodigy of uncontrolled reading"; Gibbon himself admitted an "indiscriminate appetite". p. 29.</ref>

== Career ==
===Oxford, Lausanne, and a religious journey: 1752–1758===
[[File:Magdalen College, Oxford (7958644740).jpg|thumb|[[Magdalen College, Oxford]]]]
Following a stay at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] in 1752 to improve his health at the age of 15, Gibbon was sent by his father to [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], where he was enrolled as a [[gentleman-commoner]]. He was ill-suited, however, to the college atmosphere, and later rued his 14 months there as the "most idle and unprofitable" of his life. Because he says so in his autobiography, it used to be thought that a penchant from his aunt for "theological controversy" bloomed under the influence of the deist or rationalist theologian [[Conyers Middleton]] (1683–1750), the author of ''Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers'' (1749). In that tract, Middleton denied the validity of such powers; Gibbon promptly objected, or so the argument used to run. The product of that disagreement, with some assistance from the work of Catholic Bishop [[Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet]] (1627–1704), and that of the Elizabethan Jesuit [[Robert Persons|Robert Parsons]] (1546–1610), yielded the most memorable event of his time at Oxford: his conversion to Roman Catholicism on 8 June 1753.  He was further "corrupted" by the 'free thinking' deism of the playwright and poet [[David Mallet (writer)|David Mallet]];<ref>Pocock, ''Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon''. for Middleton, see pp. 45–47; for Bossuet, p. 47; for the Mallets, p. 23; Robert Parsons [or Persons], ''A Christian directory: The first booke of the Christian exercise, appertaining to resolution'', (London, 1582). In his 1796 edition of Gibbon's ''Memoirs'', Lord Sheffield claims that Gibbon directly connected his Catholic conversion to his reading of Parsons.&nbsp; Womersley, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', p. 9.</ref> and finally Gibbon's father, already "in despair," had had enough. David Womersley has shown, however, that Gibbon's claim to having been converted by a reading of Middleton is very unlikely, and was introduced only into the final draft of the "Memoirs" in 1792–93.<ref>Womersley, ''Gibbon and the 'Watchmen of the Holy City': The Historian and His Reputation, 1776–1815'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), as cited by G. M. Bowersock in ''The New York Review of Books'', 25 November 2010, p.&nbsp;56.</ref>

Within weeks of his conversion, he was removed from Oxford and sent to live under the care and tutelage of Daniel Pavillard, Reformed pastor of [[Lausanne]], [[Switzerland]]. There, he made one of his life's two great friendships, that of [[Jacques Georges Deyverdun]] (the French-language translator of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe's]] ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]''), and that of [[John Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield|John Baker Holroyd (later Lord Sheffield)]]. Just a year and a half later, after his father threatened to disinherit him, on Christmas Day, 1754, he reconverted to Protestantism. "The various articles of the Romish creed," he wrote, "disappeared like a dream".<ref>John Murray (ed.). ''[https://archive.org/stream/autobiographies00gibbgoog?ref=ol#page/n12 The Autobiographies of Edward Gibbon]''.  (London: John Murray, 1896), p. 137.</ref>

===Thwarted romance===
[[File:Duplessis - Suzanne Curchod, Madame Necker.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Suzanne Curchod]]]]
He also met the one romance in his life: the daughter of the pastor of Crassy, a young woman named [[Suzanne Curchod]], who was later to become the wife of [[Louis XVI]]'s finance minister [[Jacques Necker]], and the mother of [[Germaine de Staël|Madame de Staël]]. The two developed a warm affinity; Gibbon proceeded to propose marriage,<ref>Norton, ''Biblio'', p. 2; &nbsp; ''Letters'', vol. 1, p. 396. a concise summary of their relationship is found at 396–401.</ref> but ultimately this was out of the question, blocked both by his father's staunch disapproval and Curchod's equally staunch reluctance to leave Switzerland. Gibbon returned to England in August 1758 to face his father. No refusal of the elder's wishes could be allowed. Gibbon put it this way: "I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son."<ref>Murray, p. 239. The phrase, "sighed [etc.]" alludes to the play ''Polyeucte'' by "the father of French tragedy," [[Pierre Corneille]]. Womersley, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', p. 11.</ref> He proceeded to cut off all contact with Curchod, even as she vowed to wait for him. Their final emotional break apparently came at [[Ferney]], France, in early 1764, though they did see each other at least one more time a year later.<ref>Womersley, 11–12.</ref>

===First fame and the Grand tour: 1758–1765===
[[File:Keep of Portchester Castle, 2008.jpg|thumb|[[Portchester Castle]] came under Gibbon's command for a brief period while he was an officer in the South Hampshire Militia.<ref>{{harvnb|Goodall|2008|p=38}}</ref>]]
Upon his return to England, Gibbon published his first book, ''Essai sur l'Étude de la Littérature'' in 1761, which produced an initial taste of celebrity and distinguished him, in Paris at least, as a man of letters.<ref>In the ''Essai'', the 24-year-old boldly braved the reigning philosoph[e]ic fashion to uphold the studious values and practices of the ''érudits'' (antiquarian scholars). Womersley, p. 11; and ''[[Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon#The Miscellaneous Works|The Miscellaneous Works]]'', 1st ed., vol. 2.</ref>

On 12 June 1759 Gibbon was commissioned as a [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]] in the [[South Hampshire Militia]] when that regiment was embodied during the [[Seven Years' War]] (his father served as the regiment's [[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]]). For the next three years he commanded the regiment's Grenadier Company in home defence. The militia was disembodied in December 1762 but he remained an officer in the regiment, resigning as a [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-Colonel]] in 1770. Gibbon later credited his militia service with providing him "a larger introduction into the English world." There was further, the matter of a vast utility: "The discipline and evolutions of a modern battalion gave me a clearer notion of the phalanx and the legion; and the captain of the Hampshire grenadiers (the reader may smile) has not been useless to the historian of the Roman empire."<ref>Murray, p. 190.</ref><ref>Lloyd-Verney, pp. 144, 151, 164–74.</ref><ref name = Womersley11>Womersley, ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', pp. 11, 12.</ref>

In 1763 he returned, via Paris, to Lausanne, where he made the acquaintance of a "prudent worthy young man" William Guise. On 18 April 1764, he and Guise set off for Italy, crossed the Alps, and after spending the summer in Florence arrived in Rome, via Lucca, Pisa, Livorno and Siena, in early October.<ref>[[Edward Chaney]], "Reiseerlebnis und 'Traumdeutung' bei Edward Gibbon und William Beckford", ''Europareisen politisch-sozialer Eliten im 18.Jahrhundert'', eds. J. Rees, W. Siebers and H. Tilgner (Berlin 2002), pp. 244–245; cf. Chaney, "Gibbon, Beckford and the Interpretation of ''Dreams''," pp. 40–41.</ref> In his autobiography, Gibbon vividly records his rapture when he finally neared "the great object of [my] pilgrimage":

<blockquote>...at the distance of twenty-five years I can neither forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I first approached and entered the ''eternal City''.  After a sleepless night, I trod, with a lofty step the ruins of the Forum; each memorable spot where Romulus ''stood'', or [[Cicero|Tully]] spoke, or Caesar fell, was at once present to my eye; and several days of intoxication were lost or enjoyed before I could descend to a cool and minute investigation.<ref>Chaney, p. 40 and Murray, pp. 266–267.</ref></blockquote>

Here, Gibbon first conceived the idea of composing a history of the city, later extended to the entire [[Roman Empire|empire]], a moment he described later as his "Capitoline vision":<ref>Pocock, "Classical History," ¶ #2.</ref>

<blockquote>It was at Rome, on the fifteenth of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the [[Capitoline Hill|Capitol]], while the barefooted fryars were singing [[vespers]] in the [[Santa Maria Aracoeli|temple]] of [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]], that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the City first started to my mind.<ref>Murray, p. 302.</ref></blockquote>

Womersley<ref name = Womersley11/> notes the existence of "good reasons" to doubt the statement's accuracy. Elaborating, Pocock ("Classical History," ¶ #2) refers to it as a likely "creation of memory" or a "literary invention", given that Gibbon, in his autobiography, claimed that his journal dated the reminiscence to 15 October, when in fact the journal gives no date.

===Late career: 1765–1776===
====Work====
In June 1765, Gibbon returned to his father's house, remaining there until the latter's death in 1770.<ref>Cecil, Algernon. ''Six Oxford thinkers: Edward Gibbon, John Henry Newman, R.W. Church, James Anthony Froude, Walter Pater, Lord Morley of Blackburn.'' London: John Murray, 1909, p. 59.</ref> These five years were considered by Gibbon as the worst of his life, but he tried to remain busy by making early attempts at full histories. His first historical narrative, known as the ''History of Switzerland'', representing Gibbon's love for Switzerland, was never finished nor published. Even under the guidance of Deyverdun, his German translator, Gibbon became too self-critical and completely abandoned the project after writing only 60 pages of text.<ref>Cecil, Algernon. ''Six Oxford thinkers: Edward Gibbon, John Henry Newman, R.W. Church, James Anthony Froude, Walter Pater, Lord Morley of Blackburn.'' London: John Murray, 1909, p. 60.</ref>

Soon after abandoning his ''History of Switzerland'', Gibbon made another attempt towards completing a full history. His second work, ''Memoires Litteraires de la Grande Bretagne'', was a two-volume set describing the literary and social conditions of England at the time, such as [[George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton|Lord Lyttelton]]'s history of Henry II and [[Nathaniel Lardner]]'s ''The Credibility of the Gospel History''.<ref>Cecil, Algernon. ''Six Oxford thinkers: Edward Gibbon, John Henry Newman, R.W. Church, James Anthony Froude, Walter Pater, Lord Morley of Blackburn.'' London: John Murray, 1909, p. 61.</ref> Gibbon's ''Memoires Litteraires'' failed to gain any notoriety and was considered a flop by fellow historians and literary scholars.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morley |first1=John |title=English Men of Letters |date=May 1878 |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |pages=61–62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m10LAAAAIAAJ&q=Gibbon%27s+Memoires+Litteraires&pg=PA62 |access-date=3 May 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Blue Plaque - Edward Gibbon.jpg|thumb|left|Blue plaque to Gibbon on [[Bentinck Street]], London]]

After he tended to his father's estate&mdash;which was in poor condition&mdash;enough remained for Gibbon to settle fashionably in London at 7 [[Bentinck Street]] free of financial concern. By February 1773, he was writing in earnest, but not without the occasional self-imposed distraction. He took to London society quite easily, joined the better social clubs (including [[Samuel Johnson|Dr. Johnson]]'s [[The Club (dining club)|Literary Club]]), and looked in from time to time on his friend Holroyd in Sussex. He succeeded [[Oliver Goldsmith]] at the Royal Academy as 'professor in ancient history', an honorary but prestigious position. In late 1774, he was initiated as a [[Freemasonry|Freemason]] of the [[Premier Grand Lodge of England]].<ref>i.e., in London's ''Lodge of Friendship No. 3''. See [http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/gibbon_e/gibbon_e.html Gibbon's freemasonry].</ref>

He was also, perhaps least productively in that same year, returned to the House of Commons for [[Liskeard (UK Parliament constituency)|Liskeard]], Cornwall through the intervention of his relative and patron, [[Edward Craggs-Eliot, 1st Baron Eliot|Edward Eliot]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/gibbon-edward-1737-94|title= Gibbon, Edward (1737–94), of Bentinck St., London; Buriton, Hants; and Lenborough, Bucks|publisher= History of Parliament Online|access-date= 10 May 2016|archive-date= 6 August 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190806184106/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/gibbon-edward-1737-94|url-status= dead}}</ref>  He became the archetypal back-bencher, benignly "mute" and "indifferent," his support of the [[Whig (British political party)|Whig]] ministry invariably automatic. Gibbon lost the Liskeard seat in 1780 when Eliot joined the opposition, taking with him "the Electors of Leskeard [who] are commonly of the same opinion as Mr. El[l]iot." (Murray, p.&nbsp;322.) The following year, owing to the good grace of Prime Minister [[Lord North]], he was again returned to Parliament, this time for [[Lymington (UK Parliament constituency)|Lymington]] on a by-election.<ref>Gibbon's Whiggery was solidly conservative, in favour of the propertied oligarchy, while upholding the subject's rights under the rule of law&mdash;though staunchly against ideas such as the natural rights of man and popular sovereignty, which he referred to as "the wild & mischievous system of Democracy" (Dickinson, "Politics," 178–179).</ref>

====''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'': 1776–1788====
{{Main|The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire}}
After several rewrites, with Gibbon "often tempted to throw away the labours of seven years," the first volume of what was to become his life's major achievement, ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', was published on 17 February 1776.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thompson |first=James Westfall |date=1938 |title=Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3633902 |journal=Pacific Historical Review |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=93–119 |doi=10.2307/3633902 |issn=0030-8684}}</ref> Through 1777, the reading public eagerly consumed three editions, for which Gibbon was rewarded handsomely: two-thirds of the profits, amounting to approximately £1,000 (equivalent of around £210,000 in 2025).<ref>Norton, ''Biblio'', pp. 37, 45. Gibbon sold the copyrights to the remaining editions of volume 1 and the remaining 5 volumes to publishers Strahan & Cadell for £8000.  The great ''History'' earned the author a total of about £9000.</ref>

Volumes II and III appeared on 1 March 1781, eventually rising "to a level with the previous volume in general esteem." Volume IV was finished in June 1784;<ref>Norton, ''Biblio'', pp. 49, 57. Both Norton and Womersley (''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', p. 14) establish that vol. IV was ''substantially'' complete by the end of 1783.</ref> the final two were completed during a second Lausanne sojourn (September 1783 to August 1787) where Gibbon reunited with his friend Deyverdun in leisurely comfort. By early 1787, he was "straining for the goal" and with great relief the project was finished in June. Gibbon later wrote:

{{blockquote|It was on the day, or rather the night, of 27 June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden...I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken my everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that, whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.<ref>Murray, [https://archive.org/stream/autobiographies00gibbgoog?ref=ol#page/n366 pp. 333–334]</ref>}}

Volumes IV, V, and VI finally reached the press in May 1788, their publication having been delayed since March so it could coincide with a dinner party celebrating Gibbon's 51st birthday (the 8th).<ref>Norton, ''Biblio'', p. 61.</ref> Mounting a bandwagon of praise for the later volumes were such contemporary luminaries as [[Adam Smith]], [[William Robertson (historian)|William Robertson]], [[Adam Ferguson]], [[Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden|Lord Camden]], and [[Horace Walpole]]. Adam Smith told Gibbon that "by the universal assent of every man of taste and learning, whom I either know or correspond with, it sets you at the very head of the whole literary tribe at present existing in Europe."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Autobiography and Correspondence of Edward Gibbon, the Historian|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_B-cETgg1h2MC|year=1869|publisher=Alex. Murray|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_B-cETgg1h2MC/page/n348 345]}}</ref>
In November 1788, he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]], the main proposer being his good friend Lord Sheffield.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=2&dsqSearch=%28%28text%29%3D%27gibbon%27%29|title= Fellow Details|publisher= Royal Society|access-date= 10 May 2016|archive-date= 16 November 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181116082704/https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=2&dsqSearch=%28%28text%29%3D%27gibbon%27%29|url-status= dead}}</ref>

In 1783 Gibbon had been intrigued by the cleverness of Sheffield's 12-year-old eldest daughter, [[Maria Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley|Maria]], and he proposed to teach her himself. Over the following years he continued, creating a girl of sixteen who was both well educated, confident and determined to choose her own husband. Gibbon described her as a "mixture of just observation and lively imagery, the strong sense of a man expressed with the easy elegance of a female".<ref name=maria>{{Cite ODNB|title=Stanley [née Holroyd], Lady Maria Josepha (1771–1863), letter writer and liberal advocate|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-74489|access-date=4 January 2021|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/74489|last1=Stern|first1=Marvin}}</ref>

==Later life: 1789–1794==
[[File:Gibbon memorial tablet 1.jpg|thumb|Gibbon's memorial tablet on the Sheffield Mausoleum in St Andrew & St Mary The Virgin's church in [[Fletching, East Sussex]]]]
The years following Gibbon's completion of ''The History'' were filled largely with sorrow and increasing physical discomfort. He had returned to London in late 1787 to oversee the publication process alongside [[John Baker-Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield|Lord Sheffield]]. With that accomplished, in 1789 it was back to Lausanne only to learn of and be "deeply affected" by the death of Deyverdun, who had willed Gibbon his home, La Grotte. He resided there with little commotion, took in the local society, received a visit from Sheffield in 1791, and "shared the common abhorrence" of the [[French Revolution]]. In 1793, word came of Lady Sheffield's death; Gibbon immediately left Lausanne and set sail to comfort a grieving but composed Sheffield. His health began to fail critically in December, and at the turn of the new year, he was on his last legs.<ref name="DNB" />

Among Edward Gibbon's maladies was gout.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/p/porter-gout.html|website=The New York Times|date=1998|title=Gout, The Patrician Malady|author=Roy Porter and G.S. Rousseau}}</ref> Gibbon is also believed to have suffered from an extreme case of scrotal swelling, probably a [[hydrocele testis]], a condition that causes the scrotum to swell with fluid in a compartment overlying either testicle.<ref>{{cite journal|title= 'Varnish the business for the ladies': Edward Gibbon's decline and fall|pmc=1297297 |pmid=10615283 |volume=92 |issue= 7|year=1999 |journal=J R Soc Med |pages=374–79 | last1 = Jellinek | first1 = E. H.|doi = 10.1177/014107689909200716}}</ref> In an age when close-fitting clothes were fashionable, his condition led to a chronic and disfiguring inflammation that left Gibbon a lonely figure.<!-- this is out until we find where it is. He was to write, "I can recall only fourteen truly happy days in my life." Gibbon, ''Memoirs''.--><ref>After more than two centuries, the exact nature of Gibbon's ailment remains a bone of contention. [[Patricia Craddock]], in a very full and graphic account of Gibbon's last days, notes that Sir Gavin de Beer's medical analysis of 1949 "makes it ''certain'' that Gibbon did ''not'' have a true hydrocele...and highly probable that he was suffering both from a 'large and irreducible hernia' and cirrhosis of the liver." Also worthy of note are Gibbon's congenial and even joking moods while in excruciating pain as he neared the end. Both authors report this late bit of Gibbonian bawdiness: "Why is a fat man like a Cornish Borough? Because he never sees his member." see Womersley, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', p. 16;  Craddock, ''Luminous Historian'', 334–342; and Beer, "Malady".</ref> As his condition worsened, he underwent numerous procedures to alleviate the condition, but with no enduring success.  In early January, the last of a series of three operations caused an unremitting [[peritonitis]] to set in and spread, from which he died.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

The "English giant of the Enlightenment"<ref>so styled by the "unrivalled master of Enlightenment studies," historian Franco Venturi (1914–1994) in his ''Utopia and Reform in the Enlightenment'' (Cambridge: 1971), p. 132. See Pocock, ''Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon'', p. 6; x.</ref> finally succumbed at 12:45 pm, 16 January 1794 at age 56. He was buried in the Sheffield Mausoleum attached to the north transept of the Church of St Mary and St Andrew, [[Fletching, East Sussex]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mmtrust.org.uk/mausolea/view/357/Sheffield_Mausoleum|title=Sheffield Mausoleum - Mausolea & Monuments Trust|website=www.mmtrust.org.uk|access-date=25 July 2015|archive-date=25 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725073325/http://www.mmtrust.org.uk/mausolea/view/357/Sheffield_Mausoleum|url-status=dead}}</ref> having died in Fletching while staying with his great friend, [[John Baker-Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield|Lord Sheffield]]. Gibbon's estate was valued at approximately £26,000. He left most of his property to cousins. As stipulated in his will, Sheffield oversaw the sale of his library at auction to [[William Thomas Beckford|William Beckford]] for £950.<ref>Womersley, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', 17–18.</ref> What happened next suggests that Beckford may have known of Gibbon's moralistic, 'impertinent animadversion' at his expense in the presence of the Duchess of Devonshire at Lausanne. Gibbon's wish that his 6,000-book library would not be locked up 'under the key of a jealous master' was effectively denied by Beckford who retained it in Lausanne until 1801 before inspecting it, then locking it up again until at least as late as 1818 before giving most of the books back to Gibbon's physician Dr Scholl who had helped negotiate the sale in the first place. Beckford's annotated copy of the ''Decline and Fall'' turned up in Christie's in 1953, complete with his critique of what he considered the author's 'ludicrous self-complacency ... your frequent distortion of historical Truth to provoke a gibe, or excite a sneer ... your ignorance of oriental languages [etc.]'.<ref>[[Edward Chaney]], "Gibbon, Beckford and the Interpretation of ''Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents''", ''The Beckford Society Annual Lectures 2000–2003'' (Beckford Society, 2004), pp. 45-47</ref>

==Legacy==
{{Conservatism UK|Intellectuals}}
A view frequently attributed to Gibbon, that the Roman Empire fell due to its embrace of Christianity, is not widely accepted by scholars today. Gibbon argued that with the empire's new Christian character, large sums of wealth that would have otherwise been used in secular affairs, promoting the state, were transferred to promoting the activities of the Church. However, the pre-Christian empire also spent large financial sums on religious affairs and it is unclear whether or not the change of religion increased the resources the empire spent on religion. Gibbon further argued that the new attitudes introduced by Christianity caused many Christians of wealth to renounce their lifestyles and enter hermitages or monasteries, and so stop participating in the support of the empire. However, while many Christians of wealth did become monastics, their numbers paled in comparison to the numbers of participants in the imperial bureaucracy. Although Gibbon further pointed out that the emphasis Christianity placed on peace caused a decline in the number of people serving the military, the decline was so small as to be negligible for the army's effectiveness.<ref>Heather, Peter. The Fall of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, 2005, 122–123.</ref><ref>{{New Cambridge Medieval History | volume=1 | last = Gerberding | first = Richard | chapter= The later Roman Empire | pages= 25–26}}</ref>

Many scholars argue that Gibbon did not in fact blame Christianity for the decline and fall of the empire. Rather, he attributed them to the effects of luxury and the consequent erosion of the Romans' martial character. Such a view echoes the outlook of the Greek historian Polybius, who similarly explained the eclipse of the decadent Greek world by the ascendant Roman Republic in Mediterranean affairs. In this understanding of Gibbon, the process of Rome's decay was well under way before Christian adherents had become a large proportion of the population. Hence, although Gibbon might have seen Christianity as hastening Rome's fall, he did not consider it as the root cause.<ref>{{cite journal|title= Gibbon Observed |volume=81 |year=1991 |journal=The Journal of Roman Studies |pages=132–56 | last1 = Ghosh | first1 = P. R.|doi = 10.2307/300494|jstor=300494 |s2cid=250351907 }} p. 137</ref><ref>Pocock, ''Religion: The First Triumph''. See p. ix, xiii.</ref>

Gibbon's work has been criticised for its scathing view of the Christian church, as laid down in chapters XV and XVI, which resulted in the banning of the book in several countries. Gibbon was accused of disrespecting Christian doctrine by "treat[ing] the Christian church as a phenomenon of general history, not a special case admitting supernatural explanations and disallowing criticism of its adherents". More specifically, the chapters excoriated the church for "supplanting in an unnecessarily destructive way the great culture that preceded it", and for "the outrage of [practising] religious intolerance and warfare".<ref>Craddock, ''Luminous Historian'', p. 60; also see Shelby Thomas McCloy, ''Gibbon's Antagonism to Christianity'' (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1933). Gibbon, however, begins chapter XV with what appears to be a moderately ''positive'' appraisal of the Church's rise to power and authority. He documents one primary and five secondary causes of the rapid spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire: primarily, "the convincing evidence of the doctrine itself, and ... the ruling providence of its great Author";  secondarily, "exclusive zeal, the immediate expectation of another world, the claim of miracles, the practice of rigid virtue, and the constitution of the primitive church". (first quotation: Gibbon in Craddock, ''Luminous Historian'', p. 61; second quotation: Gibbon in Womersley, ''Decline and Fall'', vol. 1, ch. XV, p. 497.)</ref>

In letters to Holroyd and others, Gibbon showed that he expected some church-inspired backlash, but the harshness of the ensuing criticisms exceeded anything he or his friends had anticipated. Contemporary detractors such as [[Joseph Priestley]] and [[Richard Watson (bishop of Llandaff)|Richard Watson]] stoked the nascent fire, but the most severe of the attacks was an "acrimonious" piece by the young cleric Henry Edwards Davis.<ref>Henry Edwards Davis, ''An Examination of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of Mr. Gibbon's'' History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London: J. Dodsley, 1778).  [https://archive.org/details/anexaminationfi00davigoog online].</ref>

Gibbon's apparent antagonism to Christian doctrine spilled over into hostility to Judaism, leading to charges of [[anti-Semitism]]. For example, he wrote:

<blockquote>From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which they committed in [[Diaspora Revolt|the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene]], where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives; and we are tempted to applaud the severe retaliation which was exercised by the arms of legions against a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but also of mankind.<ref>Womersley, ed., ''Decline and Fall'', vol. 1, ch. XVI, p. 516. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gibbon/02/daf02001.htm see online] Gibbon's first footnote here reveals even more about why his detractors reacted so harshly: ''In Cyrene, [the Jews] massacred 220,000 Greeks; in Cyprus, 240,000; in Egypt, a very great multitude.  Many of these unhappy victims were sawed asunder, according to a precedent to which David had given the sanction of his examples. The victorious Jews devoured the flesh, licked up the blood, and twisted the entrails like a girdle around their bodies. see Dion Cassius l. lxviii, p. 1145.'' As a matter of fact, this is a verbatim citation from [http://cojs.org/cojswiki/Dio_Cassius,_Historia_Romana_LXVIII,_32:1-3:_The_Jewish_Uprising Dio Cassius, Historia Romana LXVIII, 32:1–3: The Jewish Uprising] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306014330/http://cojs.org/cojswiki/Dio_Cassius,_Historia_Romana_LXVIII,_32:1-3:_The_Jewish_Uprising |date=6 March 2013 }}: ''Meanwhile, the Jews in the region of Cyrene had put one Andreas at their head and were destroying both the Romans and the Greeks. They would cook their flesh, make belts for themselves of their entrails, anoint themselves with their blood, and wear their skins for clothing. Many they sawed in two, from the head downwards. Others they would give to wild beasts and force still others to fight as gladiators. In all, consequently, two hundred and twenty thousand perished. In Egypt, also, they performed many similar deeds, and in Cyprus under the leadership of Artemio. There, likewise, two hundred and forty thousand perished. For this reason no Jew may set foot in that land, but even if one of them is driven upon the island by force of the wind, he is put to death. Various persons took part in subduing these Jews, one being Lusius, who was sent by Trajan.''</ref></blockquote>

===Influence===
[[File:Edward Gibbon by Henry Walton cleaned.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Edward Gibbon by [[Henry Walton (English painter)|Henry Walton]] (1773)]]

Gibbon is considered to be a son of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and this is reflected in his famous verdict on the history of the [[Middle Ages]]: "I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion."<ref>Womersley, ''Decline and Fall'', vol. 3, ch. LXXI, p. 1068.</ref> Politically, he rejected the radical egalitarian movements of the time, notably the [[American Revolution|American]] and [[French Revolution]]s, and dismissed overly rationalistic applications of the [[Human rights|rights of man]].<ref>Burke supported the ''American'' rebellion, while Gibbon sided with the ministry; but with regard to the ''French'' Revolution they shared a perfect revulsion. Despite their agreement on the FR, Burke and Gibbon "were not specially close," owing to Whig party differences and divergent religious beliefs, not to mention Burke's sponsorship of the [[Civil List and Secret Service Money Act 1782]] which abolished, and therefore cost Gibbon his place on, the government's Board of Trade and Plantations in 1782. see Pocock, "The Ironist," ¶: "Both the autobiography...."</ref>

Gibbon's work has been praised for its style, its piquant epigrams and its effective irony. [[Winston Churchill]] wrote in ''[[My Early Life]]'', "I set out upon ... Gibbon's ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' [and] was immediately dominated both by the story and the style. ... I devoured Gibbon. I rode triumphantly through it from end to end and enjoyed it all."<ref>Winston Churchill, ''My Early Life: A Roving Commission'' (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958), p. 111.</ref> Churchill modelled much of his own literary style on Gibbon's. Like Gibbon, he dedicated himself to producing a "vivid historical narrative, ranging widely over period and place and enriched by analysis and reflection".<ref>Roland Quinault, "Winston Churchill and Gibbon," in ''Edward Gibbon and Empire'', eds. R.  McKitterick and R. Quinault (Cambridge: 1997), 317–332, at p. 331; Pocock, "Ironist," ¶: "Both the autobiography...."</ref>

Unusually for the 18th century, Gibbon was never content with secondhand accounts when the primary sources were accessible, though most of these were drawn from well-known printed editions. "I have always endeavoured," he wrote, "to draw from the fountain-head; that my curiosity, as well as a sense of duty, has always urged me to study the originals; and that, if they have sometimes eluded my search, I have carefully marked the secondary evidence, on whose faith a passage or a fact were reduced to depend."<ref>Womersley, ''Decline and Fall'', vol. 2, Preface to Gibbon vol. 4, p. 520.</ref> In this insistence upon the importance of primary sources, Gibbon is considered by many to be one of the first modern historians:

<blockquote>In accuracy, thoroughness, lucidity, and comprehensive grasp of a vast subject, the 'History' is unsurpassable. It is the one English history which may be regarded as definitive...Whatever its shortcomings the book is artistically imposing as well as historically unimpeachable as a vast panorama of a great period.<ref>Stephen, ''DNB'', p. 1134.</ref></blockquote>

The subject of Gibbon's writing, as well as his ideas and style, have influenced other writers. Besides his influence on Churchill, Gibbon was also a model for [[Isaac Asimov]] in his writing of ''[[The Foundation Series|The Foundation Trilogy]]'', which, Asimov wrote, involved "a little bit of cribbin' from the works of Edward Gibbon".<ref>Groat, Brian. "[https://medium.com/self-starter/asimov-on-how-to-be-prolific-43ccd8042ccb Asimov on How to Be Prolific]". Medium.com, 25 October 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2018</ref>

[[Evelyn Waugh]] admired Gibbon's style but not his secularism. In Waugh's novel ''[[Helena (Waugh novel)|Helena]]'' (1950), the early Christian author [[Lactantius]] worries about the possibility of {{"'}}a false historian, with the mind of [[Cicero]] or [[Tacitus]] and the soul of an animal,' and he nodded towards the [[gibbon]] who fretted his golden chain and chattered for fruit".<ref>London: Chapman and Hall, 1950. Chapter 6, p. 122.</ref>

==Monographs by Gibbon==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* ''Essai sur l’Étude de la Littérature'' (London: Becket & De Hondt, 1761).
* ''Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of [Vergil's] {{'}}The Aeneid{{'}}'' (London: Elmsley, 1770).
* ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]''  (vol. I, 1776; vols. II, III, 1781; vols. IV, V, VI, 1788–1789). all London: Strahan & Cadell.
* ''A Vindication of some passages in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' (London: J. Dodsley, 1779).
* ''Mémoire Justificatif pour servir de Réponse à l’Exposé, etc. de la Cour de France'' (London: Harrison & Brooke, 1779).
{{div col end}}

==Other writings by Gibbon==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* "Lettre sur le gouvernement de Berne" [Letter No. IX. Mr. Gibbon to *** on the Government of Berne], in ''Miscellaneous Works'', First (1796) edition, vol. 1 (below). Scholars differ on the date of its composition (Norman, D.M. Low: 1758–59; Pocock: 1763–64).
* ''Mémoires Littéraires de la Grande-Bretagne''. co-author: Georges Deyverdun (2 vols.: vol. 1, London: Becket & De Hondt, 1767; vol. 2, London: Heydinger, 1768).
* ''[[Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon]], Esq.'', ed. John Lord Sheffield (2 vols., London: Cadell & Davies, 1796; 5 vols., London: J. Murray, 1814; 3 vols., London: J. Murray, 1815). Includes ''[[Memoirs of My Life and Writings|Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Edward Gibbon, Esq.]]''.
* [https://archive.org/stream/autobiographiesp05gibbuoft#page/n7/mode/2up''Autobiographies of Edward Gibbon'', ed. John Murray (London: J. Murray, 1896). EG's complete memoirs (six drafts) from the original manuscripts].
* ''The Private Letters of Edward Gibbon'', 2 vols., ed. Rowland E. Prothero (London: J. Murray, 1896).
* ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=YN88AAAAIAAJ The works of Edward Gibbon, Volume 3]'' 1906.
* ''Gibbon's Journal to 28 January 1763'', ed. D.M. Low (London: Chatto and Windus, 1929).
* ''Le Journal de Gibbon à Lausanne'', ed. Georges A. Bonnard (Lausanne: Librairie de l'Université, 1945).
* ''Miscellanea Gibboniana'', eds. G.R. de Beer, L. Junod, G.A. Bonnard (Lausanne: Librairie de l'Université, 1952).
* ''The Letters of Edward Gibbon'', 3 vols., ed. J.E. Norton (London: Cassell & Co., 1956). vol. 1: 1750–1773; vol. 2: 1774–1784; vol. 3: 1784–1794. cited as 'Norton, ''Letters''<nowiki>'</nowiki>.
* ''Gibbon's Journey from Geneva to Rome'', ed. G.A. Bonnard (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1961). journal.
* ''Edward Gibbon: Memoirs of My Life'', ed. G.A. Bonnard (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1969; 1966). portions of EG's memoirs arranged chronologically, omitting repetition.
* ''The English Essays of Edward Gibbon'', ed. [[Patricia Craddock]] (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972); hb: {{ISBN|0-19-812496-1}}.
{{div col end}}

==See also==
* [[The Work of J.G.A. Pocock#Edward Gibbon|''The Work of J.G.A. Pocock'': ''Edward Gibbon'' section]]
* ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire#Further reading|The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Further reading]]''
* ''The [[Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon]]''
* ''[[Outline of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire#A Gibbon chronology|A Gibbon chronology]]''
* [[Historiography of the United Kingdom]]

==Notes==
Most of this article, including quotations unless otherwise noted, has been adapted from Stephen's entry on Edward Gibbon in the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]''.<ref name="DNB">Original text: {{cite DNB|wstitle=Gibbon, Edward |first=Leslie |last=Stephen |volume=21 |pages=250–256}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Sources ===
* Beer, G. R. de. "The Malady of Edward Gibbon, F.R.S." ''Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London'' 7:1 (December 1949), 71–80.
* Craddock, Patricia B. ''Edward Gibbon, Luminous Historian 1772–1794''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. HB: {{ISBN|0-8018-3720-0}}. Biography.
* Dickinson, H. T. "The Politics of Edward Gibbon". ''Literature and History'' 8:4 (1978), 175–196.
*{{citation |last=Goodall |first=John |author-link=John Goodall (author) |title=Portchester Castle |publisher=[[English Heritage]] |year=2008 |location=London |isbn=978-1-84802-007-8}}
* [[D. M. Low|Low, D. M.]], ''Edward Gibbon. 1737–1794'' (London: Chatto & Windus, 1937).
* Murray, John (ed.), ''The Autobiographies of Edward Gibbon. Second Edition'' (London: John Murray, 1897).
* Norton, J. E. ''A Bibliography of the Works of Edward Gibbon''. New York: Burt Franklin Co., 1940, repr. 1970.
* Norton, J .E. ''The Letters of Edward Gibbon''. 3 vols. London: Cassell & Co. Ltd., 1956.
* Pocock, J. G. A. ''The Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon, 1737–1764''. Cambridge University Press, 1999. HB: {{ISBN|0-521-63345-1}}.
* Pocock, J. G. A. ''Religion: The First Triumph''. Cambridge University Press, 2010. HB: {{ISBN|0-521-760720}}.
* Pocock, J. G. A. "Classical and Civil History: The Transformation of Humanism". ''Cromohs'' 1 (1996). Online at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20020215010237/http://www.unifi.it/riviste/cromohs/1_96/pocock.html Università degli Studi di Firenze]. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
* Pocock, J. G. A. "The Ironist". Review of David Womersley's ''The Watchmen of the Holy City''. ''London Review of Books'' 24:22 (14 November 2002). Online at the [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n22/jga-pocock/the-ironist London Review of Books] (subscribers only). Retrieved 20 November 2009.
* Gibbon, Edward. ''Memoirs of My Life and Writings''.  [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/gbnlw10.txt Online at Gutenberg]. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
* Stephen, Sir Leslie, "Gibbon, Edward (1737–1794)". In the ''Dictionary of National Biography'', eds. Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee. Oxford: 1921, repr. 1963. Vol. 7, 1129–1135.
* {{cite book | last=Lloyd-Verney | first=George Hope | last2=Hunt | first2=J. Mouat F. | title=Records of the Infantry Militia Battalions of the County of Southampton from A.D. 1757 to 1894 | publisher=Longmans, Green | date=1894 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JqKMU8lkcUIC }} Republished by Legare Street Press, 2023, {{ISBN|978-1-02-178473-5}}
* Womersley, David, ed. ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''. 3 vols. (Penguin, 1994).
* Womersley, David. "Introduction," in Womersley, ''Decline and Fall'', vol. 1, xi–cvi.
* Womersley, David. "Gibbon, Edward (1737–1794)". In the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', eds. H.C.G. Matthew and  Brian Harrison. Oxford University Press, 2004. Vol. 22, 8–18.

==Further reading==

===Before 1985===
* Barlow, J. W. (1879). “Gibbon and Julian”. In: [https://books.google.com/books?id=fHkNAAAAYAAJ ''Hermathena'', Volume 3], 142–159. Dublin: Edward Posonby.
* Beer, Gavin de. ''Gibbon and His World''. London: Thames and Hudson, 1968. HB: {{ISBN|0-670-28981-7}}.
* Bowersock, G. W., ''et al''. eds. ''Edward Gibbon and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''. Harvard University Press, 1977.
* Craddock, Patricia B. ''Young Edward Gibbon: Gentleman of Letters''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982. HB: {{ISBN|0-8018-2714-0}}. Biography.
* Jordan, David. ''Gibbon and his Roman Empire''. University of Illinois Press, 1971.
* Keynes, Geoffrey, ed. ''The Library of Edward Gibbon''. 2nd ed.  Godalming, England: St. Paul's Bibliographies, 1940, repr. 1980.
* Lewis, Bernard. "Gibbon on Muhammad". ''Daedalus'' 105:3 (Summer 1976), 89–101.
* Low, D. M. ''Edward Gibbon 1737–1794''. London: Chatto and Windus, 1937. Biography.
* Momigliano, Arnaldo. "Gibbon's Contributions to Historical Method". ''Historia'' 2 (1954), 450–463. Reprinted in Momigliano, ''Studies in Historiography'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1966; Garland Pubs., 1985), 40–55. PB: {{ISBN|0-8240-6372-4}}.
* Porter, Roger J. "Gibbon's Autobiography: Filling Up the Silent Vacancy". ''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' 8:1 (Autumn 1974), 1–26.
* [[Leslie Stephen|Stephen, Leslie]], "[[s:Studies of a Biographer/Gibbon's Autobiography|Gibbon's Autobiography]]" in ''Studies of a Biographer'', Vol. 1 (1898)
* Swain, J. W. ''Edward Gibbon the Historian''. St. Martin's Press, 1966.
* {{cite journal | last1 = Turnbull | first1 = Paul | year = 1982 | title = The Supposed Infidelity of Edward Gibbon | journal = Historical Journal | volume = 5 | pages = 23–41 | doi = 10.1017/S0018246X00009845 | s2cid = 159801709 }}
* White Jr. Lynn, ed. ''The Transformation of the Roman World: Gibbon's Problem after Two Centuries''. University of California Press, 1966. HB: {{ISBN|0-520-01334-4}}.

===Since 1985===
* Berghahn, C.-F., and T. Kinzel, eds., ''Edward Gibbon im deutschen Sprachraum. Bausteine einer Rezeptionsgeschichte''. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2015.
* Bowersock, G. W. ''Gibbon's Historical Imagination''. Stanford University Press, 1988.
* Burrow, J. W. ''Gibbon (Past Masters)''. Oxford University Press, 1985. HB: {{ISBN|0-19-287553-1}}. PB: {{ISBN|0-19-287552-3}}.
* Carnochan, W. Bliss. ''Gibbon's Solitude: The Inward World of the Historian''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987. HB: {{ISBN|0-8047-1363-4}}.
* Chaney, Edward, "Reiseerlebnis und 'Traumdeutung' bei Edward Gibbon und William Beckford", ''Europareisen politisch-sozialer Eliten im 18. Jahrhundert'', eds. J. Rees, W. Siebers and H. Tilgner (Berlin 2002), pp.&nbsp;243–60. 
* Chaney, Edward, "Gibbon, Beckford and the Interpretation of ''Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents''", ''The Beckford Society Annual Lectures 2000–2003'', ed. Jon Millinton (Beckford Society, 2004).
* Craddock, Patricia B. ''Edward Gibbon: a Reference Guide''. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987. PB: {{ISBN|0-8161-8217-5}}. A comprehensive listing of secondary literature through 1985. See also [https://web.archive.org/web/20120923040746/http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/pcraddoc/dfgib/Newrefgu.htm her supplement] covering the period through 1997.
* Ghosh, Peter R. "Gibbon Observed". ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 81 (1991), 132–156.
* Ghosh, Peter R. "Gibbon's First Thoughts: Rome, Christianity and the ''Essai sur l'Étude de la Litterature'' 1758–61". ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 85 (1995), 148–164.
* Ghosh, Peter R. "The Conception of Gibbon's ''History''", in McKitterick and Quinault, eds. ''Edward Gibbon and Empire'', 271–316.
* Ghosh, Peter R. "Gibbon's Timeless Verity: Nature and Neo-Classicism in the Late Enlightenment," in Womersley, Burrow, Pocock, eds. ''Edward Gibbon: bicentenary essays''.
* Ghosh, Peter R. "Gibbon, Edward 1737–1794 British historian of Rome and universal historian," in Kelly Boyd, ed. ''Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing'' (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1999), 461–463.
* Kapossy, Béla, Lovis, Béatrice (dir.), ''Edward Gibbon et Lausanne. Le Pays de Vaud à la rencontre des Lumières européennes''. Gollion: Infolio, 2022, 528 p.
* Levine, Joseph M., "Edward Gibbon and the Quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns," in Levine, ''Humanism and History: origins of modern English historiography'' (Cornell University Press, 1987).
* Levine, Joseph M. "Truth and Method in Gibbon's Historiography," in Levine, ''The Autonomy of History: truth and method from Erasmus to Gibbon'' (Chicago University Press, 1999).
* McKitterick, R., and R. Quinault, eds. ''Edward Gibbon and Empire''. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
* Norman, Brian.  "The Influence of Switzerland on the Life and Writings of Edward Gibbon," in ''Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century'' [SVEC] v.2002:03. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2002.
* O'Brien, Karen. "English Enlightenment Histories, 1750–c. 1815"  in {{cite book|editor=José Rabasa |title=The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 3: 1400–1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HcVZeiGg4awC&pg=PA518|year=2012|publisher=OUP Oxford|pages=518–35|isbn=978-0199219179}}.
* Pocock, J. G. A. ''Barbarism and Religion'', 4 vols.: vol. 1, ''The Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon, 1737–1764'', 1999 [hb: {{ISBN|0-521-63345-1}}]; vol. 2, ''Narratives of Civil Government'', 1999 [hb: {{ISBN|0-521-64002-4}}]; vol. 3, ''The First Decline and Fall'', 2003 [pb: {{ISBN|0-521-82445-1}}]; vol. 4, ''Barbarians, Savages and Empires'', 2005 [pb: {{ISBN|0-521-72101-6}}]. all Cambridge Univ. Press.
* Porter, Roy. ''Gibbon: Making History''. St. Martin's Press, 1989, HB: {{ISBN|0-312-02728-1}}.
* Turnbull, Paul. "'Une marionnette infidele': the Fashioning of Edward Gibbon's Reputation as the English Voltaire," in Womersley, Burrow, Pocock, eds. ''Edward Gibbon: bicentenary essays''.
* Womersley, David P. ''The Transformation of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire''. Cambridge University Press, 1988. HB: {{ISBN|0-521-35036-0}}.
* Womersley, David P.,  John Burrow, and J. G. A. Pocock, eds. ''Edward Gibbon: bicentenary essays''. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1997. HB: {{ISBN|0-7294-0552-4}}.
* Womersley, David P. ''Gibbon and the ‘Watchmen of the Holy City’: The Historian and His Reputation, 1776–1815''. Oxford University Press, 2002. PB: {{ISBN|0-19-818733-5}}.

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/edward-gibbon}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=375| name=Edward Gibbon}}
** {{gutenberg|no=18851|name=Gibbon, by James Cotter Morison}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Edward Gibbon}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1308}}
* [http://www.his.com/~z/gibho1.html Edward Gibbon, Historian of the Roman Empire. Part 1: The Man and his Book]
* [http://www.his.com/~z/gibho2.html Edward Gibbon, Historian of the Roman Empire. Part 2: A closer look at The Decline and Fall] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20190609174713/http://www.his.com/~z/gibho2.html ''archive link''])
* [http://www.declineandfallresources.com/ DeclineandFallResources.com – Original Maps and Footnote Translations]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120716194652/http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/C18/biblio/gibbon.html Biographer Patricia Craddock's comprehensive bibliography through May 1999] (archived 16 July 2012)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120923040746/http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/pcraddoc/dfgib/Newrefgu.htm Craddock's supplement to her Reference Guide] (archived 23 September 2012)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbon, Edward}}
[[Category:1737 births]]
[[Category:1794 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century English diarists]]
[[Category:18th-century English historians]]
[[Category:18th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:18th-century English non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Acton family|Edward]]
[[Category:Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford]]
[[Category:British Byzantinists]]
[[Category:British critics of religions]]
[[Category:British Freemasons]]
[[Category:British historians of religion]]
[[Category:English male essayists]]
[[Category:English monarchists]]
[[Category:British MPs 1774–1780]]
[[Category:British MPs 1780–1784]]
[[Category:British Protestants]]
[[Category:British rhetoricians]]
[[Category:Burials in East Sussex]]
[[Category:Converts to Protestantism from Catholicism]]
[[Category:Deaths from peritonitis]]
[[Category:English book and manuscript collectors]]
[[Category:English classical scholars]]
[[Category:English essayists]]
[[Category:English Protestants]]
[[Category:English rhetoricians]]
[[Category:Hampshire and Isle of Wight Militia officers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Freemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of England]]
[[Category:Historians of ancient Rome]]
[[Category:Historians of Christianity]]
[[Category:Irony theorists]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for constituencies in Cornwall]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies]]
[[Category:People educated at Kingston Grammar School]]
[[Category:People educated at Westminster School, London]]
[[Category:People from Buriton]]
[[Category:People from Putney]]
[[Category:Rhetoric theorists]]
[[Category:Theorists on Western civilization]]
[[Category:Intellectual historians]]