Ағылшын тарихшысы және кітапханашысы Джон Лиландтың өмірі мен еңбектері

English Tudor poet and antiquary

Leland has been described as "the father of English local history and bibliography". His Itinerary provided a unique source of observations and raw materials for many subsequent antiquaries, and introduced the county as the basic unit for studying the local history of England, an idea that has been influential ever since.

Most evidence for Leland's life and career comes from his own writings, especially his poetry. He was born in London on 13 September, most probably in about 1503, and had an older brother, also named John. Having lost both his parents at an early age, he and his brother were raised by Thomas Myles. Leland was educated at St Paul's School, London, under its first headmaster, William Lily. graduating in 1522 (BA). While in France, Leland kept in touch with his friends and sponsors in England, probably including Thomas Wolsey (d. 1530), Cardinal and Lord Chancellor, who made him rector at Laverstoke, Hampshire. Leland and Nicholas Udall composed verses to be read or recited at the pageant of Anne Boleyn's arrival in London in 1533, which was staged for the occasion of her coronation. Leland spent the next few years travelling from house to house, for the most part shortly before they were dissolved, compiling numerous lists of significant or unusual books in their libraries. About 1535, he met the ex Carmelite churchman and fellow antiquary John Bale, who much admired his work and offered his assistance. He complained that
blockquote|The Germans perceive our desidiousness, and do send daily young scholars hither that spoileth [books], and cutteth them out of libraries, returning home and putting them abroad as monuments of their own country. There is no evidence that he personally oversaw the relocation of the books to their new home or received a librarian's wages. What he did do was to compile his lists of important volumes, and to take measures to encourage their preservation.

Leland was concerned to record evidence for the history of England and Wales as it was visible in the landscape, and he therefore took pains to note all kinds of archaeological remains, including megaliths, hillforts, and Roman and medieval ruins. He came across several Roman inscriptions, though he was unable to read most of them, complaining of one that it was made up of "letters for whole words, and 2. or 3. letters conveid in one". He often reported finds of coins, writing of Richborough, Kent, for example, that more Roman money had been discovered there "then in any place els of England". He investigated and recorded building materials in some detail. He was sometimes able to make astute and informed deductions from what he saw. At Lincoln, for example, he identified three phases of urban development, beginning with a British settlement at the top of the hill (close to which "much Romaine mony is found"), the Saxon and medieval town further south, and a more recent riverside development at Wigford. He was able to judge that the existing fabric of Ripon Minster "indubitately was made sins the Conquest". He correctly distinguished what he called "Briton brykes" (actually Roman bricks) at several geographically dispersed sites, including Verulamium, Richborough, Lympne, Dover Castle, Canterbury, and Bewcastle. He was normally content to record surface remains and recovered artefacts, but on one occasion he adopted a more interventionist approach. At the hillfort at Burrough Hill, Leicestershire, he pulled some stones from the gateway to establish whether it had been walled or not: they were mortared with lime, which persuaded him that it had been. The account included in Leland's Itinerary may be regarded as the earliest archaeological field report.

In 1542, Henry presented Leland with the valuable rectory of Great Haseley, Oxfordshire. and Archbishop Matthew Parker. Leland's own manuscript notebooks were inherited by Cheke's son, Henry, and in 1576 they were borrowed and transcribed by John Stow, allowing their contents to begin to circulate in antiquarian circles. Antiquaries who gained access to them through Stow included William Camden, William Harrison, Robert Glover and Francis Thynne. The original notebooks passed from Henry Cheke to Humphrey Purefoy, and so (following his death in 1598) to Humphrey's son Thomas, who divided many of them between his two cousins John Hales and the antiquary, William Burton. Burton subsequently managed to recover several of the items given to Hales, and in 1632 and 1642–3 donated most of the collection—comprising the Collectanea, De scriptoribus and several of the Itinerary notebooks—to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, where the volumes remain.

The Leland Trail is a 28 mile (45 km) footpath, which follows the footsteps of John Leland as he traversed South Somerset between 1535 and 1543 in the course of his investigation of the region's antiquities. The Leland Trail begins at King Alfred's Tower on the Wiltshire/Somerset border and finishes at Ham Hill Country Park.

This is a new and authoritative edition (with English translation) of the work previously published by Hall as Commentarii de Scriptoribus Britannicis.

Vol. 1
Vol. 2
Vol. 3
Vol. 4
Vol. 5
Vol. 6
Vol. 7
Vol. 8
Vol. 9

Toulmin Smith, Lucy (ed. ), The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535–1543, Vol. 1, Containing Parts 1–3, with General Introduction, Portrait, and 2 Maps, London, 1907
Toulmin Smith, Lucy (ed. ), The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535–1543, Vol. 2, Containing Parts 4 & 5, with an Appendix of Extracts from Leland's Collectanea, and a Map, London, 1908. Toulmin Smith, Lucy (ed. ), The Itinerary in Wales of John Leland in or about the years 1536–1539, Vol. 3 Containing Part 6 (The Itinerary in Wales), with a Map, London, 1906. Toulmin Smith, Lucy (ed. ), The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535–1543, Vol. 4, Containing Parts 7 & 8 with Appendices including Extracts from Leland's Collectanea & 3 Maps, London, 1909. Toulmin Smith, Lucy (ed. ), The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535–1543, Vol. 5, Containing Parts 9–11, Two Appendices, a Glossary and General Index, London, 1910.

Chandler, John (ed. ), John Leland's Itinerary: Travels in Tudor England, Gloucester: Sutton, 1993; revised edn. 1998; 2nd end. Gloucester: Hobnob Press, 2022
This edition, based on Toulmin Smith's, rearranges Leland's topographical descriptions of England (with Wales added in the second edition) in county chapters, and renders them in modern English. It is less authoritative for scholarly purposes, but considerably more accessible and easier to navigate. It also corrects a small number of errors by Toulmin Smith.

Naeniae in Mortem Thomae Viati. Published by Dana F. Sutton with English translation in the Philological Museum as Naeniae in Mortem Thomae Viati. Genethliacon. Published by Dana F. Sutton with English translation in the Philological Museum under the title Pompa Nympharum. Bononia Gallo mastix and Laudatio pacis. Published by Dana F. Sutton with English translation in the Philological Museum as Two Poems on the French War. Naenia in mortem splendidissimi equitis Henrici Duddelegi. Published by Dana F. Sutton with English translation in the Philological Museum as Naenia in mortem splendidissimi equitis Henrici Duddelegi. Cygnea Cantio. Published by Dana F. Sutton with English translation in the Philological Museum as Cygnea Cantio. Encomia. 28 of Leland's short poems from this collection are published with English translations by James Carley in "Leland in Paris" (1986). All 282 short poems are published by Dana F. Sutton with English translations in the Philological Museum under the title Epigrammata. Sutton publishes two longer masques from the collection separately as Two Latin Masques.