St John's College U.21
G.H. Whitaker, Glossary to Holland's translation of Livy. English, late 19th cent.
George Herbert Whitaker (1847-1930) was a scholar of St John's and graduated BA as Senior Classic in 1870. He was immediately elected to a fellowship, which he held until 1892. Whitaker was ordained in 1875 and held various curacies and rectorships. Philemon Holland (1552-1637) produced the first complete English translation of Livy's history of Rome, which was published in 1600 as a folio of 1458 pages. It was a work of great importance – accurate, lively and unpretentious in its rendering of the Latin original.
This manuscript comprises slips of paper pasted onto the rectos in three columns bearing words and short phrases drawn from Holland's translation arranged alphabetically. Next to each word, Whitaker gives a number and a letter locating it within Holland's text. On the versos, Whitaker provides occasional supplementary notes on some of the words. Enclosed within the volume are a number of loose pages of further notes.
355 x 290 mm. 55 folios + blanks and loose notes. Paper. In Whitaker's neat autograph. Late 19th-century binding of half leather and marbled paper over card boards; typed label on spine reads 'Glossary to Holland's translation of Livy – Whitaker'.
Presented by the Revd C. Geoffrey Whitaker of Taunton, the author's cousin, in February 1945. His letter of donation to the Master is pasted inside the upper board, together with a college bookplate of 1937.