§28. Old English Studies: Sir Henry Spelman. XIII. Scholars and Antiquaries. Vol. 9. From Steele and Addison to Pope and Swift. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume IX. From Steele and Addison to Pope and Swift.

XIII. Scholars and Antiquaries.

§ 28. Old English Studies: Sir Henry Spelman.

The efforts of archbishop Parker in the sixteenth century to further Old English studies, found a successor, among others, in Sir Henry Spelman, who, besides producing numerous learned works of his own, was ever ready to encourage the studies of others. Neither the short-lived lectureship which he founded at Cambridge, nor Rawlinson’s abortive similar project at Oxford more than a century later, succeeded in giving the study an academic status. Nevertheless, the subject did not lack votaries, among whom are to be counted William Somner, whose Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum was issued in 1659, Francis Junius, George Hickes, bishop Gibson, editor of the Old English Chronicle, William Elstob, and his learned sister Elizabeth, who published a Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory and a Grammar of the language.