William Bellenden

William Bellenden also Gulielmus Bellendinus ( * ca 1550 in Scotland; ? † ca 1633 in Paris, France) was a Scottish scholar and historian.

Life

The first King of England from the House of Stuart, James I as James VI. already King of Scotland, appointed him master suplicum libellorum, responsible for the processing of petitions and submissions officials of the kingdom. The income enabled Bellenden an independent life in Paris, where he worked as a university professor and lawyer at the Parliament.

Work

Bellenden published his first work in 1608 with the title princeps Ciceronis, a collection of Cicero's remarks about the origin and principles of the kingdom in a systematic and summarized form. 1612 appeared a work entitled Ciceronis consul, senator, senatusque Romanus, which deals with the power of the Roman consuls and the Senate. His 1615 published historical overview entitled De statu Prisci orbis. A summary of these three books took place in the same year with the title De statu libri tres.

Posthumously published in 1633 Bell resending book De tribus luminibus Romanorum ( About three famous Roman ). Bellenden could only finish the part that deals with Cicero. The other two celebrities should be Seneca and Pliny the Elder. Bellenden depicts the history of Rome, on the basis of Cicero's writings and created a wealth of knowledge for further work on Cicero.

On the way to England to almost all printed copies of the book have been lost, but a copy arrived in the Cambridge University Library. There, one hundred years later, the librarian Conyers Middleton wrote his book History of the Life of Cicero. English scholar of his time as Samuel Parr and Joseph Warton Middleton accused of plagiarism.

1788 published Samuel Parr thereof, a second edition of the Summary De statu libri tres with a held in Latin preface and an English translation.

Book in reprint

• Gulielmi Bellendeni magistri supplicum libellorum augusti regis Magnae Britanniae & c. De statu libri tres. Editio secunda longe emendiator, Gale Ecco, England 2010 ISBN 978-1-140-85718-1.

Second edition from the 18th century

• Foreword by Samuel Parr: Praefationes ad tres gulielmi Bellendeni libros de statu, editio secunda. Londini, typis excudebant W. Browne & J. Warren 1788. English preface by Samuel Parr: A Free Translation of the Preface to Bellendenus, Printed by Stafford and Davenport for T. Payne and Son (etc.), London 1788 also as an electronic resource via Hathi Trust..