Andrew Downes (scholar) on:
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Andrew Downes, also known as Dounaeus (2 February 1628), was an
Andrew Downes, also known as Dounaeus (2 February 1628), was an English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
classical scholar.
Life
He was born in the county ofShropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
, and was educated at Shrewsbury and St. John's College, Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
, where he did much to revive the study of Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, at that time at a very low ebb.
In 1571 he was elected fellow of his college, and, in 1585, he was appointed to the Regius Professor of Greek, which he held for nearly forty years. He died at Coton, near Cambridge, on 2 February 1627/1628. According to Simonds d'Ewes
Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet (18 December 1602 – 18 April 1650) was an English antiquary and politician. He was bred for the bar, was a member of the Long Parliament and left notes on its transactions. D'Ewes took the Puritan side in the Civ ...
, who attended his lectures on Demosthenes
Demosthenes (; el, Δημοσθένης, translit=Dēmosthénēs; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual pr ...
and gives a slight sketch of his personality, Downes was accounted "the ablest Grecian of Christendom
Christendom historically refers to the Christian states, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates, prevails,SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christendom"/ref> or is culturally or historically intertwine ...
."
He published little, but seems to have devoted his chief attention to the Greek orators. A 1587 edition of Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
's '' Menexenus'', the first Greek book printed at Cambridge and the first Greek Plato printed in England, "set as a teaching text...was almost certainly printed as part of the curriculum established by Andrew Downes."David McKitterick, ''A History of Cambridge University Press'', vol. 1, Cambridge, 1992, pp. 102-3. He edited Lysias
Lysias (; el, Λυσίας; c. 445 – c. 380 BC) was a logographer (speech writer) in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace i ...
' ''Pro caede Eratosthenis'' (1593); ''Praelectiones in Philippicam de pace Demosthenis'' (1621), dedicated to James I of England
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
; some letters (written in Greek) to Isaac Casaubon
Isaac Casaubon (; ; 18 February 1559 – 1 July 1614) was a classical scholar and philologist, first in France and then later in England.
His son Méric Casaubon was also a classical scholar.
Life Early life
He was born in Geneva to two Fr ...
, printed in the ''Epistolae'' of the latter; and notes to John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom (; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος; 14 September 407) was an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of ...
, in Sir Henry Savile
Sir Henry Savile (30 November 154919 February 1622) was an English scholar and mathematician, Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Eton. He endowed the Savilian chairs of Astronomy and of Geometry at Oxford University, and was one ...
's edition. Downes was also one of the seven translators of the ''Apocrypha
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
'' for the King James Version of the Bible, and one of the six learned men appointed to revise the new version after its completion.
References
1540s births 1628 deaths 16th-century English writers Writers from Shropshire English classical scholars Translators of the King James Version People educated at Shrewsbury School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge {{Christianity-bio-stub 16th-century Anglican theologians 17th-century Anglican theologians Regius Professors of Greek (Cambridge)