Arthur Johnston (c.1579–1641) was a Scottish

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. He was born in

Caskieben Caskieben ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Gasach beinn'' "Wooded Hill", later Keith Hall) Caskieben was a palisaded tower built by the Garviach family during the 12th-century Norman expansion into Scotland. It stood on a low, circular mound surrounded by ...

(later renamed Keithhall) near

Inverurie Inverurie (Scottish Gaelic: ''Inbhir Uraidh'' or ''Inbhir Uaraidh'', 'mouth of the River Ury') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland at the confluence of the rivers Ury and Don, about north-west of Aberdeen. Geography Inverurie is in the vall ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

. His father, Sir George Johnston, was an Aberdeenshire

laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...

, and his mother Christian Forbes was the daughter of

Lord Forbes Lord Forbes is the senior Lordship of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland. The title was created sometime after 1436 for Alexander de Forbes, feudal baron of Forbes. The precise date of the creation is not known, but in a Precept dated July 12 ...

. Johnston is thought to have begun his university studies at one, or both, of the colleges at the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...

, but around 1608 he went to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and received an M.D. at

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

in 1610. Afterwards he lived at Sedan,

Principality of Sedan The Principality of Sedan (French: ''Principauté de Sedan'') was an independent Protestant state centered on the Château de Sedan (now the city of Sedan) in the Ardennes. It was ruled by the Prince of Sedan (''prince de Sedan''), who belong ...

as professor at the Academy of Sedan, in the company of the exiled

Andrew Melville Andrew Melville (1 August 1545 – 1622) was a Scottish scholar, theologian, poet and religious reformer. His fame encouraged scholars from the European continent to study at Glasgow and St. Andrews. He was born at Baldovie, on 1 August 154 ...

, and in 1619 was in practice in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He appears to have returned to Scotland about the time of

James VI James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

's death in 1625, and to have been in Aberdeen in about 1628. He met

William Laud William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 1640 ...

in Edinburgh at the time of

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

's Scottish coronation (1633). In that year, he had published a volume entitled ''Cantici Salomonis paraphrasis poetica'', which, dedicated to Charles I, brought him to Laud's notice. Johnston was encouraged by Laud in his literary efforts, possibly as a strike against

George Buchanan George Buchanan ( gd, Seòras Bochanan; February 1506 – 28 September 1582) was a Scottish historian and humanist scholar. According to historian Keith Brown, Buchanan was "the most profound intellectual sixteenth century Scotland produced." ...

's reputation as a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. Johnston was appointed rector of

King's College, Aberdeen King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, the full title of which is The University and King's College of Aberdeen (''Collegium Regium Abredonense''), is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and now an integral part of the Universi ...

, in June 1637. Four years later he died at Oxford, on his way to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

at Laud's invitation. Johnston left more than ten works, all in

. Only two of these, published in the same year, are notable: (a) his version of the Psalms (''Psalmorum Davidis paraphrasis poetica et canticorum evangelicorum'', Aberdeen, 1637), and (b) his anthology of contemporary Latin verse by Scottish poets (''Deliciae poetarum Scotorum huius aevi illustrium'', Amsterdam, 1637). The full version of the

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

was the result of Laud's encouragement. It was for some time a strong rival of Buchanan's work, though not superior to the latter. The ''Deliciae'', in two small thick volumes of 699 and 575 pages, was a patriotic effort in imitation of the various volumes (under a similar title) which had been popular on the Continent during the second decade of the century. The volumes are dedicated by Johnston to John Scot of Scotstarvet, at whose expense the collected works were published after Johnston's death, at

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

(1642). Selections from his own poems occupy pages 439-647 of the first volume, divided into three sections, Parerga, Epigrammata and Musae Aulicae. He published a volume of

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

s at Aberdeen in 1632. In these pieces he shows himself at his best. His sacred poems, which had appeared in the ''Opera'' (1642), were reprinted by Lauder in his ''Poetarum Scotorum musae sacrae'' (1739). The earliest lives are by Lauder and Benson (in ''Psalmi Davidici'', 1741). Ruddiman's ''Vindication of Mr George Buchanan's Paraphrase'' (1745) began a pamphlet controversy regarding the merits of the rival poets.

Family

His niece Isobel Johnston married Peter Blackburn,

Bishop of Aberdeen The Bishop of Aberdeen (originally Bishop of Mortlach, in Latin Murthlacum) was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Aberdeen, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics, whose first recorded bishop is an early 12th-century cleric named Nech ...

.Fasti Ecclesiastae Scoticana vol.7 by Hew Scott

References

* * Robert Crawford (ed.), ''Apollos of the North: Selected Poems of George Buchanan & Arthur Johnston'' * ''Musa Latina Aberdonensis'', Arthur Johnston, vol.2, edited by sir William Duguid Geddes, Aberdeen : The New Spasding Club, 184

* :fr:Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Boulliot, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Boulliot, ''Biographie ardennaise ou Histoire des Ardennais qui se sont fait remarquer par leurs écrits, leurs actions, leurs vertus et leurs erreurs'' (2 book), Paris, 1830, book 2, pp. 60–6

Family

References

See also