John Caius or Kay, sometimes called the elder, (

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

1480), was an English poet. Kay was the English translator of the ''Siege of Rhodes'', an account of the unsuccessful Ottoman assault on Rhodes in 1480. The original Latin text ''Obsidionis Rhodiæ urbis descriptio'' (1480) had been written by Gulielmus Caoursin, the vice-chancellor of the order of the

knights of St John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headqu ...

and an eye witness to the siege. The English translation was printed c. 1481-84. Kay dedicates his translation to

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

, as whose '' he describes himself. But the expression does not necessarily imply that the writer held any official position at court. The dedication also refers to time spent abroad in Italy, possibly studying, but beyond this details of his biography remain unclear and debated.Leader asserts that Kay was the same person as Cauis Auberinus, however, the identification cannot at present be regarded as definitive, see Leader, Damian Riehl, 'Caius Auberinus: Cambridge's first professor' In ''A Distinct Voice: Studies Leonard E. Boyle'' (2001), pp. 322-327

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caius, John, the Elder Year of birth missing Year of death missing 15th-century English people 15th-century English writers English male poets