Holland, Philemon (1552–1637)

English translator. Working both as a doctor and a school teacher, he made his reputation with his translations from classical writers, including Pliny, Suetonius, Plutarch, and Xenophon. His translations are characterized by immense learning combined with a fine feeling for the emotional tone of the original.

Holland was born in Chelmsford, Essex, the son of a Protestant clergyman who fled to Europe during Mary's reign. Holland took his MA at Cambridge in 1574 and subsequently studied medicine. He then settled in Coventry where he spent the rest of his life teaching, practising medicine, and translating the classics. These included works by Livy (1600), Pliny's Natural History (1601), Plutarch's Moralia (1603), works by Suetonius (1606), Ammianus Marcellinus (1609), and Xenophon's Cyropaedia (1632). In addition he translated Camden's Britannia into English in 1610. A few medical translations were issued posthumously.