Vergil, Polydore (c. 1470–1555)

Italian humanist author from Urbino. Sent to England in 1502 as a papal tax collector, Vergil began writing Anglica Historia/English History (completed in 1532); for his efforts he received Henry VII's patronage. He finally returned to his homeland in 1553.

Royal favour continued in the next reign, albeit fitfully: at one point, Vergil was imprisoned for allegedly slandering Cardinal Wolsey to the pope in 1515. Despite this upset, Vergil continued to live in England, and acquiesced to the religious changes imposed by Henry VIII and Edward VI.

Vergil wrote in a range of genres, including dialogues and translation (Chrysostom's De Perfecto Monacho, 1528). His most popular works were his earliest: Proverbiorum Libellus/A Little Book of Proverbs (1498), an early set of adages, and De Inventoribus Rerum/On Inventors of Things (1499, revised 1521), which, though mocked by the French novelist Rabelais, was translated into most vernaculars (English version 1546). In England, his Anglica Historia was very influential, being a major source for the chroniclers Raphael Holinshed and Edward Hall.