350px, John Trevisa (or John of Trevisa; ;

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for '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 indic ...

1342–1402 AD) was a Cornish writer and professional translator. Trevisa was born at Trevessa in the parish of St Enoder in mid-Cornwall, in Britain and was a native Cornish speaker. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, and became Vicar of

Berkeley, Gloucestershire Berkeley ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Stroud (district), Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England. It lies in the Vale of Berkeley between the east bank of the River Severn and the M5 motorway. The t ...

, chaplain to the 5th Lord Berkeley, and Canon of Westbury on Trym. He translated into English for his patron the Latin '' Polychronicon'' of Ranulf Higden, adding remarks of his own, and prefacing it with a '' Dialogue on Translation between a Lord and a Clerk''. He likewise made various other translations, including

Bartholomaeus Anglicus Bartholomaeus Anglicus (before 1203–1272), also known as Bartholomew the Englishman and Berthelet, was an early 13th-century Scholastic of Paris, a member of the Franciscan order. He was the author of the compendium ''De proprietatibus rerum ...

' ''On the Properties of Things'' ''(De Proprietatibus Rerum)'', a medieval forerunner of the encyclopedia. It seems likely that he was the translator of the Bible into Cornish, a language, which until recently, was thought not to have possessed a bible translation. A fellow of

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

, from 1372 to 1376 at the same time as John Wycliff and Nicholas of Hereford, Trevisa may well have been one of the contributors to the Early Version of Wycliffe's Bible. The preface to the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...

of 1611 singles him out as a translator amongst others at that time: ''"even in our King Richard the second's days, John Trevisa translated them he Gospelsinto English, and many English Bibles in written hand are yet to be seen that divers translated, as it is very probable, in that age"''. Trevisa does not seem to have been a Wycliffite or Lollard, though he had some views in common about corruption. Subsequently, he translated a number of books of the Bible into French for Lord Berkeley, including a version of the ''

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...

'', which his patron had written up onto the ceiling of the chapel at Berkeley Castle. Trevisa's reputation as a writer rests principally on his translations of encyclopaedic works from Latin into English, undertaken with the support of his patron, Thomas (IV), the fifth Baron Berkeley, as a continuous programme of enlightenment for the laity. John Trevisa is the 18th most frequently cited author in the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' and the third most frequently cited source for the first evidence of a word (after

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

and the ''

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the second journ ...

'').

References

External links

John of Trevisa
''Online Companion to Middle English Literature''

''Cambridge History of English and American Literature'' (1907–21) – see also the previous and following pages. * Trevisa, John de, ''Dictionary of National Biography'', 1899 *Jane Beal
John Trevisa and the English Polychronicon
(2012) – book examining Trevisa's rhetorical strategies to establish his own authority in his ''Polychronicon'', a universal history of the world, with additional consideration of his letter to Lord Berkeley, "Dialogue between a Lord and a Clerk," and interpolated notes as well as his other translations. The final chapter considers the reception of the English ''Polychronicon'' in the Renaissance. * * *
Digital view of Trevisa's ''On The Properties of Things'', from the British Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trevisa, John 1342 births 1402 deaths Medieval Cornish people Cornish-speaking people Writers from Cornwall Fellows of the Queen's College, Oxford Translators of the Bible into English Translators of the Bible into French 14th-century English Roman Catholic priests People from Berkeley, Gloucestershire Place of death missing

References

Further reading

External links