Joshua Barnes FRS (10 January 1654 – 3 August 1712), was an English

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

. His work '' Gerania; a New Discovery of a Little Sort of People, anciently discoursed of, called Pygmies'' (1675) was an Utopian romance.LeTellier (1997), p. 186.

Life and work

Barnes was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, the son of Edward Barnes, a merchant taylor. Educated at

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter, located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. T ...

and

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

, he was chosen in 1695 as Regius Professor of Greek, a language which he wrote and spoke with facility. One of his early publications was ''Gerania; a New Discovery of a Little Sort of People, anciently discoursed of, called Pygmies'' (1675), a whimsical sketch, to which

Swift Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIF ...

's ''Voyage to Lilliput'' may owe something. Among his other works is a ''History of that Most Victorious Monarch Edward III'' (1688), an epic of over 900 pages, which inserts elaborate speeches into the narrative. He also produced editions of

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

(1694),

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

(1711), and

Anacreon Anacreon ( BC) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ancient Ionic dialect. Like all early ...

(1705), of which the last contains titles of Greek verses of his own, which he hoped to publish. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in November, 1710. Barnes married a widow named Mrs Mafon in 1700. Barnes died on 3 August 1712 at Hemingford, near St Ives, Huntingdonshire where his widow erected a monument to him.

Fiction writer

The present-day scholar Robert Ignatius Letellier considers ''Gerania'', a work of prose fiction, to have been part of an emerging type of adventure novels, featuring an "imaginary voyage into alien or fictional regions". These combined first-person adventure narratives with either "satirical social observation" or perceptions of ideal human behaviour in remote lands, following a tradition rooted in the ''

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

'' (1516) of

Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VII ...

, which found prominent manifestations in '' The Blazing World'' (1666) of

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (; 1623 er exact birth date is unknown– 16 December 1673) was an English philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction writer, and playwright. She was a prolific writer, publishing over 12 origin ...

and '' The Isle of Pines'' of Henry Neville. The tradition would lead to later works, such as the ''

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' ( ) is an English adventure novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. Written with a combination of Epistolary novel, epistolary, Confessional writing, confessional, and Didacticism, didactic forms, the ...

'' (1719) of

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; 1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translati ...

.LeTellier (1997), Introduction p. xxxiii (33).

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnes, Joshua 1654 births 1712 deaths English classical scholars Scholars of ancient Greek literature English male novelists 17th-century English novelists 17th-century English male writers 17th-century English writers 17th-century English historians People educated at Christ's Hospital Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society Regius Professors of Greek (Cambridge) Academics from London People from Hemingford Grey English male non-fiction writers