Brief Lives: John Aubrey and the World of Seventeenth-Century Celebrity

This course investigates the biographical writings of John Aubrey and the lives of the people he wrote about, whether famous, infamous or now forgotten: scientists and scholars, writers and regicides, poets, philosophers, and statesmen.
Date created:
Course: Further details, online booking
Resources for this course
Type | Resource | Description | People | Full details |
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John Aubrey Reading List |
A list of books and other resources useful for students attending this course. |
Fiona McCall | view |
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Francis Bacon, New Atlantis (1626) |
The text of New Atlantis by Francis Bacon (1626). |
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BBC Portraits by William Dobson |
BBC Portraits by William Dobson |
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James Harrington, The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) |
James Harrington's Oceana is one of the most important works of political and constitutional theory produced during the English... |
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Cavalier Poetry |
Poems by John Suckling, William Davenant and Edmund Waller |
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The Down Survey of Ireland (William Petty) |
Trinity College Dublin project to create a consolidated digital atlas of the 1650s ‘Down Survey of Ireland’ surveyed by William Petty. This... |
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John Selden, Table Talk, |
Quotations from John Selden's Table Talk (1689) |
Fiona McCall | view |
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Casebooks Project: Casebooks of Simon Forman and John Dee (1596–1634) |
The Casebooks Project aims to make available the astrological records of Simon Forman and Richard Napier — unparalleled resources in the history... |
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William Harvey Du Motu Cordis (1628) |
University of Glasgow, book of the month, June 2007, William Harvey's work on the circulation of the blood, Du Motu Cordis. |
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Melvyn Bragg, Radio 4 programme on 'Blood' |
Melvyn Bragg, Radio 4 programme on 'Blood'
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J. Aubrey, A. Clark, "Brief lives", chiefly of contemporaries, set down by John Aubrey (Clarendon, 1898), (1 of 2 vols: A-H) |
The most scholarly version yet available of John Aubrey's manuscript Brief Lives, albeit slightly bowdlerised to suit victorian tastes. ... |
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Thomas Fuller - Sayings |
Some sayings of the historian and clergyman Thomas Fuller. They're not in the Oxford Book of Quotations, but many of them should be. |
Fiona McCall | view |
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Wiltshire witchcraft cases mentioned by John Aubrey |
Extracts from W. Notestein, A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 (Baltimore, 1911) and Indictments for witchcraft on the... |
Fiona McCall | view |
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Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick - A Good Woman and a Great Lady |
An article from History Today, by Lady Antonia Fraser |
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Autobiography of Mary countess of Warwick. Ed., with introduction and notes (1848) |
Full text of the 1848 edition of the autobiography of Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick - from Archive.org |
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Some 17th century clerical jokes from Nicholas Le Strange's Jest Book |
Some 17th century clerical jokes from Nicholas Le Strange's Jest Book, published as Nicholas Le Strange, Lippincott, Merry Jeasts, 1974... |
Fiona McCall | view |
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Week 1 powerpoint slides: John Aubrey's Life and Art |
Powerpoint slides from week 1 for the use of students. |
Fiona McCall |