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LINACRE (or LYNAKER), THOMAS (c. 146o...

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 702 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LINACRE (or LYNAKER), See also:THOMAS (c. 146o-1524)  , See also:English humanist and physician, was probably See also:born at See also:Canterbury . Of his parentage or descent nothing certain is known . He received his See also:early See also:education at the See also:cathedral school of Canterbury,. then under the direction of See also:William See also:Ceiling (William See also:Tilly of Selling), who became See also:prior of Canterbury in 1472 . Ceiling was an ardent See also:scholar, and one of the earliest in See also:England who cultivated See also:Greek learning . From him See also:Linacre must have received his first incentive to this study . Linacre entered See also:Oxford about the See also:year 1480, and in 1484 was elected a See also:fellow of All Souls' See also:College . Shortly afterwards he visited See also:Italy in the See also:train of Ceiling, who was sent by See also:Henry VIII. as an See also:envoy to the papal See also:court, and he accompanied his See also:patron as far as See also:Bologna . There he became the See also:pupil of Angelo Poliziano, and afterwards shared the instruction which that See also:great scholar imparted at See also:Florence to the sons of Lorenzo de' See also:Medici . The younger of these princes became See also:Pope See also:Leo X., and was in after years mindful of his old companionship with Linacre . Among his other teachers and See also:friends in Italy were See also:Demetrius Chalcondylas, Hermolaus Barbarus, Aldus See also:Romanus the printer of See also:Venice, and Nicolaus Leonicenus of See also:Vicenza . Linacre took the degree of See also:doctor of See also:medicine with great distinction at See also:Padua . On his return to Oxford, full of the learning and imbued with the spirit of the See also:Italian See also:Renaissance, he formed one of the brilliant circle of Oxford scholars, including See also:John See also:Colet, William See also:Grocyn and William See also:Latimer, who are mentioned with so much warm eulogy in the letters of See also:Erasmus .

Linacre does not appear to have practised or taught medicine in Oxford . About the year 1501 he was called to court as See also:

tutor of the See also:young See also:prince See also:Arthur . On the See also:accession of Henry VIII. he was appointed the See also:king's physician, an See also:office at that See also:time of considerable See also:influence and importance, and practised medicine in See also:London, having among his patients most of the great statesmen and prelates of the time, as See also:Cardinal; See also:Wolsey, See also:Archbishop See also:Warham and See also:Bishop See also:Fox . After some years of professional activity, and when in advanced See also:life, Linacre received See also:priest's orders in 1520, though he had for some years previously held several clerical benefices . There is no doubt that his ordination was connected with his retirement from active life . See also:Literary labours, and the cares of the See also:foundation which owed its existence chiefly to him, the Royal College of Physicians, occupied Linacre's remaining years till his See also:death on the loth of See also:October 1524 . Linacre was more of a scholar than a See also:man of letters, and rather a man of learning than a scientific investigator . It is difficult now to See also:judge of his See also:practical skill in his profession, but it was evidently highly esteemed in his own See also:day . He took no See also:part in See also:political or theological questions, and died too soon to have to declare himself on either See also:side in the formidable controversies which were even in his lifetime beginning to arise . But his career as a scholar was one eminently characteristic of the See also:critical See also:period in the See also:history of learning through which he lived . He was one of the first Englishmen who studied Greek in Italy, whence he brought back to his native See also:country and his own university the lessons of the " New Learning." His teachers were some of the greatest scholars of the day . Among his pupils was one—Erasmus--whose name alone would suffice to preserve the memory of his instructor in Greek, and others of See also:note in letters and politics, such as See also:Sir See also:Thomas More, Prince Arthur and See also:Queen See also:Mary .

Colet, Grocyn, William See also:

Lilye and other eminent scholars were his intimate friends, and he was esteemed by a still wider circle of literary correspondents in all parts of See also:Europe . Linacre's literary activity was displayed in two directions, in pure scholarship and in See also:translation from the Greek . In the domain of scholarship he was known by the rudiments of (Latin) See also:grammar (Progymnasmata Grammatices vulgaria), composed in English, a revised version of which was made for the use of the Princess Mary, and afterwards translated into Latin by See also:Robert See also:Buchanan . He also wrote a See also:work on Latin See also:composition, De emendata struclura See also:Latini sermonis, which was published in London in 1524 and many times reprinted on the See also:continent of Europe . Linacre's only medical See also:works were his See also:translations . He desired to make the works of See also:Galen (and indeed those of See also:Aristotle also) accessible to all readers of Latin . What he effected in the See also:case of the first, though .not trifling in itself, is inconsiderable as compared with the whole See also:mass of Galen's writings; and of his translations from Aristotle, some of which are known to have been completed, nothing has survived . The following are the works of Galen translated by Linacre: (I) De sanitate tuenda, printed at See also:Paris in 1517; (2) Methodus medendi (Paris, 1519); (3) De temperamentis et de Inaequali Intemperie (See also:Cambridge, 1521); (4) De naturalibus facultatibus (London, 1523) ; (5) De symptomatum differentiis et caasis (London, 1524) ; (6) De pulsuum Usu (London, without date) . He also translated for the use of Prince Arthur an astronomical See also:treatise of See also:Proclus, De sphaera, which was printed at Venice by Aldus in 1499 . The accuracy of these translations and their elegance of See also:style were universally admitted . They have been generally accepted as the See also:standard versions of those parts of Galen's writings, and frequently reprinted, either as a part of the collected works or separately . But the most important service which Linacre conferred upon his own profession and See also:science was not by his writings .

To him was chiefly owing the foundation by royal See also:

charter of the College of Physicians in London, and he was the first See also:president of the new college, which he further aided by conveying to it his own See also:house, and by the See also:gift of his library . Shortly before his death Linacre obtained from the king letters patent for the See also:establishment of readerships in medicine at Oxford and Cambridge, and placed valuable estates in the hands of trustees for their endowment . Two readerships were founded in Merton College, Oxford, and one in St John's College, Cambridge, but owing to neglect and See also:bad management of the funds, they See also:fell into uselessness and obscurity . The Oxford foundation was revived by the university commissioners in 1856 in the See also:form of the Linacre professorship of See also:anatomy . Posterity has done See also:justice to the generosity and public spirit which prompted these See also:foundations; and it is impossible not to recognize a strong constructive See also:genius in the See also:scheme of the College of Physicians, by which Linacre not only first organized the medical profession in England, but impressed upon it for some centuries the See also:stamp of his own individuality . The intellectual fastidiousness of Linacre, and his habits of See also:minute accuracy were, as Erasmus suggests, the See also:chief cause why he See also:left no more permanent literary memorials . It will be found, perhaps, difficult to justify by any extant work the extremely high reputation which he enjoyed among the scholars of his time . His Latin style was so much admired that, according to the flattering eulogium of Erasmus, Galen spoke better Latin in the version of Linacre than he had before spoken Greek; and even Aristotle displayed a See also:grace which he hardly attained to in his native See also:tongue . Erasmus praises also Linacre's critical See also:judgment (" vir non exacti tantum sed severi judicii ") . According to others it was hard to say whether he were more distinguished as a grammarian or a rhetorician . Of Greek he was regarded as a consummate See also:master; and he was equally eminent as a " philosopher," that is, as learned in the works of the See also:ancient philosophers and naturalists . In this there may have beensome exaggeration; but all have acknowledged the See also:elevation of Linacre's See also:character, and the See also:fine moral qualities summed up in the See also:epitaph written by John See also:Caius: " Fraudes dolosque mire perosus; fidus See also:amicis; See also:omnibus ordinibus juxta See also:carus." The materials for Linacre's See also:biography are to a large extent contained in the older See also:biographical collections of See also:George See also:Lilly (in See also:Paulus See also:Jovius, Descriptio Britanniae), See also:Bale, See also:Leland and Pits, in See also:Wood's Athenae Oxonienses and in the Biographia Britannica; but all are completely collected in the Life of Thomas Linacre, by Dr See also:Noble See also:Johnson (London, 1835) .

Reference may also be made to Dr Munk's See also:

Roll of the Royal College of Physicians (2nd ed., London, 1878) ; and the Introduction, by Dr J . F . See also:Payne, to a facsimile See also:reproduction of Linacre's version of Galen de temperamentis (See also:Cam-See also:bridge, 1881) . With the exception of this treatise, none of Linacre's works or translations has been reprinted in See also:modern times .

End of Article: LINACRE (or LYNAKER), THOMAS (c. 146o-1524)
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