View source for Sir Henry Savile 1549-1622

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===[[personal title::Sir]] [[name::Henry]] [[name::SAVILE]]  [[date of birth::1549]]-[[date of death::1622]]===

====Biographical Note====
Born at [[place of birth::Over Bradley, Yorkshire]], son of [[family::Henry Savile]], [[occupation::lawyer]] and [[occupation::landowner]].  BA [[education::Brasenose College, Oxford]] 1566, [[occupation::fellow]] of [[organisations::Merton College, Oxford]] 1565, MA 1570, [[occupation::regent master]] (i.e. lecturer) in astronomy 1570; the lectures he delivered are documented in his notebooks and the testimony of others and are regarded as one of the high points of scientific thinking in Elizabethan England.  In 1576 he travelled in Europe with [[associates::Thomas Bodley]] (then [[occupation::dean|Dean]] of [[organisations::Merton College, Oxford|Merton]]), and made many contacts with scientists there.  He was appointed Greek [[occupation::tutor]] to [[associates::Elizabeth I]] on his return to [[location::England]] in 1582, and [[occupation::Warden]] of [[organisations::Merton College, Oxford|Merton]] in 1585.  In 1595 he became [[occupation::Provost]] of [[organisations::Eton College]].  He was friendly with the [[associates::Earl of Essex]] in the 1590s and was briefly imprisoned and questioned over the Earl's 1601 rebellion, but soon released.  In 1604 he was knighted by [[associates::James I]]. He founded the Savilian professorships in geometry and astronomy at Oxford in 1620.

Savile's scholarly life was manifested not only in his career and his extensive network of contacts (which included [[associates::Joseph Justus Scaliger|Scaliger]] and [[associates::the Casaubons]]), but also in various learned publications.  His [[translator::translation]] of [[author::Tacitus]], with his own additions was first published in [[date of publication::1591]] as [[book title::''The ende of Nero and beginning of Galba'']], and went through many editions.  In [[date of publication::1596]] he published a collection of English chronicles, [[book title::''Rerum Anglicarum scriptores'']], and in [[date of publication::1621]] a series of lectures, [[book title::''Praelectiones tresdecim'']], on [[author::Euclid]].  His magnum opus was his 8-volume [[editor::edition]] of the works of St John Chrysostom, in Greek, printed at [[location::Eton]] [[date of publication::1610;1613|1610-13]].

====Books==== 
[[File:SavileHenrySir1.jpg| thumb | Armorial stamp of Sir Henry Savile (British Armorial Bindings).]]
Books and libraries were central to Savile's activities throughout his life, and from an early age; his [[family::father]] had a library which was divided amongst his three [[family::brothers|sons]].  He was closely involved with the founding and early development of the [[beneficiary Bodleian Library]], [[bequest::giving]] books in [[date of bequest::1601]] and in several years thereafter, and a significant collection of [[language::Greek]] and [[language::Latin]] [[format::manuscript|manuscripts]] in [[date of bequest::1620]], many dealing with [[subject::mathematics|mathematical]], [[subject::science|scientific]] and [[subject::astronomy|astronomical]] matters.  He was given responsibility, in [[associates::Thomas Bodley|Bodley]]'s will, for specifying his burial place in Merton chapel.  At [[organisations::Merton College, Oxford|Merton]], Savile took an active interest in the college library, introducing new library rules in 1586 and encouraging donations and purchases; the rapid growth of the collection led to the refashioning of the library, and introduction of a new stall system layout, from the late 1580s into the 1590s.  Once he became [[occupation::Provost]] at [[organisations::Eton College|Eton]] he directed similar attention to the library there, and the [[organisations::Eton College|college]] accounts for the late 1590s record extensive work on fitting out a new library, with expenditure on shelving, chains, and binding.  The [[organisations::Eton College|Eton]] joiner was sent to [[organisations::Merton College, Oxford|Merton]] to use that as a model.  Over 500 books are noted in the Eton Audit Books as having been acquired during Savile's Provostship, and by the time of his death the Library is reckoned to have held at least 1000 volumes.

Savile's will refers to the disposal of remaining sets of his edition of Chrysostom, 50 copies each to be [[bequest::given]] to [[beneficiary::Eton College|Eton]] and [[beneficiary::Merton College, Oxford|Merton]].  All his books in his studies at [[organisations::Eton College|Eton]] and [[organisations::University of Oxford|Oxford]], together with "all my other papers referring to everybody especially my [[family::wife]] [[family::daughter]] and [[family::daughter in law]] and above all to the two colleges of my government" were left to "the disposition of my [[beneficiary::nephew]] [[family::Sir Henry Savile]]" ([[family::Sir Henry Savile]], 1st [[personal title::bart]], [[date of birth::1579]]-[[date of death::1632]]).  The size of these collections, and their dispersal from the 1620s onwards, is not known; on 19 December 1860 and 6 February 1861 [[organisations::Sotheby's]] held sales including parts of the libraries of Sir Henry and his elder brother [[family::Sir John Savile]] (728 lots in all, books and [[format::manuscript|manuscripts]], many of them noted as having the inscriptions, initials or arms of one or the other).  Examples: MSS Savile in the Bodleian Library (108 manuscripts); Bodleian Vet.E.1.e.27; BL 537.c.6; Folger STC 18183.

====Characteristic Marking==== 
Savile's books are often inscribed with his name and sometimes a date of acquisition.  He was also a regular annotator of books, and the value of his annotations is referred to several times in his ''Dictionary of National Biography'' entry; a list of Savile books with manuscript additions in [[present repository::the Bodleian Library|the Bodleian]] is held there as Library records b.473. An armorial binding stamp is attributed to him in the armorials database, but it is not clear that this was used by him rather than by his brother Sir John (the stamp has the initials I S at the foot).  

====Sources====
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*[https://armorial.library.utoronto.ca/stamps/ISAV001_s1 Armorials database].
*Birley, R. ''The history of College Library'', 1970, 18-26. 
*Feingold, M. ''The mathematicians' apprenticeship'', 1984, esp p.124-31. 
*Goulding, R. D. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/24737 "Savile, Sir Henry (1549–1622), mathematician and classical scholar."] ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. 
*Hirshfield, J. An autograph manuscript commonplace book of Sir Henry Savile, ''Bodleian Library Record'' 7 (1963) 73-83.  
*Ker, N. R. Oxford college libraries in the sixteenth century, ''Bodleian Library Record'' 6 (1957-61), 459-515. 
*Macray, W. D. ''Annals of the Bodleian Library''. 2nd edn, Oxford, 1890. 
*Madan, F. et al, ''Summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library'', vol 2 pt 2, 1937, 1094-1114 (Savile mss); 
*Philip, I. ''The Bodleian Library in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries''. Oxford, 1983.
*Quarrie, P. ''Treasures of Eton College Library'', 1990, p.29ff. 
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Savile, Sir Henry}}
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