Francis Vernon

Francis Vernon (born around 1637 in London ; died near Isfahan in early 1677 ) was an English author and explorer . After completing his training in Oxford, he joined the diplomatic service for several years as an embassy secretary due to his travel experience. During this time he acted as a liaison for the scholars of England and France , for which he was elected a member of the Royal Society . In 1674 he started his last trip. It led from Venice via Greece to Constantinople and on to Persia , where he was murdered near Isfahan in 1677. His letter about his research in Greece, published as early as 1676, was the first, albeit brief, report that made important scientific information about the antiquities of Greece known to the learned world of Europe.

Youth and education

Francis Vernon was the son of Francis Vernon and Anne Welby, the daughter of a goldsmith, from a wealthy family. He was the older brother of James Vernon (1646-1727), who under William III. Was Secretary of State of both departments. Francis Vernon received his education from 1649 at the Westminster School . On November 10, 1654 matriculated at Christ Church College of Oxford University . He studied above all the new sciences, especially with the mathematician and astronomer Seth Ward , founder of the Royal Society and the first representative of the Copernican system in Oxford . In 1657 he obtained the degree of BA , on July 17, 1660 he was awarded the degree of a Magister artium .

First trips

Even before he graduated from university, he showed a character trait that determined his life. One contemporary called it "an insatiable desire to see" that made him an almost restless traveler. The countries he traveled to before his first job included Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain. Around the mid-1660s, it came into the hands of pirates on one of these voyages in the Mediterranean . He spent some time as a prisoner before he was released after paying a ransom in early 1667. In March of that year he wrote a letter to his mother from Rome , in which he described the city.

Diplomatic service

He then appears to have returned to Oxford. In 1668, based on his travel experience, he was appointed companion of Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle , for which the necessary exemption had to be obtained from Oxford University. The Earl of Carlisle went to Sweden as Ambassador Extraordinary . In 1669 Vernon was secretary of his school friend Ralph Montagu (1712-1790), later Duke of Montagu , at the embassy in Paris . There he remained until the beginning of 1672. During this time Francis Vernon served as the central science mediator between England and France .

Soon after arriving in Paris, he made numerous contacts, including the Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens , with whom he soon developed a friendly relationship. Other scholars with whom he associated were the mathematicians and astronomers Jean Picard , Giovanni Domenico Cassini , Henri Justel (1620–1693), but he also exchanged views with historians such as the founder of the historical auxiliary sciences , Jean Mabillon , and Luc d'Achery out. On the English side, his correspondents were, for example, the English orientalist Edward Pococke and the mathematicians John Collins and James Gregory . Vernon brokered an edition of the Traité de la Mécanique and the third volume of the “Letters” by René Descartes as well as Blaise Pascal's Traité du triangle arithmétique on Pascal's triangle and the binomial coefficients to Collins . Gregory received Pierre de Fermat's observations on Diophantus . Vernon's correspondence with Henry Oldenburg , the central figure in the English scientific community of that time, is extensive .

At the same time he fulfilled the duties of an embassy secretary during these years. Usually on Wednesdays and Saturdays he wrote his reports to Sir Joseph Williamson of the Secretary of State's office. He does not seem to have fulfilled this official part of his task to the satisfaction of his superiors, as he garnished his over 275 reports with all kinds of gossip and news from the cultural life of France under the sun king Louis XIV . With the end of his friend Montagu's embassy work, Vernon left the diplomatic service at his own request in 1672.

Last trip

Back in England he devoted himself to science again. He became a member of the Royal Society and took an active part in its work. As early as 1674 the urge to travel seized him again. This time his destination was the Levant . At the end of the year he went to Venice , where he met three other travelers: the Englishmen Sir Giles Eastcourt and George Wheler and the French doctor and antiquarian Jacob Spon . At that time, George Guillet de Saint-George had published a new work on Athens : Athènes ancienne et nouvelle. The book was not based on any personal opinion or knowledge of Athens, rather it comprised reports by a fictional brother of the author named de la Guilletière, but it was a great success and it reached four editions within a few years. It was decided to subject this new plant to a critical on-site inspection.

On June 20, 1675, the group embarked in Venice for Dalmatia . The opportunity was taken to embark on the journey on the galley Il Hercule in cunea , one of two ships that were to bring Giovanni Morosini to Constantinople as the new Bailò . In Zante , the travel group was disbanded. While Spon and Wheler were sailing to Constantinople, Vernon and Eastcourt, with the book of Guillets in their pocket, traveled by land directly to Athens. They reached the city in August 1675. Vernon measured, among other things, the Parthenon before it was destroyed in 1687 and, like many other travelers, left his initials on the Hephaisteion . Vernon and Eastcourt went from Athens to Delphi . But Eastcourt fell seriously ill on the way there and died in Vitrinitsa . Vernon arrived in Delphi in September. He was the first modern traveler to visit and identify Delphi since Cyriacus of Ancona in 1436, although this is mostly attributed to Spon and Wheler.

Vernon left Greece in October after examining Thebes , Corinth and Sparta , looking for the Olympia stadium at Alpheios and climbing the Helicon . Due to his astronomical knowledge, it was possible for him to determine the latitude of a number of ancient places for the first time . He embarked for Constantinople, but was again attacked by pirates in the Aegean Sea and released for a ransom. Once in Smyrna, Vernon warned the learned world in a letter to the Royal Society about the fictions of Guillet de Saint-Georges and reported in advance on his research in Greece. Undeterred, he continued his journey from Constantinople, which took him by land via Armenia to Persia .

In early 1677, while resting near Isfahan, he got into an argument with Arabs over his penknife . He was killed in the resulting scuffle and buried two days later in Isfahan. In June 1677 news of his death reached England. His travel diaries, which in addition to short notes contained numerous copies of ancient inscriptions, came to England and are kept in the archives of the Royal Society. The report on Athens sent by Vernon to the Royal Society was published again in 1679 by Jacob Spon in the context of his dispute with George Guillet in a French translation.

literature

• Anthony Wood : Athenae Oxoniensis. Second edition, with additions and continuations by Philip Bliss. Volume 3. Rivington, London 1817, col. 1133 f. ( Digitized version )
• Gerald le Grys Norgate:  Vernon, Francis . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 58:  Ubaldini - Wakefield. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1899, pp 273 - 274 (English) ..
• Benjamin D. Meritt : The Persians at Delphi. In: Hesperia . Volume 16, No. 2, 1947, pp. 58-62.
• Benjamin D. Meritt: The Epigraphic Notes of Francis Vernon. In: American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Ed.): Commemorative Studies in Honor of Theodore Leslie Shear (= Hesperia . Supplement 8). American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton, 1949, pp. 213-227.
• Matthew Walker: Francis Vernon, the Early Royal Society and the First English Encounter with Ancient Greek Architecture. In: Architectural History. Volume 56, 2013, pp. 29-61.
• Alexandre J. Tessier: Échos de la ville dans les dépêches de Francis Vernon, secrétaire d'ambassade à Paris (1669–1672). In: Thierry Belleguic, Laurent Turcot (eds.): Les histoires de Paris (XVIe – XVIIIe siècle). Volume 2. Hermann, Paris 2013, pp. 451–474.

Web links

• Alexandre J. Tessier: Francis Vernon (1637– circa 1677) at Early Modern Letters Online of the Bodleian Library

Remarks

1. ↑ Anthony Wood : Athenae Oxoniensis. Second edition, with additions and continuations by Philip Bliss. Volume 3. Rivington, London 1817, col. 1133 ( digitized version): "possess'd with an insatiable desire of seeing".
2. ↑ George Guillet de Saint-George: Athènes ancienne et nouvelle et l'estat présent de l'Empire des Turcs. Estienne Michallet, Paris 1675 ( digitized ).
3. ↑ On the chronological sequence and the death of Eastcourt see Benjamin D. Meritt : The Epigraphic Notes of Francis Vernon. In: American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Ed.): Commemorative Studies in Honor of Theodore Leslie Shear (= Hesperia. Supplement 8). American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton 1949, pp. 213-227, here: pp. 213 f.
4. ^ Francis Vernon: Mr. Francis Vernons Letter, Written to the Publisher January. 10th. 1675/6 giving a Short Account of Some of his Observations in His Travels from Venice Through Istria, Dalmatia, Greece, and the Archipelago, to Smyrna, Where This Letter Was Written. In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Volume 11, 1676, pp. 575–582, here: p. 581 ( digital version  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ); Benjamin D. Meritt: The Epigraphic Notes of Francis Vernon. In: American School of Classical Studies at Athens (Ed.): Commemorative Studies in Honor of Theodore Leslie Shear (= Hesperia . Supplement 8). American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton 1949, pp. 213-227, here: pp. 213 f.  
5. ↑ Annamarie Felsch-Klotz: Early travelers in Phokis and Lokris. Reports from central Greece from the 12th to the 19th centuries. Göttinger Universitätsverlag, Göttingen 2009, p. 16. 36.
6. ↑ The Royal Society published the letter in their Philosophical Transactions : Francis Vernon: Mr. Francis Vernons Letter, Written to the Publisher January. 10th. 1675/6 giving a Short Account of Some of his Observations in His Travels from Venice Through Istria, Dalmatia, Greece, and the Archipelago, to Smyrna, Where This Letter Was Written. In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Volume 11, 1676, pp 575-582 ( Digitalisat  ( page no longer available , searching web archives )  Info: The link is automatically marked as defective Please review the link under. Instructions and then remove this notice. ).  
7. ^ Jacob Spon: Response à la critique publiée par M. Guillet on the "Voyage de Grèce" de Jacob Spon. Amaulri, Lyon 1679, pp. 284-302 ( digitized ).