John Willis (stenographer)

John Willis (b. 1575; buried November 28, 1625 in Bentley Parva, Essex ) was an English pastor, stenographer and the founder of the newer shorthand .

Life

John Willis enrolled at Cambridge in 1589 to study theology and in 1601 was pastor in St. Mary Bothaw, Dowgate Hill, London , and in 1606 pastor in Bentley Parva, Essex .

John Willis had a son, Robert Willis, who became a shorthand teacher. A London merchant Edmund Willis, who in 1618 published an improved version of John Willis' shorthand ( An Abbreviation of Short Writing by Characters ), does not seem to have been related to John Willis.

plant

John Willis published his work The Art of Stenography in 1602 , initially anonymously, probably because of Timothy Bright's ongoing patent protection, and then by name in later editions. With this work Willis created the word stenography (literally "engschrift", from ancient Greek στενός ( stenós ) "eng" + γραφή ( graphé ) "writing"). In addition, in contrast to its predecessors, Willis no longer uses word characters for the first time, but letters. His shorthand is the first modern shorthand ever.

Willis' letters are all geometrically formed: line, arc, circle and loop. He also gives rules on how to build word images from them. He does not write out vowels at the end, but indicates them with dots in different positions to the preceding character. Thomas Shelton's shorthand, which led the way in the later 17th and 18th centuries, builds on the system invented by Willis.

Willis also published a translation of his writing into Latin (1618) and a stenographic work in catechism form ( Schoolmaster to the Art of Stenography , 1623).

Works (selection)

• The Art of Stenography, teaching by plaine and certaine rules, to the capacity of the meanest, and for the vse of all professions, the way to Compendious Writing. Wherevnto is annexed a very easie direction for Steganógraphie, or secret writing, London, 1602, 16mo (Anonymous, available in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library)
  • The Art of Stenography, or Short Writing by spelling characterie , 5th edition, London 1617, 14th edition, London 1647
  • Stenographia, sive Ars compendiose Scribendi , Latin, London 1618
• The Schoolemaster to the Art of Stenography, explaining the rules and teaching the practice thereof to the understanding of the meanest capacity , London 1623, 16mo, 3rd edition 1647
• Deliciæ Philosophicæ , Nuremberg 1653 (German)
• Mnemonica; sive Ars Reminiscendi: e puris artis naturæque fontibus hausta, et in tres libros digesta, necnon de Memoria naturali fovenda libellus e variis doctissimorum operibus sedulo collectus , London 1618, 8vo.
• De Memoria naturali fovenda , reprinted as
  • Variorum de Arte Memoriæ Tractatus sex , Frankfurt 1678 (reprint De Memoria ), English translation by Leonard Sowersby, published in London 1661, 8 volumes. Parts in Feinaigle: New Art of Memory , 3rd edition, 1813, pp. 248–92.

literature

• Frances Henderson: Willis, John (d.1625), stenographer. In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Volume 59: Wilks-Wolman. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861409-8 , pp. 384f., ( Oxforddnb.com license required ), as of: 2004 ( accessed 2001 edition).
• Christian Johnen: General history of shorthand . 4th edition. Apitz Verlag, Berlin 1940, pp. 40-42.
• Thompson Cooper :  Willis, John (d.1628?) . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 62:  Williamson - Worden. MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1900, pp 18 - 19 (English).