Thomas Wright (antiquarian)

Thomas Wright (born April 21, 1810 in Ludlow , Shropshire , † December 23, 1877 in London ) was an English archaeologist and writer.

Thomas Wright, around 1859

Life

Thomas Wright came from a Quaker family previously living in Bradford , Yorkshire . He attended Ludlow Grammar School and studied at Trinity College , Cambridge , where he graduated in 1834 and contributed to Gentleman's Magazine and other periodicals. In 1835 he came to London, where from then on he devoted himself entirely to literary activities and worked his entire life as a cultural and literary historian, critic, archaeologist and translator. He was among the founders of the British Archaeological Association , the Percy Society , the Camden Society, and the Shakespeare Society . In 1842 he became a corresponding member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris and was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London.

Wright, who had an excellent knowledge of the Germanic and Romance languages ​​and especially studied the works of Jakob Grimm , organized a large number of careful editions of monuments of Anglo-Saxon, Old English, and Anglo-Norman literature. At the expense of the Percy Society, he published the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer from 1847-1851 based on an original manuscript. In 1859 he oversaw the excavations of the ancient Roman city of Viroconium (now Wroxeter ) near Shrewsbury , about which he published a report. He died in Chelsea (London) in 1877 at the age of 67 and was buried in Brompton Cemetery .

Fonts

• Early English Poetry in Black Letter, with Prefaces and Notes , 4 Bde., 1836
• Queen Elizabeth and her Times, a Series of Original Letters , 2 vols., 1838
• Political Songs of England from the Reign of John to that of Edward II , London 1839
• Reliquiae antiquae , 1839–1843, new edition in 2 volumes, 1845, ed. with James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps
• W. Mapes Latin Poems , 1841
• Political Ballads and Carols , London 1841
• Popular Treatises on Science , 1841
• History of Ludlow , 1841, reissued 1852
• Collection of Latin Stories , 1842
• The Vision and Creed of Piers Plowman , 2 vols., 1842, 2nd edition 1855
• Biographia literaria , Vol. 1: Anglo-Saxon Period , 1842, Vol. 2: Anglo-Norman Period , 1846
• The Chester Plays , 2 vols., 1843–1847 (contains biblical dramas from the 14th to 16th centuries)
• St. Patrick's Purgatory , 1844 digitized
• Anecdota literaria , 1844
• Early Mysteries and other Latin Poems of the XII and XIII Centuries , London 1844
• Archaeological Album , 1845
• Essays on the Literature, Superstition and History of England in the Middle Ages , 2 Vols, London 1846
• Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales , 3 vols., London 1847-1851
• Early Travels in Palestine , 1848
• England under the House of Hanover, illustrated by the Satires, Caricatures and Burlesques of the Day , 2 vols., London 1848, reworked as Caricature History of the Georges , 1868
• Mapes' De nugis curialium , 1850
• Geoffrey Gaimar ’s Metrical Chronicle , 1850
• Narratives of Sorcery and Magic , 2 vols. London 1851
• The Celt, the Roman and the Saxon , 1852, 5 ed. 1890
• History of Ireland , 3 vols., 1852
• Wanderings of an Antiquary , London 1854, 2nd edition 1861
• History of Fulke Fitz Warine , 1855
• Johannes de Garlandias De triumphis ecclesiae , 1856
• History of France , 3 vols., 1856–1862
• Dictionary of Obsolete and Provincial English , 2 Vols., 1857
• Anglo-saxon and Old English Vocabularies , printed privately in 1857 and 1873, 2nd edition by RP Wülker, 2 vols., London 1884
• Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles , 2 vols., Paris 1858
• Thomas Malory's History of King Arthur , 2 vols., 1858, revised edition 1865
• The Ruins of the Roman City of Uriconium , 1859
• Political Poems and Songs of England from the Edward III to Richard III , 2 vols., 1859-1861
• Songs and Ballads of the Reign of Philip and Mary , 1860
• Essays on Archaeological Subjects , 2 Vols., 1861
• as editor: Alexandri Neckam De naturis rerum libri duo, with the poem of the same author De laudibus divinae sapientiae. London 1863
• Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England in the Middle Ages , 1862; reworked as The Homes of other Days , 1871
• Roll of Arms of Edward I , 1864
• History of the Grotesque and Caricature in Literature and Art , 1865, 2nd ed. 1875
  • Histoire de la caricature et du grotesque. Paris 1867
• Womankind in Western Europe from the earliest Ages to the XVII Century , 1869
• Uriconium, a Historical Account of the Ancient Roman City , 1872
• Anglo-Latin Satirical Poets of 12th Century , 2 vols., 1872

literature

• Wright, Thomas : In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th Edition, 1885-1892, 16th Vol., P. 756 ( online ).