John Ogilby: Difference between revisions

| birth_place = [[Kirriemuir]] (Angus, Scotland){{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pp=50{{ndash}}5250–52}}

'''John Ogilby''' (also ''Ogelby'', ''Oglivie''; 17 November 1600{{snd}} 4 September 1676) was a Scottish translator, impresario, publisher and cartographer. He was probably at least a half-brother to [[James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of Airlie]], though neither overtly acknowledged this. Ogilby's most-noted works include translations of the works of [[Virgil]] and [[Homer]], and his version of the [[Fables of Aesop]].

===Childhood and youth (1600−16181600–1618)===

John Ogilby's birthplace and parentage are historically uncertain; most early biographies of Ogilby rely on the notes of his assistant [[John Aubrey]] that were made for Aubrey's ''[[Brief Lives]]'', a collection of biographies of Ogilby and others.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pp=5, 6}} The accuracy of Aubrey's account is questionable;{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=6}} Aubrey noted Ogilby was evasive about his origins,{{sfnp|Van Eerde|1976|page=15}} saying only he was born "near Edinburgh" in 1600 "of a gentleman's family".{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pp=6, 7}} Later scholarship has discovered in 1653, Ogilby consulted the noted astrologer [[Elias Ashmole]],{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=164}} and that Ashmole subsequently included Ogilby's [[horoscope]] in a personal collection of his horoscopes of notable people.<ref>{{citation |date=c. 1680 |title=Ms. Ashm. 332, f.35° |first=Elias |last=Ashmole |author-link=Elias Ashmole |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horoscope_of_John_Ogilby_taken_by_Ashmole.png}}, cited in {{harvp|Ereira|2016|pp=50{{subst:ndashendash}}52}}</ref> The horoscope required precise data; Ashmole gives the exact location of Ogilby's birth as "Killemeure" ([[Kirriemuir]] near [[Dundee]]{{efn|Kirriemuir is about twenty [[statute mile]]s, eighteen [[Scottish mile]]s and 32 kilometres north of Dundee and the nearest town&nbsp;–&#32;{{snd}} about {{cvt|5|mi}} north-west&nbsp;–&#32;{{snd}} to [[Airlie, Angus|Airlie]], the seat of the [[Earl of Airlie|lairds of Airlie]].}}){{efn|This andis the exactEreira's date and time as 17 November 1600 at 04:00supposition.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pp=50–52}}{{efn| Van Eerde reads the location given on the horoscope as "Kellemeane" and is unable to identify any place of that or similar name on any maps of the time.{{sfnp|Van Eerde|1976|pages=15, 16}}}}) and the exact date and time as 17 November 1600 at 04:00.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pp=50–52}}

Ogilby believed himself to be at least a half-brother to [[James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of Airlie]],{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pages=150–161}}{{efn| In the second edition of ''Virgil'', Ogilby signed himself as {{lang|la|Johannes Ogilvius}}, with the Ogilvy coat-of-arms in a [[cartouche]], charged with a [[Star (heraldry)|heraldic star]] that indicated "younger son": the final plate of the book was dedicated to the [[Garter King of Arms]], in effect (Alan Ereira says) to assert the validity of his use of the arms.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pages=152–155}} Neither Ereira nor Van Eerde, however, were able to find any evidence of an overt claim to direct family connection and Van Eerde strongly questions whether such a connection ever existed.{{sfnp|Van Eerde|1976|page=16}} In 1625, John Ogilvie (1587{{snd}}1625, second brother to the Earl) affirmed in his will he was "brother german" (full, unquestioned brother) of the future Earl, seemingly to distinguish himself from John Ogilby.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pages=157,158}} }} given at birth to John Ogilby (senior), a rich[[wikt:well-off|well-off]] gentleman's tailor in Edinburgh, to be adopted.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pages=150{{ndash}}161150–161}}{{efn|There are no records of the circumstances of his fostering and adoption by John Ogilby (senior), at the time a well-to-do tailor in Edinburgh and distant kinsman to the noble Lord Ogilvie. Ereira suggests two possible reasons.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pages=150{{ndash}}161150–161}} The first is his claimed father, Lord Ogilvie, had engaged in pitched battle with the neighbouring Lindsay clan and as a result was subjected to severe sanctions by the Privy Council of Scotland. This put the family in very difficult circumstances: the eldest son, the future Earl of Airlie, was sent to the continent; perhaps a foster family in Edinburgh was the safest place for a baby. The second is his mother Jean Ruthven may have conceived while her husband was engaged in battle with the Lindsays.}} He was most likely educated at the Merchant Taylors' [[grammar school#Medieval grammar schools|grammar school]] in London.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pages=11–12}}{{efn|In 1606, the Ogilby family followed King [[James I and VI]] when the [[Union of the Crowns| court transferred to London]] and Ogilby Sr was admitted to membership of the [[Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors]].{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pages=9–10}} This meant attendance of the school was his right. Ereira notes Ogilby's name does not appear on the school register but that this is not surprising because the register records only pupils taking an examination called the "probation".{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|loc=page 420, footnote 11.}}}} At eleven years old, Ogilby was indentured as an apprentice to John Draper, one of just three licensed [[dance master]]s in London.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pp=32–33}} At the time, a dancing master had expertise in "grammar (elocution), rhetoric, logic, philosophy, history, music, mathematics and in other arts":{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=36}} ability to dance in "Old Measures" was considered an essential skill for the upper classes.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pp=40–41}} In 1617, Draper became a barrister at Grey[[Gray's Inn]] and released Ogilby, who by then was highly accomplished as a dancer and a teacher, from the apprenticeship, allowing him to set up as a master in his own right and to take part in theatrical performances.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pp=42–43}} A fall while dancing in a [[masque]] in February 1619 (aged 18), however, lamed him for life and ended his career as a dancer, though not as a teacher.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|pp=50{{ndash}}5250–52}}

Information about John Ogilby's early adulthood is limited. According to Ashmole's horoscope, in 1625, Ogilby suffered from a "double quotidian ague"&nbsp;–&#32; a form of malaria&nbsp;–&#32; <ref>{{cite book |first=C H |last=Josten |title=Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) : his autobiographical and historical notes, his correspondence, and other contemporary sources relating to his life and work |volume=II |page=655 |date=1967 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780191759932}}, cited in {{harvnb|Ereira|2016|p=64}} Josten decoded Ashmole's cryptic notes.</ref> he most probably contracted while fighting in the [[Low Countries]] under Colonel Sir Charles Rich.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=64}} In May 1626, he is recorded as holding the rank of [[lieutenant]] in the army of [[Ernst von Mansfeld|Count Mansfield]], subsequently becoming a prisoner of war in [[Dunkirk]] from July 1626 to June 1627.<ref>[[State papers#United Kingdom|State Papers Domestic]] 16 v. 66 (63), cited in {{harvnb|Ereira|2016|p=70}}</ref> From June to November 1627, Ogilby was one of the few survivors of the ill-fated English [[Siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré]], returning to England as acting Captain of a supply ship.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=72}}

In 1650, Ogilby married rich heiress Christian<!--"Christian" is correct (her parents were Puritans). "Christina" and "Catherine" are erroneous. See Van Eerde, p28. --> Hunsdon,{{sfnp|Van Eerde|1976|page=27}} a widow in her sixties and about 17 years Ogilby's senior.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=141}} The following year, he published the first edition of his work ''{{As written|The fables of Aesop paraphras'd in verse, and adorn'd with sculpture{{efn|perspective illustrations}} and illustrated with annotations}}'', which was illustrated by [[Francis Cleyn]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/376343 |doi=10.1086/376343 |title=From the Collection: Stylistic Influences and Design Sources: An Examination of Winterthur's ''Fox and the Crane'' Fireback |year=2002 |last1=Lindner |first1=Jennifer N. |journal=Winterthur Portfolio |volume=37 |page=74|s2cid=142101773 |quote=A particularly elegant yet unusual example may be seen in an engraving by Francis Cleyn in John Ogilby's ''Fables of Aesop Paraphras’dParaphras'd in Verse and Adorned with Sculpture'' (fig. 9).}}</ref><ref name="Dundas">{{cite journal | first=Judith |last=Dundas |title=The Masks of Cupid and Death |journal=Comparative Drama |volume= 29 |number=1, Spring |year=1995 |pages=48{{ndashsubst:endash}}49 |doi=10.1353/cdr.1995.0038 |jstor=41153732 |s2cid=190303904 |quote=The illustration that accompanies the first edition of the Fables, by Francis Cleyn, shows a youth who prays with clasped hands to Cupid in the sky (fig. 3). |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41153732}}</ref> Ogilby's version of the text was very successful, running to five editions in the following 15 years.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=143}}

During the next few years, Ogilby learnt [[Greek language|Greek]] with the intention of creating and publishing a new translation of [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]''; he planned it to be a magnificent undertaking with an estimated production cost of £5,000.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The subscription enterprises of John Ogilby and Richard Blome |first=Sarah |last=Clapp |journal=Modern Philology |volume=30 |number=4 |date=May 1933 |pages=365{{subst:ndashendash}}379|doi=10.1086/388058 |s2cid=161593172 }}</ref>{{efn|The modern equivalent of £5,000 in 1660 is about £{{inflation|UK|5000|1660|r=-5|fmt=c}}.}} The venture required sponsorship to pay for the [[engraving|engraved illustrations]], each of which would cost about £10,{{efn|The modern equivalent of £10 in 1660 is about £{{inflation|UK|10|1660|r=-3|fmt=c}}.}} but he secured only 47 sponsors. When the work published in March 1660, it had 600 pages but was substantially less illustrated than Ogilby had planned.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=184}} With his known Royalist sympathies,{{sfnp|Van Eerde|1976|page=43}} Ogilby was a risk to potential patrons who needed to avoid offending the Puritan [[Commonwealth of England|Commonwealth government]].{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=183}}

===Restoration of the monarchy, the Great Fire and Royal Cosmographer (1661{{ndash}}16761661–1676) ===

The [[Restoration of Charles II]] brought favour back to Ogilby. In 1661, he was granted the unpaid title "Master of the Royal [[wikt:imprimerie|Imprimerie]]" (King's Printer).{{sfnp|Van Eerde|1976|p=64, 91}} With Charles' coronation scheduled for 23 April 1661&nbsp;–&#32; [[St. George's Day]]&nbsp;–&#32; the [[Court of Common Council|Common Council]] of the [[City of London]] contracted Ogilby to "compose speeches, songs and inscriptions" for the coronation procession from the [[Tower of London]] to [[Whitehall]].{{sfnp|Van Eerde |1976 |page=49}}

InDuring the [[Great Fire of London|Great Fire]] ofin 1666, hisOgilby's house in [[Fleet Street#Printing and journalism|Shoe Lane]], together with its print-printing works and most of his stock, was destroyed{{snd}}; he estimated that he had lost £3,000.<ref>{{cite book |title=Africa |first=John |last=Ogilby |year=1670}} cited in {{harvp|Ereira|2016|p=245}}</ref>{{efn|The modern equivalent of £3,000 in 1666 is about £{{inflation|UK|3000|1666|r=-5|fmt=c}}.}} After the Great Fire, the [[Corporation of London]] appointed Ogilby and his wife's grandson (William Morgan) as "sworn viewers", members of a group of just four trustworthy gentlemen directed by [[Robert Hooke]],{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=247}} to plot out the disputed property in the city.{{sfnp|Fordham|1925|p=159}} Ogilby Subsequently,later hemade madewhat (he declared)called "the most accurate Survey of the City of London and Libertyes therof that has ever been done".<ref>{{cite book |first1=R. |last1=Hyde |first2= John |last2=Fisher |first3= Roger |last3=Cline |publisher=London Topographical Society |title=The A to Z of Restoration London |date=1992 |page=x |isbn=9780902087323}} cited in {{harvp|Ereira|2016|p=247}}</ref> By 1668, he had a new house in [[Whitefriars, London|Whitefriars]], and was ready to resume his printing and publishing work.{{sfnp|Van Eerde|1976|p=124}}

HisOgilby's next major venture was a series of atlases of China, Japan, Africa, Asia, and America. The first of these was ''An Embassy from the [[Dutch East India Company|East India Company]] of the [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]], to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperor of China'', which was published in 1689. This book was substantially a translation of [[Johan Nieuhof]]'s Dutch [[An embassy from the East-India Company|originalpublication of the same name]] (with English copies of the Dutch engravings).{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=254}} Ogilby's ''Africa'' appeared in 1670, and was followed in rapid succession by ''Atlas Japanennsis'' (1670), ''America'' (1671), ''Atlas Chinensis'' (1671) and ''Asia'' (1673).{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|p=260}} In 1671, in response to his proposal to make a detailed survey and atlas of Great Britain, the King appointed himOgilby Royal [[Cosmographer]] in 1671.{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|loc=p. 310 "He received a letter from the King on 24 August [1671] addressing him by the novel title of 'Royal Cosmographer'{{thin space}}"}}{{efn|name=Cosmographer|Parker gives 1674;<ref name="Parker" /> according to Ereira, this is the date when his title was upgraded to "His Majesty's Cosmographer and Royal Printer".{{sfnp|Ereira|2016|page=374}} }} Thus, at about the age of 70 and with the scientific advice of Robert Hooke,{{sfnp|Van Eerde|1976|pp=126, 127}} heOgilby began work on ''Britannia'', the project for which he is perhaps best known among cartographers, ''Britannia''.{{sfnp|Fordham|1925|p=1}}<ref name="Enlightenment" />

In the years that followed his death, Ogilby's reputation as a poetic translator was to suffersuffered from the attacks made on him by [[John Dryden]] in his satirical work ''[[MacFlecknoe]]'', and by [[Alexander Pope]] in ''[[The Dunciad]]''. <!-- [editorialing hidden, restore if it can be sourced] Whatever the justice of these, it should be borne in mind that Dryden had himself translated the work of Virgil, as Pope had of Homer, so it was in their interest to encourage a preference for their own products. --> Following their lead, the Scottish philosopher [[David Hume]] used Ogilby's work to illustrate the idea that common sense frequently appeals to a "standard of taste" in aesthetic matters: "
<blockquote>Whoever would assert an equality of genius and elegance between Ogilby and [[John] Milton|Milton]], or [[John] Bunyan|Bunyan]] and [[Joseph] Addison|Addison]], would be thought to defend no less an extravagance, than if he had maintained a [[mole-hill]] to be as high as [[TenerifeTeneriffe{{sic|Teneriffe]]date=September 2023}}, or a pond as extensive as the ocean".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hume |first=David |year=1757 |title=[[Four Dissertations]] |publisher=A. Millar in the Strand |place=London |edition=1st |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/fourdissertatio00humegoog/page/n214/mode/2up |chapter=Of the Standard of Taste}}</ref> </blockquote>
Other writers were even more critical:; hisOgilby's entry in the ''[[Encyclopaedia Londinensis]]'' (about 1800) reads ":
<blockquote>The chief merit of his Homer consists in a commendable and uniform fidelity to the sense of his author. As a poet, his pretensions to praise of any kind can scarcely be supported : he has neither animation of thought, accuracy of taste, sensibility of feeling, nor ornament of diction."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title= Encyclopaedia Londinensis or, Universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature |entry=O'Gilby, John |entry-url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/57975287#page/470/mode/1up |editor1= Chapman, John |editor2=  Jones, G. |editor3= Jones, John |editor4= Pass, J. |editor5= Wilkes, John |volume= 17 |page=430}}</ref></blockquote>

Such judgements stuck, and it is only recentlysince the mid-20th century that Ogilby's work has again been given scholarly attention, particularly his versions of ''[[Aesop's Fables]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Marion |last=Eames |title=John Ogilby and his Aesop |journal=Bulletin of the New York Public Library |volume=65 |year=1961 |pages=73–88}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Annabel M. |last=Patterson |title=Fables of Power: Aesopian Writing and Political History |publisher= Duke University Press |location=Durham NC |date=1991}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Katherine |last=Acheson |title=The Picture of Nature: Seventeenth-Century English Aesop's Fables |journal=Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies |volume=IX |number=2, Fall/Winter |year=2009 |pages=25–50|doi=10.1353/jem.0.0032 |s2cid=159954541 }}</ref> These, according to a short biography published by [[Theophilus Cibber]] in 1753, were "generally confessed to have exceeded whatever hath been done before in that kind".<ref name="Shiells1753">{{cite book |last=Shiells |first=Robert |title=The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland, to the Time of Dean Swift |volume=2 |year=1753 |publisher=R. Griffiths |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/bib_fict_4103171_2/page/268/mode/1up 268]}}</ref> They renewed interest in the fable as a literary medium and arguably ledinitiated thesuggestions way in suggestingof their adaptation to the troubled politics of the time.<ref>{{cite journal |title= The English Fable: Aesop and Literary Culture, 1651-1740 by Jayne Elizabeth Lewis |journal=Translation and Literature |volume=6 |number=2 |year=1997 |pages=244{{ndashsubst:endash}}249 |first=Karina |last=Williamson |publisher= Edinburgh University Press |doi=10.3366/tal.1997.6.2.244 |jstor=40316860|doi-access=free }} (book review)</ref><ref>{{cite journal |journal= The Eighteenth Century |volume= 23 |number=2 |date=Spring 1982 |pages=151{{ndashsubst:endash}}171 |first=Stephen H. |last=Daniel |title= Political and Philosophical Uses of Fables in Eighteenth-Century England |jstor=41467265 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |quote= Occasional authors such as John Ogilby published Aesopic fables (in 1651 and again in 1667) with what might be recognized as political motives; however, the applications of such fables are questionable and, in any event, do not approximate to the developed political positions found in later collections.}}</ref>

*{{cite journal |last=New |first=Melvyn |title=Review of ''The Nine Lives of John Ogilby: Britain's Master Map Maker and His Secrets'', by Alan Ereira. |journal=[[The Scriblerian and the Kit-Cats]] |volume=52 |number=1 |year=2019 |pages=108{{ndash}}110108–110 |doi=10.1353/scb.2019.0019 |publisher=[[Auburn University at Montgomery]], [[Longwood University]], [[Auburn University]] |s2cid=211656220 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/740046}}