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BOECE, HECTOR,
a celebrated historian, was born at Dundee about 1465, or, as other accounts
say, 1470. He was descended from an ancient family, who had possessed the
barony of Panbride, or Balbride, in Forfarshire, since the reign of David
the Second. From the place of his birth he had the appellation of Diedonanus,
being so styled in the edition of his history published by Ferrerius. After
receiving the rudiments of his education in his native town, and studying
for some time at Aberdeen, he went to the university of Paris, where he took
the degree of bachelor of divinity. Having applied himself to the study of
divinity, philosophy, and history, he was in 1497 appointed professor of
philosophy in the college of Montagu in that university. Amongst other
eminent persons with whom he there became acquainted was Erasmus, who
maintained a correspondence with him, and who, in one of his epistles,
styles him “a man of an extraordinary happy genius, and of great eloquence.”
On the erection,
in 1500, of King’s College, Aberdeen, by William Elphinstone, bishop of the
diocese, Boece was by that prelate invited back to Scotland, and appointed
principal of the new university, in which he was also professor of divinity.
His sub.-principal, William Hay, also a native of Forfarshire, and his
fellow-student at Dundee and Paris, succeeded him as head of the college.
His brother, Arthur Boece, chancellor of the cathedral of Brechin, was
appointed professor of canon law, and June 22d, 1535, became a judge of the
court of session. His talents and high reputation tended very much to the
prosperity and success of the institution. Besides being principal of the
college, Boece was a canon of Aberdeen, and rector of Tyrie, in the same
county. On the death of Bishop Elphinstone, in 1514, Boece wrote his life in
Latin, with those of his predecessors in the see of Aberdeen. This work,
published, under the title of ‘Episcoporum Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium,’
at Paris in 4to in 1522, has been reprinted by the Bannatyne Club. Murthlack
in Banffshire was originally the seat of the bishops, before it was removed
to Aberdeen; which accounts for the title of the work. He next wrote, also
in Latin, his more celebrated work, the History of Scotland, introduced by a
copious geographical description of the country. This work first appeared at
Paris in 1526, under the title of ‘Scotorum Historia ab illius Gentis
Origine.’ The first edition contained seventeen books, and ended with the
death of James the first. Another edition, containing the eighteenth book,
and part of the nineteenth, bringing the history down to the reign of James
the Third, was published in 1574 by Joannes Ferrerius, a Piedmontese, who
had resided several years in Scotland, and who added an appendix of
thirty-five pages. It was printed at Lausanne, and published at Paris.
Boece’s History was translated into the Scotch language for the benefit of
James the Fifth, by John Bellenden, archdeacon of Moray, as already stated
in the life of that author. A metrical version of it, containing about
seventy thousand lines, done by some one whose name has not been
ascertained, is preserved in the library of the university of Cambridge. In
1527 James the Fifth bestowed upon Boece a pension of fifty pounds Scots
yearly, to be paid by the sheriff of Aberdeen out of the royal casualties,
until the king should promote him to a benefice of a hundred merks Scots of
yearly value. This benefice was the rectory of Tyrie, which he held till his
death. In 1528 Boece took the degree of D.D. at Aberdeen; and we learn from
the Burgh Records of that city, under date 5th September of that
year, that on this occasion the magistrates voted him a present of a tun of
wine when the new wines should arrive, or the sum of twenty pounds Scots,
“to helop to by him bonatis, quhilk of thame he thinkis maist expecient, at
his awin plesour. And the said counsail to convein this day efternowne, in
the prowest innin, to se and devise quhar this mony sal be esiast gotten.” [Extract
from Council Register of Aberdeen published for the Spalding Club, 1398-1570,
p. 121.]
Boece died at
Aberdeen, it is supposed, about the year 1536, aged about seventy, and was
buried in the chapel of the college, near to the tomb of Bishop Elphinstone.
In the front of the chapel is his coat of arms, with ‘H.B. ob. 1536.’ His
History of Scotland, considering the age in which he wrote, is remarkable
for its elegance and purity of style, but his credulity and fondness for the
marvellous detract greatly from its value, and deprive him of all title to
be considered an authority. He adopted, without inquiry, and without even
seeming to have any doubt of their authenticity, the fables of the
monastic chroniclers that preceded him, as well as the no less absurd
fictions and traditions of his own age. Some writers accuse him of
having invented many details in the earlier part of his history; but from
this charge of fabrication he has been vindicated by Mr. Maitland, in his
biographical introduction to Bellenden’s translation. It is enough that he
has to bear the imputation of having been the great stumbling-block to a
truthful history of his own times, for his falsehoods, after having been
once and again disproved come up again fresh, as if uncontradicted, to
garnish the tales of the novelist, the tale-writer, and the world-be
historian. In his private character Boece is described as having been
discreet, generous, affable, and courteous.
Boece’s works are:
Vitae Episcoporum
Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium. Paris, 1522, 4to. He begins at Beanus the
first bishop, and ends with Gawin Dunbar. Reprinted for the Bannatyne Club.
Edinburgh, 1825, 4to.
Scotorum Historiae
a prima gentis origine. Libri xvii. per Jodocum Badium, Ascensium. Paris,
1526, fol. Scotorum Historiae. Libri xix. cum continuatione Johannis Ferreri
Pedemontani. Paris, 1574, fol. a rare edition. The same. Paris, 1575, 1577,
fol. In Eng. by B. Hollinshed. Lond. 1587, fol. The same translaatit laitly
by Maister Johne Bellenden, Archedene of Murray, Channon of Rosse; at the
command of the richt hie richt excellant and noble Prince James V. of that
name, King of Scottis; and imprinted in Edinburgh, be Thomas Davidson,
without date, fol.; again 1536, 1541, this translation is contained in 17
books, and made from the first edit. of Hector Boethius, at Paris, 1526,
fol.
Explicatio
quorundam vocabulorum ad cognitionem dialectices conducensium, et
introductio ad logicen Arisotelis. Toleti, 1616, 4to. |
