At Glastonbury, Abbot
John Selwood was familiar with John Free's work;
indeed, presents a monk with one of that scholar's translations
from the Greek.[4] His successor, Bere, was a pilgrim
to Italy, and was in correspondence with Erasmus, who
desired him to examine his translation of the New Testament
from the Greek. A monk of Westminster, who
became abbot of his house in 1465, was a diligent student,
noted for his knowledge of Greek.[5] At Christ Church,
Canterbury, Prior Selling was particularly zealous on
behalf of the library, and was one of the first to import
Greek books into England in any considerable quantity.[6]
Two manuscripts now in the library of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford, and one in New College, were transcribed
by a Greek living at Reading Abbey (1497-1500).[7]
These few references to the study of Greek are especially
significant, as the revival of Greek studies had only just
begun.
[1] Gasquet 4, 49.
[2] E. H. R., xxv. 122.
[3] Bateson, vii.
[4] Synesius de laude Calvitii, MS. Bodl. 80.
[5] Gasquet 2, 36-37.
[6] Sandys., ii. 225; and see post, p. 195.
[7] Gasquet 2, 37; Rashdall and Rait, New Coll.
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