The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume IX. From Steele and Addison to Pope and Swift.
§ 28. Old English Studies: Sir Henry Spelman
The efforts of archbishop Parker in the sixteenth century to further Old English studies, found a successor, among others, in Sir Henry Spelman, who, besides producing numerous learned works of his own, was ever ready to encourage the studies of others. Neither the short-lived lectureship which he founded at Cambridge, nor Rawlinson’s abortive similar project at Oxford more than a century later, succeeded in giving the study an academic status. Nevertheless, the subject did not lack votaries, among whom are to be counted William Somner, whose Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum was issued in 1659, Francis Junius, George Hickes, bishop Gibson, editor of the Old English Chronicle, William Elstob, and his learned sister Elizabeth, who published a Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory and a Grammar of the language.