View source for Gabriel Harvey 1552/3-1631

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===[[name::Gabriel]] [[name::HARVEY]] [[date of birth::1552;1553|1552/3]]-[[date of death::1631]]===

====Biographical Note====
Born at [[place of birth::Saffron Walden]], son of [[family::John Harvey]], [[occupation::yeoman]] and [[occupation::rope maker]]; brother of [[crossreference::Richard Harvey]]. BA [[education::Christ's College, Cambridge]] 1570, [[occupation::fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge|fellow of Pembroke College]] 1570, MA 1573, [[occupation::praelector]] of [[subject::rhetoric]] 1574, LL.B [[education::Trinity Hall, Cambridge|Trinity Hall]] 1584. He sought, numerous times during his life, to achieve further advancement in [[location::Cambridge]] without success. He moved to [[location::London]] in the late 1580s to become a [[occupation::barrister]] in the [[organisations::Court of Arches]]; shortly afterwards he and his brother became embroiled in a long and vicious pamphlet war with [[associates::Thomas Nashe]] and others, set off by a suggestion that Harvey was involved in the Martin Marprelate tracts. After this ended in the late 1590s (with an order that all Nashe's and Harvey's publications be seized and not reprinted), he retired to [[location::Saffron Walden]] where he lived for the rest of his life, possibly undertaking some practice as a [[occupation::physician]].

====Books====
Harvey has long been celebrated and studied as a book owner for his voluminous annotations, usually in a clear and distinctive hand. He acquired books throughout his life - he was buying books in the 1560s, and in the 1620s - but we do not have an inventory, or any certain knowledge of the size of his library; it is usually thought to have been over 1000 volumes, possibly as many as 3000. Ca. 200 surviving volumes can be traced today. It was dispersed soon after his death and examples are now widely scattered around the world; it covered a wide range of subjects, as would be expected, embracing [[subject::science]], [[subject::mathematics]] and [[subject::medicine]] as well as [[subject::theology]], [[subject::history]], [[subject::geography]], [[subject::classics]], [[subject::literature]] and [[subject::law]].

====Characteristic Markings====
Harvey regularly inscribed his books with his name and date of purchase. He often wrote extensive annotations, relating to the text, commenting on it, or supplementing it; he also used a series of astrological symbols as marginal marks to indicate the subject.

====Sources====
<div id="sourcelist">
*Jardine, L. & A. Grafton, “Studied for action”; how Gabriel Harvey read his Livy, ''Past and present'' 129 (1990), 30-78.  
*Scott-Warren, Jason. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/12517 "Harvey, Gabriel (1552/3–1631), scholar and writer."] ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''.
*Shaddy, R. Gabriel Harvey in W. Baker (ed), ''Pre-19th century British book collectors'', 1999, 131-46. 
*[https://specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=9700 Liam Sims, The library of Gabriel Harvey].
*[https://specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=21940 Liam Sims, A new acquisition from Gabriel Harvey's library].
*Stern, V. ''Gabriel Harvey: his life, marginalia and library'', 1979.  
*[https://celm-ms.org.uk/introductions/HarveyGabriel.html Gabriel Harvey, ''Catalogue of English literary manuscripts 1450-1700''].
*[https://archaeologyofreading.org/biography/ Gabriel Harvey, The Archaeology of Reading].
*[https://www.cam.ac.uk/AnnotatingHistory J. Skinner, Annotating History: thoughts of an Elizabethan scholar revealed].
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[[Category:Judges and Lawyers]]
[[Category:Physicians]]
[[Category:Marginalia and Annotations]]
[[Category:All Owners]]