John Aubrey
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English
antiquary,
natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the ''
Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer
archaeologist, who recorded (often for the first time) numerous
megalithic and other
field monuments in southern England, and who is particularly noted for his systematic examination of the
Avebury henge monument. The
Aubrey holes at
Stonehenge are named after him, although there is considerable doubt as to whether the holes that he observed are those that currently bear the name. He was also a pioneer
folklorist, collecting together a
miscellany of material on customs, traditions and beliefs under the title "Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme". He set out to compile
county histories of both
Wiltshire and
Surrey, although both projects remained unfinished. His "Interpretation of Villare Anglicanum" (also unfinished) was the first attempt to compile a full-length study of English
place-names. He had wider interests in applied mathematics and astronomy, and was friendly with many of the greatest scientists of the day.
For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, thanks largely to the popularity of ''Brief Lives'', Aubrey was regarded as little more than an entertaining but quirky, eccentric and credulous gossip. Only in the 1970s did the full breadth and innovation of his scholarship begin to be more widely appreciated. He published little in his lifetime, and many of his most important manuscripts (for the most part preserved in the
Bodleian Library) remain unpublished, or published only in partial form.
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