Thomas Smith and Reading as a 'Trigger for Action'
Read More![<b>Author:</b> Vitruvius Pollio<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> De architectura libri decem</i> [Ten books on architecture] (Venice, 1567)
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<b>Shelfmark:</b> F.2.24 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394501550003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-mZZZvRp/0/1bfa8154/M/F-002-024-005-M.jpg)
Author: Vitruvius Pollio
Title: De architectura libri decem [Ten books on architecture] (Venice, 1567)
Shelfmark: F.2.24 (catalogue record)
Author: Vitruvius Pollio
Title: De architectura libri decem [Ten books on architecture] (Venice, 1567)
Shelfmark: F.2.24 (catalogue record)
![The many law-related books in the Smith collection reflect the high standing Smith eventually achieved in this discipline as Cambridge’s first Regius Professor of Civil Law. Owing to the fact that Smith knew relatively little about law at the time of his initial appointment, he toured Europe during 1540-2 in the hope of acquiring relevant legal texts and familiarizing himself with humanist legal scholarship. Smith came to own several volumes of the <i>Digest</i>, later known as <i>Corpus juris civilis</i> (of which this volume is a part), which was the seminal text on Roman law. Commissioned by the emperor Justinian in the sixth century, it came to form the basis of modern civil law. In Cambridge Smith introduced a new generation of students to the methods of continental jurists, developing an English legal humanism that applied classical learning to the conduct of contemporary life. In this edition, the text of the <i>Corpus juris civilis</i> is printed in double columns surrounded by commentary. Here is a full-page woodcut illustration of a 'legal tree' diagram – a visual representation of the legal system.
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<b>Title:</b><i> Infortiatum</i> [Second part of the Pandects] (Leiden, 1539)
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<b>Shelfmark:</b> M.2.12 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394392430003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-9cHtx5M/0/ea0e648b/Ti/M-002-012-002-Ti.jpg)
![<b>Title:</b><i> Infortiatum</i> [Second part of the Pandects] (Leiden, 1539)
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<b>Shelfmark:</b> M.2.12 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394392430003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-X5dGZs2/0/8c0c8f49/Ti/M-002-012-003-Ti.jpg)
![<b>Title:</b><i> Infortiatum</i> [Second part of the Pandects] (Leiden, 1539)
<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> M.2.12 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394392430003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-Xwz3mXN/0/a3815814/Ti/M-002-012-004-Ti.jpg)
![Smith’s keen interest in the Roman author Vitruvius’ <i>Ten books on architecture</i> is evident in the fact that no fewer than four editions of the work, all in different languages, appear in his library inventory (here is a Latin version). Rediscovered during the Renaissance, Vitruvius' work may have proved particularly relevant for Smith in relation to his reading of the Roman law texts commissioned by the Emperor Justinian (see previous images). Smith’s sketches of buildings in the margins of the Infortiatum where architecture is discussed reflect his fascination with Roman building practices and their laws concerning the legal rights and duties of property owners. Recent research has argued that Justinian legal precepts had a direct influence on Smith’s subsequent design of his residence at Hill Hall, Essex. This is now considered to be one of the first Renaissance houses to have been built in England.
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<b>Author:</b> Vitruvius Pollio<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> De architectura libri decem</i> [Ten books on architecture] (Venice, 1567)
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<b>Shelfmark:</b> F.2.24 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394501550003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-kKLC7pP/1/8dab6c40/Ti/F-002-024-002-Ti.jpg)
![<b>Author:</b> Vitruvius Pollio<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> De architectura libri decem</i> [Ten books on architecture] (Venice, 1567)
<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> F.2.24 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394501550003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-Hd6qNSR/0/a0563879/Ti/F-002-024-003-Ti.jpg)
![<b>Author:</b> Vitruvius Pollio<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> De architectura libri decem</i> [Ten books on architecture] (Venice, 1567)
<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> F.2.24 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21394501550003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-mZZZvRp/0/1bfa8154/Ti/F-002-024-005-Ti.jpg)
![Although the majority of Smith's foreign travels took him to France and Italy, as a scholar and policy-maker his historical interests extended to other European countries. This chronicle of Scandinavian rulers by Albert Krantz was a key text for advisors in foreign policy, and would have been useful to Smith in his positions as ambassador and Secretary of State during the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I. An example of Smith’s habit of annotating his books can be found in a margin on display here, showing a portrait of Margaret I, who at various times during the final years of the fourteenth century became regent of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, positions she would retain until her death in 1412.
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<b>Author:</b> Albert Krantz<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Chronica regnorum Aquilonarium Daniae, Suetiae, Norvagiae</i> [Chronicles of the northern kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway] ([s.l.], 1561)
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<b>Shelfmark:</b> D.10.22 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21402169650003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-wTDHc66/0/8536ba26/Ti/D-010-022-002-Ti.jpg)
![Here a boat labelled ‘Piratica’ accompanies a discussion on piracy.
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<b>Author:</b> Albert Krantz<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Chronica regnorum Aquilonarium Daniae, Suetiae, Norvagiae</i> [Chronicles of the northern kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway] ([s.l.], 1561)
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<b>Shelfmark:</b> D.10.22 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21402169650003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-xvgW7cN/0/e89238fc/Ti/D-010-022-004-Ti.jpg)
![Crowns usually refer to the coronation or the reign of a monarch.<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Albert Krantz<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Chronica regnorum Aquilonarium Daniae, Suetiae, Norvagiae</i> [Chronicles of the northern kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway] ([s.l.], 1561)
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<b>Shelfmark:</b> D.10.22 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21402169650003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-G4z7q3S/1/c780cdec/Ti/D-010-022-006-Ti.jpg)
![An upside-down crown, a symbol sometimes used by Smith, usually denotes the death of a ruler.<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Albert Krantz<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Chronica regnorum Aquilonarium Daniae, Suetiae, Norvagiae</i> [Chronicles of the northern kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and Norway] ([s.l.], 1561)
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<b>Shelfmark:</b> D.10.22 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21402169650003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-6b36mXT/0/1f8ec7d9/Ti/D-010-022-011-Ti.jpg)
![Written between 1562 and 1565 and initially published in English as a means to permit a wide readership, this is one of two publications for which Smith is best known. In it Smith drew on his knowledge of civil law and his experience of the continent to establish the distinctiveness of English institutions. The humanistic approach that underlies the work, according to which ancient authorities are hailed as essential but also fallible and in need of revision, is typical of the period. By writing in a style ‘midway between the historical and the philosophical’ Smith aimed to revisit an approach he ‘imagined’ Aristotle had adopted in his long-since lost accounts of the Greek commonwealths. It has recently been argued that Smith’s book also sought to resolve one of the chief problems then faced by him and his colleagues in government: how to secure the throne for Protestantism. According to this view, Smith’s use of the still-novel concept, ‘king in parliament’, was invoked here in order to preserve Elizabeth’s monarchical legitimacy and thus pave the way for Parliament to secure the succession of the Protestant Grey line should she die without issue.
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<b>Author:</b> Thomas Smith<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> De republica anglorum</i> [The republic of England] (Leiden, 1641)
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<b>Shelfmark:</b> X.17.5 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21407512770003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-gXxTDQc/0/b9b3684b/Ti/X-017-015-005-Ti.jpg)
![Wolfgang Lazius’ study of the migration of peoples proved useful to Smith in his search for classical precedents to justify his scheme to colonise the Ards peninsula of Ireland. Lazius’ references to Roman reports of a visit to Ireland in the first century AD by the marauding Heruli (one of the many Germanic tribes that attacked the Roman Empire) informed Smith’s attitudes to the Irish. To Smith, the contrast perceived by Romans between themselves and what they saw as the crude and uncivilized Heruli paralleled his own then typically English view of Ireland. In particular, the notion of cultivation and ‘civility’ as invoked by Tacitus and other Roman authors informed his own conception that through colonisation the English could bring ‘the rude and barbarous nation of the wild Irish to more civility of manner’.
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<b>Author:</b> Wolfgang Lazius<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> De gentium aliquot migrationibus</i> [On the several wanderings of peoples] (Basel, 1557)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> G.3.3 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21402179800003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/ThomasSmith/Trigger-for-action/i-CN7qJQt/0/54b8f38a/Ti/G-003-003-005-Ti.jpg)