Author Archives: petrini1

1582 – John Barclay, French-born Scottish writer, satirist, and neo-Latin poet. 1608 – Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist, physicist, mathematician, and author; Father of Biomechanics; and first person to design a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus; he became head of Mathematics at the University of Pisa, though Galileo recommended against hiring him. 1841 – Sir HenryContinue reading “January 28 Writer Birthdays”

1741 – Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi (born Hester Lynch Salusbury), Welsh diarist, author, salon holder, and patron of the arts; her diaries and correspondence are an important source of information about Samuel Johnson and 18th-century English life. 1826 – Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin, major Russian writer, editor, and satirist who spent much of his life workingContinue reading “January 27 Writer Birthdays”

1541 – Florent Chrestien, French writer, satirist, translator, and Latin poet; he was appointed tutor to Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV, who made him his librarian. 1783 – Helmina von Chézy, German writer, poet, journalist, art critic, literary critic, and librettist who wrote the libretto for Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Euryanthe and theContinue reading “January 26 Writer Birthdays”

1225 – Thomas Aquinas, influential Italian writer, professor, theologian, friar, and Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Catholic Church who tried to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity; he was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology; much of modern philosophy has either developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics,Continue reading “January 25 Writer Birthdays”

1287 – Richard de Bury (also known as Richard Aungerville or Aungervyle), English priest, teacher, bishop, writer, and bibliophile who was a patron of learning and one of the first English collectors of books. He is chiefly remembered for his Philobiblon, written to inculcate in the clergy the pursuit of learning and the love ofContinue reading “January 24 Writer Birthdays”

1729 – Clara Reeve, English writer, translator, and novelist best known for the Gothic novel The Old English Baron and an innovative history of prose fiction The Progress of Romance; her first work was a translation from Latin, then an unusual language for a woman to learn. 1783 – Stendahl (pen name for Marie-Henri Beyle),Continue reading “January 23 Writer Birthdays”

1561 – Francis Bacon (1st Viscount St Alban), English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author who served as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England; he is credited with developing the scientific method, arguing for scientific knowledge based on inductive reasoning, careful observation, and a methodical approach; he has been called the father ofContinue reading “January 22 Writer Birthdays”