Thomas Hyde

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For other people named Thomas Hyde, see Thomas Hyde (disambiguation).
Thomas Hyde
Line engraving by Francis Perry, 1767
Born(1636-06-29)29 June 1636
Died18 February 1703(1703-02-18) (aged 66)
NationalityBritish
Academic background
Alma materKing's College, Cambridge
InfluencesUniversity of Oxford
Academic work
Sub-disciplineHebrew studies

Thomas Hyde (29 June 1636 – 18 February 1703) was an English

ancient Persians
.

Life

He was born at Billingsley, near Bridgnorth in Shropshire, on 29 June 1636. He inherited his taste for linguistic studies, and received his first lessons in some of the Eastern tongues, from his father, who was rector of the parish.[1]

Hyde was educated at

Archbishop Ussher had thought well-nigh impossible even for a native of Persia, Hyde appended the Latin version which accompanies it in the Polyglott.[1]

In 1658 he was chosen Hebrew reader at

archdeaconry of Gloucester, receiving the degree of D.D. shortly afterwards.[1] As librarian, Hyde was responsible for the publication of the Catalogus impressorum Librorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae (1674) [Catalog of the Printed Books in the Bodleian Library], the third published catalogue of the Bodleian collections.[citation needed
]

In 1691 the death of

canonry of Christ Church.[1]

Under Charles II, James II and William III, Hyde discharged the duties of Eastern interpreter to the court. He resigned his librarianship in 1701,[1] giving as a reason, "my feet being left weak by the gout, I am weary of the toil and drudgery of daily attendance all times and weathers."[4] He died at Oxford on 18 February 1703, aged 66.

Works

Hyde was an assiduous classical scholar and linguist who helped popularize

ancient Persians.[1] He identified Zoroaster as a religious reformer.[7] Like Engelbert Kaempfer,[8] he is sometimes mistakenly[9] credited with coining the word "cuneiform".[10][11] He is similarly sometimes credited with coining "dualism".[12]

His writings and translations include:

In parts of the De Ludis Orientalibus, he relates his understanding of various Chinese games as explained to him by Michael Shen. These include

weiqi (i.e., go)[13] which includes the first Latin mention of the game's concept of "eyes". The Historia Religionis Veterum Persarum was republished by Hunt and Costard in 1760. The other works—including some previously unpublished manuscripts—were collected, edited, and published by Gregory Sharpe in 1767 under the title Syntagma Dissertationem quas Olim Thomas Hyde Separatim Edidit. Sharpe also provided a biography of Hyde in his work.[1]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hyde, Thomas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 30.
  2. ^ "Hyde, Thomas (HD652T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ^ Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Horrobin-Hyte
  4. William D. Macray
    , Annals of the Bodleian Library (1868) p. 121-122.
  5. ^ Maverick, Lewis A. (February 1952), "Review of A Cycle of Cathay: The Chinese Vogue in England during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries by William W. Appleton", Far Eastern Quarterly, vol. 11, pp. 246–247.
  6. ^ Ballaster, p. 262.
  7. ^ "Zoroaster as Perceived in Western Europe after Antiquity", Iranica, archived from the original on 16 April 2019, retrieved 20 September 2007.
  8. ^ "cuneiform", Online Etymology Dictionary.
  9. ^ "cuneiform, n. and adj.", Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
  10. ^ Hyde, HRVP (1700), p. 526.
  11. ISBN 9004038582
    .
  12. S2CID 242249340
    .
  13. ^ De Ludis Orientalibus, Vol. II (1694), pp. 195–201.

External links

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