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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Colvile, George

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1320779Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 11 — Colvile, George1887William Hunt

COLVILE or COLDEWEL, GEORGE (fl. 1556), translator, a student of Oxford (Wood; his name does not appear in Boase, Register of the University), translated 'Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiæ' with the title 'Boetius de Consolationse [sic] Philosophiæ. The boke of Boecius, called the comforte of philosophye or wysedome ... in maner of a dialoge betwene two persones, the one is Boecius, and the other is Philosophy, whose disputations ... do playnly declare the lyfe actiue . . . and the lyfe contemplatyne . . . Translated out of latin into the Englyshe tounge by George Coluile alias Coldewel . . . And to the mergentis is added the Latin . . . accordynge to the boke of the Translatour, whiche was a very olde prynte. Anno mdlvi.', printed by John Cawood, 4to.

The epistle dedicatory is 'To the hygh and myghty pryncesse our souereigne Ladye, and Quene,Marye . . . Queue of Englande, Spayne, Fraunce, both Cicilles, Jerusalem, and Irelande . . . Archeduches of Austrie, Duches of Myllayne, Burgundye and Brabante, Countesse of Haspurge, Flaunders and Tyroll.' The Latin is in italics on the inner margin, the rest of the book is in black letter. This is in the British Museum. Another edition was printed, also by Cawood, without date, in 1561.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 48; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), p. 794; Dibdin's Ames, iv. 397; Colvile's Boetius (1556); Warton's History of English Poetry, iii. 40; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 192.]