Sir Robert Cotton

Peter Anthony Stokes (Paris Science et Lettres)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

Born 22 Feb 1571
Died 6 May 1631
Activity 1591-1631

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Poet

Resources

Cotton's Works

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Robert Cotton, antiquarian, book-collector, and politician, was born on 22 January 1571 into a prosperous and well-established family of minor nobility based in Huntingdonshire. He attended the Westminster School, where his schoolmaster was the antiquarian William Camden. Cotton graduated BA from Jesus College Cambridge in 1586, and spent a year at the Middle Temple in 1589. Around this time he joined the new Society of Antiquaries, along with Camden and others, and also began acquiring manuscripts. Indeed, Cotton quickly gained a reputation as a collector, for around the turn of the century Sir Thomas Bodley asked him to donate manuscripts to the new library then being built in Oxford.

Cotton's fortunes improved further under James I. He was held in favour by the king, was knighted in

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780 words

Citation: Stokes, Peter Anthony. "Sir Robert Cotton". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 October 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1034, accessed 21 November 2024.]