Samuel Purchas

Samuel Purchas

Samuel Purchas (1575? - 1626), was an English travel writer, a near-contemporary of Richard Hakluyt.

Purchas was born at Thaxted, Essex, and graduated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1600; later he became B.D., and was admitted at Oxford in 1615. In 1604 he was presented by James I to the vicarage of Eastwood, Essex, and in 1614 became chaplain to Archbishop George Abbot and rector of St Martin, Ludgate, London. He had previously spent much time in London on his geographical work. In 1613 he published the first volume of his "Pilgrimes" series. The last of these, "Hakluytus Posthumus" is a continuation of Hakluyt's "Principal Navigations" and was partly based on manuscripts left by Hakluyt.

The fourth edition of the "Pilgrimage" is usually catalogued as the fifth volume of the "Pilgrimes", but the two works are essentially distinct. Purchas died in September or October 1626, according to some in a debtors' prison. None of his works was reprinted till the Glasgow reissue of the "Pilgrimes" in 1905-1907. As an editor and compiler Purchas was often injudicious, careless and even unfaithful; but his collections contain much of value, and are frequently the only sources of information upon important questions affecting the history of exploration.

"Purchas his Pilgrimage" was one of the sources of inspiration for the poem "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. As a note to Coleridge's poem explains, "In the summer of the year 1797, the Author, then in ill health, had retired to a lonely farm-house between Porlock and Linton, on the Exmoor confines of Somerset and Devonshire. In consequence of a slight indisposition, an anodyne had been prescribed, from the effects of which he fell asleep in his chair at the moment that he was reading the following sentence, or words of the same substance, in Purchas’s Pilgr

Writings

*"Purchas, his Pilgrimage; or, Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all Ages", (1613)
*"Purchas, his Pilgrim. Microcosmus, or the histories of Man. Relating the wonders of his Generation, vanities in his Degeneration, Necessity of his Regeneration", (1619)
*"Hakluytus Posthumus" or "Purchas his Pilgrimes, contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells, by Englishmen and others" (4 vols.), (1625)

References

*1911|article=Samuel Purchas|url=http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Samuel_Purchas


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  • Samuel Purchas — (* 1577 in Thaxted, Essex; † 1626 in London) war ein englischer Geistlicher und Herausgeber von Reiseliteratur. Samuel Purchas wurde vermutlich um 1577 in Thaxted in England geboren. Sein Vater George war ein erfolgreicher Tuchhändler; über seine …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Samuel Purchas — (1575? 1626), était un écrivain anglais s intéressant aux voyages, un proche contemporain de Richard Hakluyt. Purchas est né à Thaxted, dans l Essex, et a étudié au collège St John de Cambridge en 1600. Il est admis à Oxford en 1615. En 1604 il… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Purchas — Samuel Purchas (* 1577 in Thaxted, Essex; † 1626 in London) war ein englischer Geistlicher und Herausgeber von Reiseliteratur. Samuel Purchas wurde vermutlich um 1577 in Thaxted in England geboren. Sein Vater George war ein erfolgreicher… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Purchas, Samuel — ▪ English author born c. 1577, , Thaxted, Essex, Eng. died 1626, London       English compiler of travel and discovery writings who continued the encyclopaedic collections begun by the British geographer Richard Hakluyt in Hakluytus Posthumus or… …   Universalium

  • Purchas, Samuel — (1575? 1626)    A graduate of St. John s College, Cambridge. Rector of St. Martin s, Ludgate, London, 1614 1626. Fell heir to a number of unpublished narratives left by Hakluyt, and edited them with many others, in his collections of voyages and… …   The makers of Canada

  • Purchas, Samuel — (1575? 1626)    Compiler of travels, b. at Thaxton, and ed. at Camb., took orders, and held various benefices, including the rectory of St. Martin s, Ludgate Hill. The papers of R. Hakluyt (q.v.) came into his hands, and he made several… …   Short biographical dictionary of English literature

  • PURCHAS, SAMUEL —    collector of works of travel and continuator of the work of Hakluyt, in two curious works entitled Purchas his Pilgrimage, and Hakluyt s his Posthumous, or Purchas his Pilgrimmes, and was rector of St. Martin s, Ludgate, and chaplain to… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Purchas — biographical name Samuel circa 1577 1626 English compiler of travel books …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • Purchas — /perr cheuhs/, n. Samuel, 1575? 1626, English writer and editor of travel books. * * * …   Universalium

  • Purchas — /perr cheuhs/, n. Samuel, 1575? 1626, English writer and editor of travel books …   Useful english dictionary

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