Background
The son of Henry Peacham the Elder, like his father Peacham was a graduate of the University of Cambridge.
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Henry Peacham
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Career
In 1603, at the age of twenty-five the younger Peacham was a schoolmaster at Kimbolton Grammar School. In 1612 he published a book of printed emblems called Minerva Britanna, based on a manuscript which is believed to have been presented to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, in 1610. Peacham"s The Compleat Gentleman is presented as a guidebook on the arts for young men of good birth.
In it, he discusses what writers, poets, composers, philosophers, and artists gentlemen should study in order to become well-educated.
Because he mentions a large number of contemporary artistic figures, he is often cited as a primary source in studies of Renaissance artists. A representative passage from The Compleat Gentleman:
"Foreign composition, I prefer next Ludovico de Victoria, a most judicious and a sweet composer: after him Orlando di Lasso, a very rare and excellent Author, who lived some forty years since in the court of the Duke of Bavier.".
