Polydore Vergil was an Italian-born Humanist who wrote an English history that became required reading in schools and influenced the 16th-century English chroniclers Edward Hall and Raphael Holinshed and, through them, Shakespeare.
Background
Vergil was born at Urbino about 1470, or more probably at Fermignano, within the Duchy of Urbino. His father, Giorgio di Antonio, owned a dispensary. His grandfather, Antonio Virgili, "a man well skilled in medicine and astrology", had taught philosophy at the University of Paris; as did Polydore's own brother, Giovanni-Matteo Virgili, at Ferrara and Padua. Another brother, Girolamo, was a merchant trading with England.
Education
Polydore was educated at the University of Padua, and possibly at Bologna.
Career
After he was ordained priest, he was given various appointments in England by the papal chancery, initially in 1502 as subcollector of Peter’s Pence (a contribution to the pope). In 1508 he was made archdeacon of Wells. He became friends with such English Humanists as Sir Thomas More, William Grocyn, and John Colet, and remained in England, with periodic visits to Italy.
On 22 October 1510 Vergil was naturalised English.
Early in 1515 (through the intrigues of Andrea Ammonio, who sought the subcollectorship for himself), an ill-considered letter from Vergil was intercepted, which reflected badly on both Thomas Wolsey and Henry VIII; and as a result in April he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. He had some powerful supporters, including Pope Leo X, who wrote to the King on his behalf. From prison Vergil sent an abject and "almost blasphemous" letter to Wolsey, begging that the fast-approaching Christmas – a time which witnessed the restitution of a world – might also see his pardon. He was released before Christmas 1515, though he never regained his subcollectorship.
Although Vergil lived predominantly in England from 1502 onwards, he paid several return visits to Urbino, in 1513–14, 1516–17 and 1533–4. In 1534, Francesco Maria, Duke of Urbino, in recognition of his literary achievements, admitted Vergil and his family to the ranks of the nobility.
In 1546 Vergil resigned the Archdeaconry of Wells to the Crown, perhaps in anticipation of his retirement to Italy. He was licensed to return to Urbino in 1550, and probably left England for the last time in the summer of 1553. He died in Urbino on 18 April 1555.
Vergil was buried in Urbino Cathedral, in the chapel of St Andrew which he himself had endowed. In 1613, it was agreed that a memorial stone should be set over his tomb. This was eventually put in place in 1631, with an inscription stating that his fame would "live for ever in the world". However, it is believed to have been lost when the cathedral was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1789.
Among Vergil’s important works were Proverbiorum libellus (1498), known as the Adagia, a collection of proverbs and aphorisms with comments and moralistic reflections; De rerum inventoribus (1499), a popular, often reprinted treatise on inventions; and particularly the Anglicae historia libri XXVI (“Twenty-six Books of English History”), which began publication in 1534 and was finally collected in its complete form in 1555. This history was of great influence, both because an order of the Privy Council in 1582 made it required reading in English schools and because of its effect on the English historians Hall and Holinshed; the last-named in particular was a favourite source of material for Shakespeare.