Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/292

34 time. Dr Henry died on the 24th of November, 1790, in the 73d year of his age. The fifth edition of the History of Britain was published in 1823, in twelve volumes 8vo. A French translation was published in 1789 96, by MM. Rowland and Cantwell.

HENRYSON,, LL.D., an eminent civilian and classical scholar, and a senator of the College of Justice. The period of the birth of tins eminent man is unknown, but it must have taken place early in the sixteenth century. Previously to the year 1551, we find him connecting himself, as most Scotsmen of talent and education at that period did, with the learned men on the continent, and distinguishing himself in his knowledge of civil law, a science which, although it was the foundation of the greater part of the municipal law of Scotland, he could have no ready means of acquiring in his own country. This study he pursued at the university of Bruges, under the tuition of Equinar Baro, an eminent civilian, with whom he afterwards lived on terms of intimacy and strong attachment. It is probable that he owed to this individual his introduction to a munificent patron, who afterwards watched and assisted his progress in the world. Ulric Fugger, lord of Kirchberg and Weissenhome, a Tyrolese nobleman, who had previously distinguished himself as the patron of the eminent Scottish civilian, Scrimger, extended an apparently ample literary patronage to Henryson, admitting him to reside within his castle, amidst an ample assortment of valuable books and manuscripts, and bestowing on him a regular pension. Kenryson afterwards dedicated his works to his patron, and the circumstance that Baro inscribed some of his commentaries on the Roman law to the same individual, prompts us to think it probable that Henryson owed the notice of Fugger to the recommendation of his kind preceptor. Dempster, who in his life of Henryson, as usual, refers to authors who never mention his name, and some of whom indeed wrote before he had acquired any celebrity, maintains that he translated into Latin (probably about this period, and while he resided in Fugger's castle) the "Corumentarium Stoicorum Contrariorum " of Plutarch; and that he did so must be credited, as the work is mentioned in Quesnel's Bibliotheca Thuana; but the book appears to have dropped out of the circle of literature, and it is not now to be found in any public library we are aware of. In the year 1 552, he returned to Scotland, where he appears to have practised as an advocate. The protection and hospitality he had formerly received from the Tyrolese nobleman, was continued to him by Henry Sinclair, then dean of Glasgow, afterwards bishop of Ross, and president of the Court of Session ; thus situated, he is said to have translated the Encheiridion of Epictetus, and the Commentaries of Arrian; but the fruit of his labours was never published, and the manuscript is not known to be in existence. Again Henryson returned to the continent, after having remained in his native country for a short period, and the hospitable mansion of Fugger was once more open for his reception. About this period Baro, whom we have mentioned as Henryson 's instructor in law, published a Tractatus on Jurisdiction, which met an attack from the civilian Govea, which, according to the opinion expressed by Henryson, as an opponent, did more honour to his talents than to his equanimity and candour. Henryson defended his master, in a controversial pamphlet of some length, entering with vehemence into the minute distinctions which, at that period, distracted the intellects of the most eminent jurisconsults. This work is dedicated to his patron Fugger. He was in 1554 chosen professor of the civil law at Bruges, a university in which one who wrote a century later states him to have left behind him a strong recollection of his talents and virtues. In 1555, he published another work on civil law, entitled "Commentatio in lit. X. Libri