
Obsequium amicos, veritas odium parit. *

J. Hudson
Bibliothecae Bodleianae Praefectus.
Oxon[iis] 1. Maji 1716.
* For the adage cf. Erasmus, Adagia
2.9.53 (Obsequium amicos, veritas odium parit). Its ultimate
source is Terence, Andria 68.
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Obedience makes friends, truth enemies. *
Written to the noble owner [of this album] as a
token of memory, by
J. Hudson
prefect of the Bodleian Library
In Oxford, on May 1, 1716.
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p.
233. Oxford, May 12, 1716
Hudson, John
(1662-1719), English classical philologist
John Hudson was born in 1662 in the village of Widehope near to Cockermouth
(Cumberland). In 1676 he began to study as a servitor in Queen’s College
in Oxford. He obtained M.A. degree in 1684. From 1686 he was
fellow and tutor of University College, lecturing on various
subjects of philology, but when in 1691 he was elected master of
the same college, he was given a reputation of being contrary to
the government. Therefore he changed his cautious Jacobite views,
but nevertheless he was not allowed to step forward. In 1701,
following the dismissal of Thomas Hyde (1636-1703), he was elected
librarian of Bodleian Library, and in the same year he
obtained his doctoral degree in theology. He had already donated
seventy books to the library, these were followed by six hundred
more between 1705 and 1710. In 1712 he appointed sub-librarian
Thomas Hearne (1678-1735), who was a nonjuror, and therefore was dismissed in 1716, but at this time he
reproached Hudson of having betrayed his former principles. Hudson
was not a model librarian, and this reputation of him was
further exaggerated by his enemies. He was told for example to
have thrown out a book of poetry by Milton, donated to the library
by the poet himself back in 1647, and the volume survived only by
chance. In 1712 Hudson was elected principal of St. Mary Hall
in Oxford; he built the house where principals dwell since then.
He published a large number of classical authors, among them the
volume of Thucydides conserved in our Library: Thoukydidou peri tou
Peloponnesiakou polemou biblia okto … quam Aemilius Portus
… repurgavit, Graec. & Lat. Oxford, 1696. – Dionysii
Halicarnassensis Opera omnia Graece et Latine. Oxford, 1704. 2
tom. – Dionysiou Longinou peri hypsous biblion, Graec. & Lat.
Oxford, 1710. – Geographiae veteris scriptores Graeci minores.
Oxford, 1698-1712. 4 tom.
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