Autobiography

XII

the learned Huet’s Pierre-Daniel Huet (1630–1721), a French bishop and scholar. While he wrote massive theological works, his personal memoirs are often more highly regarded by later historians. [writings] have long outlived his Gospel Demonstration original: "Demonstrationem Evangelicam"; a major work of Christian apologetics published in 1679.; and the memoirs of Goldoni Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793), a famous Italian playwright whose memoirs are a primary source for the history of the theater. contain far more genuine dramatic spirit than his Italian comedies. The heretic and the clergyman are very strikingly expressed in the life and character of Whiston William Whiston (1667–1752), an English theologian and mathematician who was famously expelled from Cambridge for his "heretical" views on the Trinity. and Bishop Newton Thomas Newton (1704–1782), an English cleric whose autobiography provides a detailed account of the ecclesiastical politics of his day.; and even the follies of Michel de Marolles A 17th-century French abbot known for his massive collection of prints and his somewhat eccentric translations. and Anthony Wood An English antiquary (1632–1695) known for his meticulous and often grumpy diaries about life at Oxford University. gain an uncommon interest through the faithful depiction of people and customs.

Since Gibbon referring to Edward Gibbon, whose memoirs the editor had likely just finished translating or studying before turning to this project. had now been taken from me, it occurred to me—on the occasion when June 27th in my historical pocket-calendar reminded me of J. V. Andreä Johann Valentin Andreä (1586–1654), the subject of this book. He was a prominent German theologian and social reformer.—that his autobiography was still unprinted. I therefore turned to Pastor Burk in Weiltingen, who shared his very accurate transcript with me with the most friendly readiness—at that time, I still knew nothing of the existence of the original manuscript, which was later occasionally compared [to the transcript]—for which I express my public thanks to him here.