Part 5: Henry Savile's Greek Handwriting at Audley End

In Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 we looked at Henry Neville's annotations in books at Audley End. In Part 4 we looked at Henry Savile's Latin annotations in some of the same books. Here, we will examine Henry Savile's Greek language annotations in a geometry book.

Neville researchers have known for awhile about this Greek annotation, but the writer was not identified. I have now confirmed that it was Henry Savile. The same book has Latin annotations which are certainly NOT in Savile's handwriting; they are probably Henry Neville's. We will leave those for later investigation.

The book, Sphaerics by Theodosius of Bythinia, was an important route for the reintroduction of Euclidean geometry to Europe.

Here is the entry from the Billingbear Book list, establishing its provenance; in 1780 this book was at the Neville family home before it was moved to Audley End:

Here is the USTC Entry. You see another copy of the entire book here. Here is Page 32:

Analyzing the Cover Page

Here is the full cover (Private Collection):

Here is the detail of the name "Henrye Nevell" written on top:

It is not clear whose handwriting this is. I have never seen the name "Henry" written with an "e" before in family documents, and this doesn't match the signature of any of the family members. It well could be that someone else wrote their name in the book to identify ownership. The books at Audley End generally do not have a name written on them.

Analyzing Henry Savile's Greek

These three Greek words were written in a letter from Henry Savile to Henry Neville in 1600. The English handwriting is unmistakably Savile's, as well as the signature on the letter. We can be 100% sure this is his Greek handwriting:

Here are just the words separated out:

We have another sample we discussed in Part 4 in another annotation in a book at Audley End. The English handwriting is unmistakably Savile's so this too must be his Greek:

Here is the annotation itself in Theodosius (Private Collection):

In this comparison, the letters on the left are from Theodosius, the ones on the right are from Savile's letter (yellowish color) and the annotation (whitish). Clearly this is the same handwriting:

Conclusion

Please note, this is not a random handwriting attribution! Henry Savile was one of the few people in England at the time who had the sophisticated knowledge of Greek and geometry to even make such an annotation.  Henry Savile was also Neville's tutor and best friend.

I have shown these annotations to an expert in Henry Savile who confirms it is his handwriting. I have also compared it with a few other samples which are consistent. You can take this to the bank. It is an important discovery not just relating to Henry Neville, but for the history of mathematics in England at the time.

Part 4: The Discovery of Henry Savile's handwriting at Audley End

Greek scholar, mathematician, and astronomer Henry Savile was Henry Neville's tutor and best friend. They traveled together in Europe from 1579-1582 and they remained close for Neville's whole life. Savile was one of the executors of Neville's will when he died in 1615.

At Audley End, the 1551 edition of Appian of Alexandria's Roman History is bound together with the 1548 edition of Dionysius of Halicarnassus' Roman Antiquities. We looked at Henry Neville's annotations in this copy of Roman Antiquities in Part 2. The Appian section of this book also some annotations. Some are likely by Henry Neville, but some also appear to be by Henry Savile.

Unfortunately, I have not examined these books myself, I am doing my best to reconstruct the facts via photographs.

Here is the Billingbear Book List entry for the book, I have underlined it in red:

Here is the USTC entry for the book and you can see a title page of that edition here, and read the whole book on Google Books:

The first annotation is from Dionysius. Here is the full page:

 Here is the annotation:

Savile had extremely distinctive and difficult to read handwriting. Here is an example of his handwriting:

Savile made a very distinctive "g". Compare to the annotation:

Compare the capital "P":

Compare the lower case "d":

The lower case "p" is also a match:

Compare the "l":

This is important because it establishes the provenance of these books and links them directly to Henry Neville. But of course, these books were at Henry Neville's family home of Billingbear. So we should expect them to have been his.

Annotations in Appian

This annotation on page 255 is also likely Savile's handwriting:

John Casson identifies several other annotations in the Appian history. Some are Henry Neville and some are Savile. These appear to be in Henry Savile's handwriting:

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