Thomas Stanley

author

Thomas Stanley

1625–1678

A graceful 17th-century poet, translator, and scholar, he is best remembered for pairing polished lyric verse with one of the earliest major English histories of philosophy.

1 Audiobook

Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657. With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.

Thomas Stanley: His Original Lyrics, Complete, In Their Collated Readings of 1647, 1651, 1657. With an Introduction, Textual Notes, a List of Editions, an Appendix of Translations, and a Portrait.

by Thomas Stanley

About the author

Born in 1625 in Hertfordshire, Thomas Stanley was an English writer, translator, and classical scholar. He came from a well-connected family and became known in literary circles for his elegant poems as well as for his deep learning in Greek and Latin.

Stanley wrote original lyric poetry and translated works from classical authors, but his biggest long-term achievement was The History of Philosophy (published in the 1650s and early 1660s). That work helped make him the first major historian of philosophy writing in English, and it remained influential for many years.

He also produced a noted edition of Aeschylus, showing how seriously he was respected as a scholar as well as a poet. Stanley died in London on April 12, 1678, leaving behind a reputation for quiet learning, literary polish, and wide intellectual range.