Offers profiles of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century celebrities, including Francis Bacon, Samuel Butler, Edmund Halley, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, and Sir Walter Raleigh.

2008-08-05 One of the Little Gems of history

Painstakingly assembled from manuscripts in the Bodleian Library this is the view of a seventeenth century antiquarian writer of the life and times of those around him, and those who were famous in this period. The subjects of the mini biographies are gloriously diverse - from those that are now acknowledged giants, such as Shakespeare, Raleigh, Milton, and Thomas More, to those most of us have never even heard of. Amongst the latter we find characters like lawyer Walter Rumsey 1584-1660, whom Aubrey admired for his ability to self induce vomiting by means of a stick. . .

This is now quite an old book, and not a perfect book, but it does remind many people why they were interested in history in the first place. A must for pretty well anybody studying history - or anybody wanting a curious entertainment.

Fascinating and highly recommended.