Oxford, Lausanne, and a religious journey: 1752–1758įollowing a stay at Bath in 1752 to improve his health, at the age of 15 Gibbon was sent by his father to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was enrolled as a gentleman-commoner. Soon after she died in 1786, he remembered her as rescuing him from his mother’s disdain, and imparting “the first rudiments of knowledge, the first exercise of reason, and a taste for books which is still the pleasure and glory of my life.” By 1751, Gibbon’s reading was already extensive and certainly pointed toward his future pursuits: Laurence Echard’s Roman History (1713), William Howel(l)’s An Institution of General History (1680–85), and several of the 65 volumes of the acclaimed Universal History from the Earliest Account of Time (1747–1768). He then took up residence in the Westminster School boarding house, owned by his adored “Aunt Kitty,” Catherine Porten. Woddeson’s school at Kingston upon Thames (now Kingston Grammar School), shortly after which his mother died. He described himself as “a puny child, neglected by my Mother, starved by my nurse.” At age nine, Gibbon was sent to Dr.

His grandfather, also named Edward, had lost all of his assets as a result of the South Sea Bubble stock market collapse in 1720, but eventually regained much of his wealth, so that Gibbon’s father was able to inherit a substantial estate.Īs a youth, his health was under constant threat. He had six siblings: five brothers and one sister, all of whom died in infancy. The Decline and Fall is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its open criticism of organized religion.Įdward Gibbon was born in 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon at Lime Grove, in the town of Putney, Surrey. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 17. Edward Gibbon (27 April 1737 – 16 January 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament.

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