| Description | Letter in Latin, with Greek quotations, asking Beale to be the writer's patron
Abstract
The letter was apparently written abroad (Perhaps from Königsberg - vide endorsement). The writer was not necessarily a foreigner, but, despite the identity of name, there is nothing to suggest that he and Beale were related. The writer is a young man anxious to acquire learning. Beale had apparently encouraged him in some design (perhaps to come to England) which was opposed by an uncle. Asks Beale to be his patron. The writer displays his knowledge of Greek copiously, quoting 8 lines from Dionysius Periegetes (lines 710-717 in Bernhandy’s edition) and 4 lines from Theognis (lines 789-92 of Elegy I in Young’s edition), not without some errors which spoil the metre. He also quotes Xenophon. [end of abstract by James D. George]
No place or date
Signed T[uam] Exscellentiam submisse colens Hieronymus Belus
Addressed to Eruditione omnique virtutum genere prestantissimo viro D[omi]no Roberto Belo, Maecenati suo summa obseruantia colendo
Endorsed: Hyeronimus Belus Regiomonti
As George notes, the endorsement Regiomonti suggests Königsberg, either the city in East Prussia, now Kaliningrad, or the town of Königsberg in Bavaria, although it might equally refer to other places called Kingshill or equivalent. The writer may possibly, but perhaps not probably, be the Jerome Beale (d. 1631) who graduated BA from Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1596 and was later Master of Pembroke College; however the name also occurs elsewhere in Europe at the time |