John Trevisa (1342–1402), was a Cornish

Cornish people

The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...

 writer and translator.

Trevisa was born at Trevessa in the parish of St Enoder

St Enoder

St. Enoder is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated five miles southeast of Newquay.The nearest village is Summercourt half-a-mile to the south and other settlements include Fraddon, Penhale, Indian Queens and Trevarren.The parish church is 15th century...

 in mid-Cornwall, and was a native Cornish

Cornish language

Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

 speaker. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College, Oxford

Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...

, and became Vicar of Berkeley, Gloucestershire

Berkeley, Gloucestershire

Berkeley is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It lies in the Vale of Berkeley between the east bank of the River Severn and the M5 motorway within the Stroud administrative district. The town is noted for Berkeley Castle where the imprisoned Edward II was murdered.- Geography...

, chaplain to the 4th Lord Berkeley

Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley

Maurice de Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley the Valiant was an English peer born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England to Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley and Lady Margaret Mortimer.-Marriage and children:...

, and Canon of Westbury on Trym

Westbury on Trym

Westbury-on-Trym is a suburb and council ward in the north of the City of Bristol, near the suburbs of Stoke Bishop, Westbury Park, Henleaze, Southmead and Henbury, in the southwest of England. Westbury-on-Trym has a village atmosphere. The place is partly named after the River Trym that flows...

.

He translated for his patron the Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden, adding remarks of his own, and prefacing it with a Dialogue on Translation between a Lord and a Clerk

Dialogue on Translation between a Lord and a Clerk

The Dialogue on Translation between a Lord and a Clerk forms the preface of John Trevisa's 1387 translation of the Polychronicon of Ranulf Higden, made for his patron, Lord Berkeley...

. He likewise made various other translations, including Bartholomaeus Anglicus' On the Properties of Things (De Proprietatibus Rerum), a medieval forerunner of the encyclopedia.

A fellow of Queen's College, Oxford from 1372-76 at the same time as John Wycliff and Nicholas of Hereford, Trevisa may well have been one of the contributors to the Early Version of Wyclif's Bible

Wyclif's Bible

Wycliffe's Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of, or at the instigation of, John Wycliffe. They appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395...

. The preface to the King James Version of 1611 singles him out as a translator amongst others at that time: "even in our King Richard the second

Richard II of England

Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...

's days, John Trevisa translated them [the Gospels] into English, and many English Bibles in written hand are yet to be seen that divers translated, as it is very probable, in that age". Subsequently he translated a number of books of the Bible into French for Lord Berkeley, including a version of the Book of Revelation

Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...

, which his patron had written up onto the ceiling of the chapel at Berkeley Castle

Berkeley Castle

Berkeley Castle is a castle in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, UK . The castle's origins date back to the 11th century and it has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.The castle has remained within the Berkeley family since they reconstructed it in the...

.

Father of Mary Trevisa with wife, Amicia.

External links

• John of Trevisa, Online Companion to Middle English Literature
• John Trevisa, Cambridge History of English and American Literature (1907-21) - see also the previous and following pages.
• David C. Fowler, Piers Plowman: In Search of an Author (1988) - article proposing that a revised edition of Piers Plowman
  Piers Plowman
  Piers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Plowman is the title of a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus"...
  
  was by the hand of Trevisa.