- John Case
John Case or Johannes Casus (died 1600) was an English writer on
Aristotle .Life
Case was born between 1539 and 1546 at
Woodstock, Oxfordshire , and was a chorister at New College andChrist Church, Oxford . He was elected to a scholarship at St. John's in 1564. He was B.A. in 1568, M.A. in 1572, and became a fellow of his college. He had a high reputation as a disputant. Being "popishly affected," saysAnthony Wood , he "left his fellowship and married" in 1574. His wife was Elizabeth Dobson, the widow of John Dobson, the keeper of Bocardo prison. Case's stepdaughter Anne Dobson marriedRegius Professor of Medicine (Oxford) Bartholomew Warner.Case obtained leave from the university to read
logic andphilosophy to young men, chiefly Roman Catholics, in his own house in Oxford, which became a largely attended philosophical school due to Case's great reputation as a logician and dialectician. He wrote various handbooks for his students' use, which were published and for a time popular, though they had fallen into disrepute in Wood's day. He is described as "a man of an innocent, meek, religious and studious life," an agreeable conversationalist, an enthusiastic teacher, and a great favorite with his pupils. He was in addition an authority on music and a distinguished physician, becoming M.D. in 1589.Case made money in the practice of medicine and left various sums to St. John's College, New College, and the poor of Woodstock. In 1589 he became Canon of Sarum. He died on January 23, 1599-1600 and was buried in the chapel of St. John's College. His portrait is in the
Bodleian Library .Works
") under curious titles; they enjoyed a large circulation during his time, and were frequently reprinted.
His works include "Summa veterum interpretum in universam dialecticam Aristotelis" (1584, on the "Organon") and "Speculum moralium quaestionium in universam ethicen Aristotelis" (1585, a commentary on the "Nicomachean Ethics"; verses prefixed by
Laurence Humphrey ), which was the first book printed at the press presented to Oxford by their chancellor,Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester , and which had been reprinted eight times inFrankfurt by 1625."Sphaera Civitatis" (1588, a commentary on Aristotle's "Politics"), like other books by Case, was reprinted abroad, and Barnes, the printer, obtained an order from the university in 1590 that every bachelor should take one copy on "determining."
Case's later works were "Reflexus Speculi Moralis" (1596, a commentary on the "
Magna Moralia "), "Thesaurus Oeconomiae" (1597, a commentary on the pseudo-Aristotelian "Economics"), "Lapis philosophicus seu commentarius in VIII libros Physicorum Arisotelis in quo arcana physiologiae examinantur" (1599, a commentary on Aristotle's "Physics"; despite the title it bears no relation toalchemy ) and "Ancilla Philosophiae" (1599, an epitome of the "Physics").He also wrote an "Apologia Musices, tam vocalis quam instrumentalis et mixtae" (1588), of which there is a copy in the Lambeth Library. "The Praise of Musicke' wherein...is described the sober and lawful use of the same in the Congregation and Church of God" (1586) is also attributed to him. This is dedicated to Sir Walter Raleigh by the printer Barnes, who calls it "an orphan of one of Lady Musicke's children." A contemporary, Thomas Watson, wrote some verses, now in the Rawlinson manuscripts, to Case on the publication called "A Gratification unto Mr. John Case for his learned book lately made on the Praizes of Musick."
There are three letters from Case in the Harleian MS 6995. He prefixed a letter to
Nicholas Breton 's "Pilgrimage to Paradise".References
* This article is based on the entry in the
public domain edition of the "Dictionary of National Biography " (New York: Macmillan, 1887), [http://books.google.com/books?id=CSwJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA262 vol. 9, pp. 262-263] .
*External links
* Works in Latin and English translation (hypertext critical editions, with introductions, by Dana F. Sutton): [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/speculum/ "Speculum Moralium Quaestionum"] , [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/sphaera/ "Sphaera Civitatis"] , [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/music/ "Apologia Musices tam Vocalis Quam Instrumentalis et Mixtae"]
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