Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gibbons, Richard

by Thompson Cooper

GIBBONS, RICHARD (1550?–1632), jesuit, younger brother of Father John Gibbons [q. v.], was born at Winchester about 1550, and, after making his lower studies in England, went through a two years' course of philosophy at Louvain and in the German College at Rome. He entered the Society of Jesus on 1 Sept. 1572. He again studied philosophy for three years, and was professor of mathematics and philosophy for thirteen years, partly in Rome and partly in France. He was also a professor of canon law and Hebrew for some time in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, besides holding a like office at Tournay, Toulouse, Douay, and Louvain, where he was also prefect of studies. For a while he was preacher in the jesuit college at St. Omer. He was professed of the four vows in the college of Coimbra in Portugal in 1591. His latter years were spent at Douay, where he was occupied in printing ancient manuscripts, and in translating, editing, and annotating various learned works. He died at Douay on 11 June (O.S.) 1632.

He published:

1. ‘A Spiritual Doctrine, conteining a Rule to Live Wel, with divers Praiers and Meditations,’ from the Spanish of Luis de Granada, Louvain, 1599, 12mo, dedicated to Sir William Stanley, ‘coronel’ of the English regiment.
2. ‘Francisci Toleti … Cardinalis de Instructione Sacerdotum et peccatis mortalibus libri VIII. Quibus accessit … Martini Fornarii de Ordine Tractatus,’ edited by Gibbons, Douay, 1608, 8vo.
3. ‘Meditations uppon the Mysteries of our Holy Faith, with the Practise of Mental Praier touching the same,’ from the Spanish of Luis de la Puente, 2 parts [Douay?], 1610. John Heigham is credited with a similar translation, St. Omer, 1619, reprinted 1852 (Gillow, Dict. of the English Catholics, iii. 258).
4. ‘Joannis Nider … Præceptorium: sive orthodoxa et accurata Decalogi explicatio,’ edited by Gibbons, Douay, 1611, 8vo.
5. An edition of the ‘Sermones funebres’ of Joannes de Sancto Germiniano, 8vo; Douay, 1611, 12mo; Antwerp, 1611 and 1630, 8vo.
6. ‘Francisci Riberæ … in librum duodecim Prophetarum commentarii … ab infinitis mendis typographicis expurgati, et ubique dictionibus Hebraicis et Chaldaicis in Latinam prolationem permutatis lucidati,’ Douay, 1612, fol.
7. ‘Ludovici de Ponte Meditationum de Vita et Passione Christi libri II. ex Hispanico in Latinum versi,’ Cologne, 1612, 12mo.
8. ‘Divi Amedei … Episcopi Lausaniæ de Maria Virginea Matre Homiliæ,’ St. Omer, 1613, 12mo.
9. ‘The First Part of the Meditations of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ our Saviour’ [1614?], 12mo, from the Latin of Father Vincent Bruno.
10. ‘Historia admiranda de Jesu Christi stigmatibus ab Alphonso Paleato Archiepisc. Bononiensi explicata,’ &c., 2 vols. Douay, 1616, 4to.
11. ‘Opera Divi Ælredi Rhievallensis … ex vetustis MSS. nunc primum in lucem producta,’ Douay, 1616 and 1631, 4to; Douay and Paris, 1654, 4to.
12. ‘Beati Gosvini Vita celeberrimi Aquicinctensis Monasterii Abbatis septimi, a duobus diversis ejusdem Cœnobii Monachis separatim exarata, e veteribus MSS. nunc primum edita,’ Douay, 1620, 12mo.
13. ‘Historia Anglicana Ecclesiastica a primis gentis susceptæ fidei incunabulis ad nostra fere tempora deducta … auctore Nicholao Harpsfeldio Archidiacono Cantuariensi … nunc primum in lucem producta,’ Douay, 1622, fol.
14. ‘Christian Doctrine,’ from the Italian of Cardinal Bellarmine.
15. ‘Opuscula F. Androtii, S.J.’

[De Backer's Bibl. des Écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus (1869), col. 2116; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 113; Duthillœul's Bibl. Douaisienne (1842), Nos. 265, 596, 600, 620, 1583; Foley's Records, iv. 484, vi. 528, vii. 299; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. ii. 439; More's Hist. Missionis Anglic. Soc. Jesu, p. 20; Oliver's Catholic Religion in Cornwall, p. 312; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 104; Southwell's Bibl. Scriptorum Soc. Jesu, p. 718.]

T. C.