Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leland, John (d.1428)
LELAND or LEYLOND, JOHN, the elder (d. 1428), grammarian, was perhaps a native of Lancashire, and studied at Oxford, where he afterwards taught as a grammarian, and acquired so great a reputation that it was said of him:—
Ut rosa flos florum, sic Leland grammaticorum.
He resided at Vine Hall, and dying 30 April 1428 was buried in the lady-chapel at St. Frideswide's. On 4 July 1435 the chancellor of the university ordered all cautions, &c., deposited with John Leland, lately deceased, to be sold. There are some laudatory epigrams on Leland by John Seguard in Merton College MS. 299. Leland was probably collaterally related to his namesake, the famous antiquary. The spelling Leylond is that of the manuscripts of his works.
He wrote:
- ‘Distinctiones Rhetoricæ,’ Bodley MS. 832, ff. 1–8.
- ‘Præterita et supina verborum secundum Magistrum Johannem Leylond, Oxoniæ, 1414,’ manuscript in Lincoln Cathedral Library.
- ‘Liber Accidentium,’ MS. Worcester Cathedral Library, 123 (Bernard, Cat. MSS. Angliæ, ii. 19).
- ‘Fundamentalis instructio puerorum,’ formerly in the monastery of Sion.
In Bodley MS. 832 there are various short treatises, such as ‘De modo punctandi,’ ‘Hymnarium compendiose compilatum,’ ‘De Accentu,’ which it has been suggested may be by Leland, but there is no proof of this except that the second article in the volume contains this odd colophon:—
Exit origo rei, memor esto Johannis,
Semper amicus ejus sis in amore Dei;
Nomen scriptoris J. L., de precibus rogo, noris.
The whole volume appears to be in one handwriting.
[Leland's Comment. de Scriptt. 445; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 475; Wood's City of Oxford, ii. 194 (Oxford Hist. Soc.); information kindly supplied by F. Madan, esq., of the Bodleian Library, and by John Leyland, esq.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.181
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 18 | i | 17 f.e. | Leland, John (d. 1428): for ei' read ejus |