HENRY of Saltrey (fl. 1150), was a Cistercian monk at Saltrey or Sawtrey in Huntingdonshire. From Gilbert of Louth [q. v.] he learnt the story of the alleged descent of the knight Owen to purgatory which he committed to writing in a narrative styled ‘Purgatorium Sancti Patricii,’ and addressed the treatise to Henry, ‘Abbas de Sartis’ (i.e. of Wardon in Bedfordshire). It became extremely popular, and numerous manuscripts exist; it was embodied by Matthew Paris in his ‘Chronica Majora’ (Rolls Ser.), ii. 192–203. Three early metrical translations into French are extant; the first, made by Marie de France early in the thirteenth century, is printed among her poems (ed. Roquefort, vol. ii.); the other two are nearly a century later, and are extant in manuscript (Cott. MS. Domit. A. iv. f. 258, and Harley MS. 273, f. 191 b). In English there are two versions, under the name of ‘Owayne Miles:’ (1) in the Auchinleck MS. at Edinburgh, which is probably a translation of one of the French versions, and was edited by Turnbull and Laing in their collection of early religious poems in 1837; (2) Cott. MS. Cal. A. II. f. 89, a fifteenth-century version, from which extracts are printed in Wright's ‘St. Patrick's Purgatory,’ pp. 64–78. The Latin original is printed in Massingham's ‘Florilegium insulæ Sanctorum Hiberniæ,’ Paris, 1624, pp. 84, 100; in Colgan's ‘Trias Thaumaturga’ (the second volume of his ‘Acta Sanctorum,’ Louvain, 1647), App. vi. ad acta S. Patricii; and in Migne's ‘Patrologia,’ clxxx. 974 sqq. A French version was printed without date or name of place in 4to, but probably at Paris by Jean Trepperel; a second edition which appeared at Paris, n.d., 8vo, was perhaps printed by Jean Trepperel the second or Alan Lotrian; later editions appeared at Paris 1548, and at Rheims 1842. Two manuscripts at Rome (Vatican MS. Barberini 270, ff. 1–25) and Basle (Cooper, App. A. to Report on Fœdera, p. 23) ascribe the authorship of the ‘Purgatorium’ to Gilbert of Louth. The statement of Bale and Pits that Henry also wrote a book, ‘De pœnis purgatorii,’ is erroneous, as the alleged opening words show.
[Bale, ii. 77, Pits, p. 208; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib. p. 297; Visch's Bibl. Cist., Douay, 1647; Migne's Patrologia, clxxx. col. 971–4; Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. ii. 321; Wright's St. Patrick's Purgatory; Graesse's Trésor de Livres, v. 511; Brunet's Manuel du Libraire, iv. 980.]
HENRY, JAMES (1798–1876), classical scholar and physician, born in Dublin on 13 Dec. 1798, was the eldest son of Robert Henry, woollendraper, College Green, Dublin, by his wife Katherine Olivia, whose maiden name was Elder. He was educated by Mr. Hutton, a unitarian, and by Mr. George Downes, and proceeded to Trinity College, Dublin, where he became scholar, 1817; classical gold medallist, 1818; B.A. 1819; M.A. and M.B. 1822; M.D. November 1832. His tutor at college was Dr. Mooney. Entering the medical profession, Henry obtained a large practice as a physician in Dublin, in spite of his unconventional ways and religious scepticism. He was often engaged in professional controversies. He said no doctor's opinion was worth a guinea, and only charged a five-shilling fee, which had to be paid in silver, as he would not carry about change for gold. He made no charge for medicines, and kept an apothecary at 100l. a year to prepare them. He gave up his profession in 1845, having acquired some fortune in addition to a large legacy. Henry began the serious study of Virgil's ‘Æneid’ about 1841. When a boy of eleven he had bought a Virgil for half-a-crown, and this copy he long after carried about in his left-hand breast pocket. From 1841 the study of Virgil became the absorbing object of his life. About 1846 he began to walk through Europe with his wife and his daughter, Katherine Olivia, making Virgilian researches. His wife died at Arco, Tyrol, but he continued to travel with his daughter, who had tastes like her father, and who assisted him with devotion in collating and other literary labours. They wandered on foot through all parts of Europe, hunting for manuscripts and rare editions of Virgil. They visited the libraries of Dresden, Florence, Heidelberg, Leghorn, &c., and crossed the Alps seventeen times, sometimes in snow. In November 1865 Henry and his daughter left Italy for Dresden, having made their last collation of the Vatican and Laurentian MSS. The daughter (born 20 Nov. 1830) died suddenly on 7 Dec. 1872, to the great grief of her father, who spent the last few years of his life in Dublin, chiefly working at Virgil in the library of Trinity College. Henry died at the residence of his brother, Dalkey Lodge, Dalkey, near Dublin, on 14 July 1876. His health was unimpaired till he had a stroke of paralysis three months before his death. In his coffin were deposited the ashes of his wife, whose body he had been compelled, against his wish, to cremate in the Tyrol.
There is an engraved portrait of Henry in his ‘Poems, chiefly philosophical’ (Dresden,
