John Bowle

John Bowle (1725–1788) was an English clergyman and scholar, known today primarily for his ground-breaking, annotated edition of the early 1600s Miguel de Cervantes novel Don Quixote. He is considered to have been the first Hispanist.

Life Bowle, called by his friends Don Bowle, was descended from Dr. John Bowle, bishop of Rochester. He was born on 26 October 1725 at Idmiston in Wiltshire, He had married Elizabeth, who had died at a younger age in 1759.

An erudite scholar who was often in London, He gave also an outline of the life of Cervantes in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1781, and circulated proposals to print the work by subscription.

Bowle was the first to consider Cervantes in the novel Don Quixote as a classic author, comparable with ancient Greek and Latin writers. He gave the work a critical apparatus. Ahead of his time, he found his efforts largely unappreciated. Today, Bowle's edition is considered the first scholarly edition of the work, and it was reproduced in facsimile in 2006.

The edition appeared in 1781, in six volumes, the first four containing the text, the fifth the notes, and the sixth the indexes. ) The whole work is written in Spanish, a language which Bowle did not master. Its reception was unfavourable, except in Spain, where it was praised by :es:Juan Antonio Pellicer, among others.

Volume 23, No. 2 of the journal Cervantes, published by the Cervantes Society of America (Fall, 2003) is dedicated to John Bowle. On its cover is the only known portrait of Bowle.

In 2006 Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs republished Bowle's edition for the first time since 1781, accompanied by a Preface of :es:Eduardo Urbina and an Introduction by :es:Daniel Eisenberg.

Other works Bowle published in 1765 Miscellaneous Pieces of Antient English Poesie, containing Shakespeare's King John, and some of the satires of John Marston. He contributed to James Granger's History, George Steevens's edition of Shakespeare, 1778, and Thomas Warton's History of English Poetry. In Archaeologia are remarks on the old pronunciation of the French language, musical instruments mentioned in Le Roman de la Rose, parish registers, and playing cards.

Memorials Bowle, his wife and certain members of his family are commemorated by wall tablets in his church, All Saints at Idmiston.

Works of Bowle

Introduction by Daniel Eisenberg (in Spanish). Text of the 1781 edition.