Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Anslay, Brian
ANSLAY, BRIAN (fl. 1521), yeoman of the wine cellar to Henry VIII, translated the 'Tresor de la Cité des Dames' of Christine de Pise, under the title of the 'Boke of the Cyte of Ladies,' 1521. In a preliminary copy of verses the printer, Henry Pepwell, states that the translation was published at the instance of the Earl of Kent. The book consists of a number of short stories about famous women, much of the material being drawn from Boccaccio. There are some notices of Anslay in 'Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII' (art. 4231, 23, et seq.). A ‘Bryan Anslye, Esquier, late of Lee, in the county of Kent … served Qveene Elizabeth as one of ye band of Gentlemen Pencioners to her Matie the space of XXXtye yeares;’ and, dying 10 July 1604, was buried in the church of Lee, Kent, where a memorial slab, still legible, gives an account of him and his family. He was probably the son of Anslay the translator.
[Ellis's Historical Sketches, ii. 20; Athenæum for 2 Sept. 1876, where the inscription on the younger Anslay is printed in full, by Mr. J. W. Hales, who has reprinted it in his Essays and Notes on Shakespeare, p. 271.]