Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Saltwood, Robert

602588Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 50 — Saltwood, Robert1897Mary Bateson

SALTWOOD, ROBERT (fl. 1540), monk of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, paid for the printing of Hugh of Caumpeden's translation of the French history of King Boccus and Sydracke, by Thomas Godfray in London, about 1530 (cf. Ames, ed. Herbert, p. 319; ed. Dibdin, iii. 65). Saltwood wrote ‘A comparyson betwene iiij byrdes, the lark, the nyghtyngale, the thrushe, and the cucko, for theyr syngynge, who should be chantoure of the quere,’ in seven-line stanzas, printed at Canterbury by John Mychel about 1550. Only one copy is known to be extant (cf. Ames, ed. Herbert, p. 1815; Hazlitt, Handbook, p. 532). Saltwood was keeper of the chapel of the Virgin Mary at Canterbury when on 4 Dec. 1539 he signed the surrender. His name is not in the list of pensioners (Hasted, Kent, iv. 658).

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