# Robert Dallington > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Robert_Dallington > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Robert_Dallington.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dallington > Source revision: 1336923658 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|English courtier, travel writer and translator}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} '''Sir Robert Dallington''' (1561–1637) was an English courtier, travel writer and translator. In his final years, he was master of the [London Charterhouse](/source/London_Charterhouse), a charitable foundation which ran a school and an almshouse. ==Life== Dallington was born at [Geddington](/source/Geddington), [Northamptonshire](/source/Northamptonshire). He entered [Corpus Christi College, Cambridge](/source/Corpus_Christi_College%2C_Cambridge), and was there from about 1575 to 1580;{{acad|DLNN575R|Dallington, Robert}} from his incorporation at Oxford as M.A. it is deduced that he held that degree from Cambridge, though this is unrecorded. Dallington then became a schoolmaster in [Norfolk](/source/Norfolk).{{cite DNB|wstitle=Dallington, Robert}} The Puritan Norfolk family of Butts acted as patrons at this period of his life.[Roy Strong](/source/Roy_Strong), ''Henry Prince of Wales and England's Lost Renaissance'' (2000), pp. 16-17. In 1594, he contributed a gratulatory poem to [Lewes Lewkenor](/source/Lewes_Lewkenor)'s ''The Resolved Gentleman''.{{cite web|url=http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A04989.0001.001|title=The resolued gentleman. Translated out of Spanishe into Englyshe, by Lewes Lewkenor Esquier|first=Olivier de|last=La Marche|website=Name.umdl.umich.edu|access-date=30 December 2018}} After a few years, Dallington set out on a leisurely journey through France and Italy: a [Grand Tour](/source/Grand_Tour), and in fact the first of two, one in 1595 to 1597, followed by another in 1598 to 1600. On his return he became secretary to [Francis Manners](/source/Francis_Manners%2C_6th_Earl_of_Rutland); they had been in Italy together on the second tour, and the party then may have included the young [Inigo Jones](/source/Inigo_Jones).Michael Leapman, ''Inigo'' (2004), p. 111. The first tour was with [Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland](/source/Roger_Manners%2C_5th_Earl_of_Rutland), elder brother of Francis. Dallington was from 1605 a gentleman of the privy chamber [in ordinary](/source/in_ordinary) to [Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales](/source/Henry_Frederick%2C_Prince_of_Wales) (on the recommendation of the Earl of Rutland) and in receipt of a pension of £100. [Anthony Wood](/source/Anthony_Wood_(antiquary)) says that he filled the same office in [Prince Charles](/source/Charles_I_of_England)'s household. In 1624, on Prince Charles's recommendation, Dallington was appointed master of Charterhouse in succession to [Francis Beaumont](/source/Francis_Beaumont). Dallington was perhaps not an obvious candidate for the post. As early as 1601 Dallington had been incorporated at St. John's College, Oxford; but though he was now forty years-old he was still only in [deacon](/source/deacon)'s orders, and at the same time the governors resolved that no future master should be elected under forty years of age, or who was not in holy orders of priesthood two years before his election, and having not more than one living, and that within thirty miles of London. He was [knighted](/source/Knight_Bachelor) on 30 December 1624. While master, Dallington improved the walks and gardens of Charterhouse, and introduced into the school the custom of versifying on passages of scriptures. In 1636 Dallington had grown so infirm that the governors appointed three persons to assist him in his duties of master. In the following year he died, seventy-six years old. Two years before his death Dallington had, at his own expense, built a schoolhouse in his native village, Geddington; he also gave the great bell of the parish church and provided for the poor. ==Works== While occupying a teaching position he edited and published ''A Booke of Epitaphes made upon the Death of Sir William Buttes'' (by R. D. and others, edited by R. D.). Eight of these epitaphs, some in English, the others in poor Latin verse, were composed by Dallington himself. He is believed to be the R. D. who translated into English the ''[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili](/source/Hypnerotomachia_Poliphili)'' of [Francesco Colonna](/source/Francesco_Colonna_(writer)). [Roy Strong](/source/Roy_Strong) regards the connection of Dallington with the court of Prince Henry as significant as a filiation of Italianate taste. He wrote an account of his travels. ''A Survey of the Great Duke's State of Tuscany, in the yeare of our Lord 1596,'' which appeared in 1605, and was followed the next year by ''A Method for Travell: shewed by taking the view of France as it stoode in the yeare of our Lord 1598''. Both of these volumes are travelogues-cum-guide-books, the first being a particularly sophisticated critique of the Medici regime, concluding with the punning motto: 'qui sub Medici vivit, misere vivit'.[Edward Chaney](/source/Edward_Chaney), 'Robert Dallington’s Survey of Tuscany (1605): A British View of Medicean Tuscany,' ''The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations since the Renaissance'', rev. ed. (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 143-60 In addition to the works mentioned above, Dallington published in 1613 a book with a title relating to the Italian historian [Guicciardini](/source/Francesco_Guicciardini), ''Aphorismes Civill and Militarie, amplified with authorities, and exemplified with historie out of the first Quaterne of F. Guicciardine (a briefe inference upon Guicciardine's digression, in the fourth part of the first Quaterne of his Historie, forbidden the impression and effaced out of the originall by the Inquisition)''. A second edition of this book contained a translation of the inhibited digression. ==References== {{Reflist}} ;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Dallington, Robert}} ==External links== * {{Gutenberg author | id=8043| name=Robert Dallington}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Robert Dallington}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Dallington, Robert}} Category:1561 births Category:1637 deaths Category:16th-century English male writers Category:17th-century English male writers Category:17th-century English writers Category:17th-century travel writers Category:16th-century English translators Category:17th-century English translators Category:People from Geddington Category:Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:Schoolteachers from Northamptonshire Category:16th-century English educators Category:17th-century English educators Category:Knights Bachelor Category:English travel writers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Robert Dallington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dallington) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Dallington?action=history)). 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