Robert Whittington

Who was Robert Whittington?

Robert Whittington was an English grammarian. He was a pupil of the grammarian John Stanbridge.

About 1519 he presented Cardinal Wolsey with a verse and a prose treatise, with a dedication requesting patronage. In the same year he published Libellus epigrammaton, an anthology of poems addressed to Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More, and John Skelton. His Vulgaria, published in 1520, pays compliments to the late king Henry VII, to Thomas Linacre, and to More himself, who was here first described as "a man for all seasons". Whittington's efforts succeeded by 1523, at the latest, when he enjoyed the favour of Henry VIII.

Whittington was most famous as the author of elementary Latin school books, including De nominum generibus, Declinationes nominum, De heteroclitis nominibus, Syntaxis, De syllabarum quantitate, De octo partibus orationis, De synonymis together with De magistratibus veterum Romanorum, Vulgaria, and Verborum preterita et supina. He also edited John Stanbridge's Accidence. Each dealt with a different aspect of grammar, and they could be bought individually and cheaply. They were widely sold and frequently republished up to the early 1530s.