Hoby, Sir Thomas

b. 1530
d. July 13, 1566, Paris, France

English diplomat and translator of Baldassare Castiglione's Il libro
del cortegiano
; his translation was entitled The Courtyer of Count
Baldesser Castilio
(1561).

Educated at Cambridge and Strasbourg, Hoby traveled extensively
on the European continent. By 1552 Hoby was at work on his
translation of Il cortegiano. The influence of Hoby's translation in
England was enormous, not only on the social pattern of life at court
but on such writers as Shakespeare and Sir Philip Sidney. Hoby's
other works include a translation of a Latin work on the Church of
England and an autobiography. He was knighted by Elizabeth I in
1566 and sent to Paris as English ambassador. He died that same
year.


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