Collective Biography as an Instrument of Construction of Historical Memory in 16th century England: the Making of “British” Literary Tradition in John Leland’s “De Viris Illustribus”

The article analyzes the role of such literary genre as collective biography in the formation of the Early Modern English historical memory. It concentrates on John Leland’s biobibliographical De viris illustribus, which in form and semantic content most fully corresponds to Johannes Trithemius’ Catalogus illustrium virorum Germaniae. Despite the fact that by the end of his life Leland had not completed his work, he left behind a text that represents an Early Modern intellectual trend aimed at the invention of “national” historical and cultural traditions of the European peoples by classically trained scholars. Collecting within the framework of one text not only English, but also Welsh and ancient Britons, Leland developed a narrative that was designed to link the origins of English nationhood with the legendary British monarchy of Brutus of Troy, legitimize Henry VIII’s ecclesiastical policy, as well as to proclaim before an educated European audience the antiquity, richness and depth of the national culture of England.