George Buchanan: Quick Facts

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Sep. 25, 2026

Facts

Born	February 1506 • Scotland
Died	September 29, 1582 (aged 76) • Edinburgh • Scotland
Notable Works	“Alcestis” • “De jure regni apud Scotos” • “Epithalamium” • “Franciscanus et fratres” • “Medea” • “Rerum Scoticarum historia” • “Somnium”

Photos

George Buchanan, detail of an oil painting by an unknown artist after a portrait by Arnold Bronkhorst, 1581; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

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Gawin Douglas

Scottish bishop and poet

Coornhert, Dirck Volckertszoon

Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert

Dutch author

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Poliziano

Italian poet and humanist

Joost van den Vondel

Joost van den Vondel

Dutch writer

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Lucius Livius Andronicus

Roman author

Engraving of Petrarch wearing a laurel wreath and a robe, holding a closed book in his left hand.

Petrarch

Italian poet

Quasimodo

Salvatore Quasimodo

Italian poet

Theodore Beza

Theodore Beza

French theologian

Opitz, Martin

Martin Opitz

German poet

Pontano, Giovanni

Giovanni Pontano

Italian writer

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Florent Chrestien

French author

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Thomas May

English scholar

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Iancu Văcărescu

Romanian author

Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus, shown in dark robes and cap, writing with a quill at a desk, after Quinten Massijs, oil on panel, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Erasmus

Dutch humanist

D.H. Lawrence

D.H. Lawrence

English writer

German dramatist and critic Gotthold Lessing

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

German author

Marlowe or not Marlowe?

Christopher Marlowe

English writer

William Congreve, oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1709; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

William Congreve

English dramatist

Oil portrait of Hugo de Groot, also known as Hugo Grotius, by the workshop of Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, showing him with a ruffled white collar and dark clothing.

Hugo Grotius

Dutch statesman and scholar

Poet Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Irish poet

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines