Edward Gibbon Biography and List of Works

"Many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant."

English historian and scholar, the supreme historian of the Enlightenment, best known as the author of the monumental THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, often considered as the greatest historical work written in English. "It was at Rome... as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while barefoot friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind." However, Gibbon's first works were written in French.

Edward Gibbon was born at Putney in South London into a prosperous family. His father was a wealthy Tory Member of Parliament who went into seclusion and left him to the care of an aunt. Gibbon was a sickly child and his education at Westminster and at Magdalene College, Oxford, was irregular. He was expelled from Magdalene College for turning to Roman Catholicism and sent, in 1753 by his father, to Lausanne Switzerland. He boarded with a Calvinist pastor and rejoined the Anglican fold. In Lausanne he fell in love with Suzanne Curchod, who eventually married Jacques Necker. Their relationship was ended by his father and Gibbon remained unmarried for the rest of his life. Suzanne became the mother of the sage Madame de Staël.

From 1759 to 1762 Gibbon hold a commission in the Hampshire militia, reaching the rank of colonel. Before 1763 Gibbon had considered various subjects as worthy of the type of philosophical analysis that he wished to apply to history: the life of Sir Walter Raleigh, the history of Switzerland, and others. In 1764 he visited Rome and was inspired to write the history of the city from the death of Marcus Aurelius to the year 1453. After his father died Gibbon found himself in some difficulties, but he was able to settle in London to proceed with his great work. The first volume appeared in 1776, with public reaction to Gibbon's ironical treatment of the rise of Christianity. Like Voltaire, Gibbon was himself a deist who had little appreciation of the metaphysical side of religion. He examined unprejudiced the secular side of religion as a social phenomenon like any other. Religion did not have for Gibbon special privileges.

Between 1774 and 1783 Gibbon sat in the House of Commons, and became a lord commissioner of trade and plantations. In 1774 he was elected to Dr Johnson's Club. From 1783 Gibbon spent much of his time in Lausanne and in England with Lord Sheffield (John Baker Holroy) in his Sussex and his London House. Lord Sheffield prepared later Gibbon's MEMOIRS OF MY LIFE AND WRITINGS for publication (1796) and MISCELLANEOUS WORKS (1796).

The last three volumes of The History were published in 1788. Although Gibbon's conclusions have been modified, his command of historical perspective and literary style has preserved his place as the forerunner of English historiographers. On the other hand, his personal habits were peculiar - according to some contemporary comment Gibbon was so filthy that one could not stand close to him. How did Lord Sheffield manage to do so?

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788) - Gibbon himself was grateful to Jean Mabillon (1632-1707), Bernard Montfasucon (1655-1741), and Ludovico Muratori (1672-1741) for their collections of facts and documents. The work covers more than 13 centuries from the 2nd century AD to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Christianity is dealt with in detail; he examines the encroachment of the Teutonic tribes who eventually held the Western Empire in fear, the rise of Islam, and the Crusades. Gibbon viewed the Roman Empire as a single entity in undeviating decline from the ideals of political and intellectual freedom that had characterized the classical literature he had read. For him, the material decay of Rome was the effect and symbol of moral decadence. With powerful narrative, fluid and musical prose, and persuasive arguments the work has a permanent place of honour in historical literature.

"In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valour. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government. During a happy period (A.D. 98-180) of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the design of this, and of the two succeeding chapters, to describe the prosperous condition of their empire; and afterwards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances of its decline and fall; a revolution which will ever be remembered, and is still felt by the nations of the earth."

For further reading: a standard biography by D.M. Low (1937); Edward Gibbon: A Reference Guide by Patricia B. Craddick, Margaret Craddock Huff (1987); Gibbon's Solitude by W.B. Carnochan (1987); Edward Gibbon: Making History by Roy Porter (1988); Edward Gibbon and Empire, ed. by Rosamond McKitterick and Roland Quinault (1997); Melancholy Duty by Stephen Paul Foster (1997); Impartial Stranger by Peter Cosgrove (1999) - See also: Samuel Johnson - Gibbon was also a member of the circle that was formed around him - Note: In his youth in Switzerland Gibbon also met Voltaire, who had settled in 1755 near Geneva. - "Gibbon is not merely a master of the pageant and the story; he is also the critic and the historian of the mind." (Virginia Woolf).

MÉMOIRES LITTÉRAIRES DE LA GEORGES BRETGNE, 2 vol., (1768)
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 6 vol., (1776)
A VINDICATION OF SOME PASSAGES IN THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CHAPTERS OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, (1779)
MEMOIRS, (1796)
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS, (1796)