Vergil, POLYDORE, otherwise named De Castello, was a native of Urbino in Italy, born about 1470. He had his education at Bologna, and seems to have commenced life under the patronage of Guido Ubaldo, Duke of Urbino, to whom was dedicated his first work, Proverbiorum Libellus (Ven. 1498), an earlier book than the Adagia of his friend Erasmus. His second, De Inventoribus Rerum (Ven. 1499), was also the earliest book of its kind, became extremely popular, and was translated into English, Spanish, and Italian. Already chamberlain to Pope Alexander VI., Polydore Vergil was sent to England in 1501 as deputy-collector of the tribute called Peter's-pence, his superior in the office being his kinsman, Adrian de Castello, now Cardinal St. Chrysogoni, and soon after Bishop of Hereford. Polydore was presented to the living of Church Langton in Leicestershire in 1503, and next year was enthroned as the Bishop of Hereford's proxy on his translation to the see of Bath and Wells. In 1507 he was collated to the prebend of Scamblesby in Lincoln, in 1508 was nominated archdeacon of Wells, was naturalised in 1510, and collated to the prebend of Oxgate in St Paul's in 1513. Early in 1515 he was flung into prison for sending abroad slanderous letters about Wolsey, but apparently was soon released, whether from the entreaties of Leo X. and the Cardinal de Medicis or his own abject appeals to Wolsey. In 1525 he published the first genuine edition of Gildas, the year after the treatise De Prodigiiis, dialogues in attack upon divination. His Historiae Anglicæ Libri XXVI. appeared at Basel in 1534; the 27th book, bringing the story down to 1538, was added in the third edition (1555). About 1550 he obtained a license from Edward VI. to return to Italy for his health's sake, without losing his livings, and next he travelled to Urbino, where he lived in quiet till his death in 1555.
Polydore Vergil's History is a work of great research, vigorous and independent, written in clear and elegant Latin. It is the fullest original narrative for the reign of Henry VII., and here Hall has simply translated his Latin into English. As regards Wolsey, the value of his evidence is discounted by his strong prejudice. He spared no pains to ensure accuracy, and a strongly rational bias of mind hindered him from accepting the Scottish fables supplied him by Gavin Douglas, or the exploits of Brut and Arthur warranted by Geoffrey of Monmouth.
The work down to Richard III. was translated in the 16th century; and books xxiii.-xxv., relating to the reigns of Henry VI., Edward IV., and Richard III., were republished in 1844 by the Camden Society, with a preface by Sir H. Ellis. Another Camden Society issue, by the same editor, was the translation of the first eight books, coming down to the Norman Conquest (1846).