HOBY, SIR THOMAS (153o-1566), English diplomatist and translator, son of William Hoby of Leominster, was born in 1530. He entered St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1545, but in he went to Strassburg, where he was the guest of Martin Bucer, whose Gratulation . . . unto the Church of Englande for the restitution of Christes Religion he translated into English. He then proceeded to Italy, visiting Padua and Venice, Florence and Siena, and in May 155o he had settled at Rome, when he was summoned by his half-brother, Sir Philip Hoby (2505-58), then ambassador at the emperor's court, to Augsburg. The broth ers returned to England at the end of the year, and Thomas at tached himself to the service of the marquis of Northampton, whom he accompanied to France on an embassy to arrange a marriage between Edward VI. and the princess Elizabeth. Shortly after he returned to England he started once more for Paris, and in 1552 he was engaged on his translation of The Courtyer of Count Baldessar Castilio, printed in 1561. The Cortegiano of Baldassare Castiglione, which Dr. Johnson called "the best book that ever was written upon good breeding," exercised an immense influence on the standards of manners throughout Europe, and was the recognized authority for the education of a nobleman. Thomas Hoby married in 1558 Elizabeth, the learned daughter of Sir Anthony Cook, who wrote a Latin epitaph on her husband. He was knighted in 1566 by Elizabeth, and was sent to France as English ambassador. He died on July 13 in the same year in Paris, and was buried in Bisham Church. The authority for Thomas Hoby's biography is a ms., "Booke of the Travaile and lief of me Thomas Hoby, with diverse things worth the noting." This was edited for the Royal Historical Society by Edgar Powell in 1902. Hoby's translation of The Courtyer was edited (1900) by Prof. Walter Raleigh for the "Tudor Translations" series. See also Sir Walter Raleigh, Some Authors (1923).