ELYOT, SIR THOMAS, one of the beat writers of the time of Henry VIII., was the son of Sir Richard Elyot, of the county of Suffolk, according to the received accounts, but as it would seem from a passage in Leland's Collectanea; iv. 141, and an Inquisition in the Exchequer (cited In Notes and Queries,' viii. 276), of Wiltshire. Thomas Elyot received his university education at St. Mary's Hall in Oxford. He afterwards travelled through Europe, and upon his return was introduced at the court of Henry VIII., who conferred upon him the honour of knighthood, and subsequently employed him in several embassies, particularly to Rome in 1532 in the affair of the divorce, and afterwards in 1536 to the emperor Charles V. Sir Thomas Elyot's literary and philosophical attainments were various, and ho was courted by most of the learned men of his time, and by none in a more friendly manner than by Sir Thomas More. lie died in' 1546, and was busied in the church of Carleton in Cambridgeshire, of which county he had been sherifE From a letter of Sir Thomas Elyot to Secretary Cromwell, among the Cottonian Manuscripts in the British Museum, it appears that Wolsey made him clerk of the king's counciL Sir Thomas Elyot's works of greatest note were his book named the 'Governor,' his 'Castle of Health,' and his ' Dictionary,' all of which went through numerous editions between 1531 and 1580. He also published a small treatise ' Of the Knowledge which maketh a Wise Man,' Svo, London, 1533; and 'The Banquet of Sapience,' 8vo, 1545; besides several translations from Plutarch, Isocrstee, St. Cyprisn, &e.
ELZEVIltS, the name of a family of celebrated printers and pub lisher. at Amsterdam, Leyden, the Ilague, and Utrecht, who adorned the republic of letters with many beautiful editions of the best authors of antiquity. The right name of the family was Elzovier. They are believed to have come originally either from Liege or Louvain. In neatness and in the elegance of small type they exceeded even the family of the Stephens. (SeerneNs.) Their Virgil, their Terence, and their Greek Testament, are considered the masterpieces of their productions; but the Virgil is said to bo incorrect.
The Gut trace of the namo of Elzevir is found in an edition of Eutropius, printed in 1592, published at Leyden by Louis Elzevir, who was still living there in 1617. Matthew, his eldest son, died at Leyden in 1640. Giles, his second eon, was a at the Hague in 1599. Due, the eldest Non of Matthew, was the first printer of hia family, and printed from 1617 to 1628. Abraham and Bonaventure, the third and fourth sons of Matthew, were printers and booksellers. Bona
venture was a partner with his father in 1618, and occurs associated with his brother Abraham in 1626. The set of Elzevirs which the French call ' Les Petites Rdpubliques,' the ' Accounts of the Nations of the World,' were published by Abraham and Bonaventure, and in fact gave to the family their celebrity. Their brother Jacob printed at the Hague in 1626. Both Abraham and Bonaventure died at Leyden in 1652. Louis, the second of the name, the son of Isaac, was established as a printer at Amsterdam from 1640 to his death in 1662. Peter the son of Arnout, the second son of Matthew Elzevir, printed at in 1669, and was living in 1680. John and Daniel were sons of Abraham, and printed in partnership in 1652; but John printed alone in 1655, when Daniel appears to have been associated with his cousin Louis. John died in 1661; Daniel in 1680. Daniel left children who carried on the business, but passes for the last of the family who excelled in it. Their descendants still remain, but no Elzevir has for considerably over a centurf been engaged in printing. Isaac Elzevir was governor of Curacao in 1820.
The Elzevirs printed several catalogues of their editions ; but tho best, as befog the latest lista and accounts of them, are contained in the ' Notice do la Collection d'Auteurs Latin, Francais, et italicos, imprimee de format petit en 12mo, par Ica Elsevier,' in Brunet's 'Manuel du Libraire,' 3rd edit., 8vo, Paris, 1820, voL iv. pp. 533.567; and in Berard's ' Eesai Bibliographique sur les Rditions des Elzevirs, preaxidd dune Notice sur ces Imprimeurs Celebres,' 8vo, Paris, Didot, 1922. See also Metiers, Analyse des Islatdriaux lee plus utiles pour de futures Annals de l'Imprimerie des Elsevier,' Gaud., 1843; De Baume, ' Recherches historiques, genealogiques, et bibliographiquee sur les Elsevier,' L'ruzelles, 1847; Ch. M. (Motteley], 'Apercu our lea Erreurs de la Bibliographie Speciale des Eisevire of de leurs Annexes,' Paris, 1849; Brunet io Nouv. Biog. Gen.,' 1356.
The usual imprint upon the Elzevir editions is either 'Apud l'Azevirios: or ' Ex officina Elzeviriorum,' or Etseviriena the names of the different branches of this family are rarely found in the title pages of their editions. 'Else' in Dutch signifies an elm, and, by extension of signification, wood in general ; Your' is fire. These words explain a device of a wood-pile burning in the title-pages of some of the Elzevir productions, as in that of the Sleidanus, 1631; of 'Cunieus de Republica Hebneornm; 1632; the Cessar and Terence of 1635 ; the 'Memoirs of Comities; &c.