"where it is farer written": William Harvey's Praelectiones Anatomiae Universalis Considered as an English Text

Harvey's lectures on anatomy are typically examined for the clues they provide to his early thoughts on the motion of the heart and of the blood, but his use of English in an otherwise Latin text is largely overlooked. For the most part, scholars argue that this is either evidence of no more than a casual insertion of English words or phrases into passages of Latin or the consequence of an inability to find the correct Latin construction appropriate for a formal lecture on anatomy. I regard both these claims as misconstrued. It is my case that Harvey's use of English reflects in part an ordinary way of converse and in part a preference for the language, guided by the principle that it possessed a native originality of lexis and style that could be fashioned to suit and give effect to his personal way of anatomy.