Charles Balguy

Dr. Charles Balguy (1708 – 28 February 1767) was an English physician and translator.

Charles Balguy
Charles' birthplace – now under Ladybower Reservoir
Born1708[1]
Derwent, Derbyshire
Died1767[1]
Peterborough
EducationChesterfield Grammar School and St. John's College, Cambridge
OccupationPhysician
Parent(s)Henry Balguy[2]

Balguy was born at Derwent Hall, Derbyshire, and was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of M.B. in 1731, and M.D. in 1750.[3] He practised at Peterborough, and was secretary of the literary club there. He contributed to the Philosophical Transactions,[4] and in 1741 he published, anonymously, a translation of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. This was the best translation in English at the time and was reprinted several times. He wrote some medical essays, and particularly a treatise

He died at Peterborough and was buried in the chancel of St John's Church, where there is a marble monument to his memory, describing him as "a man of various and great learning". The statement that he translated the Decameron is recorded by his school friend, Dr Samuel Pegge, in the College of Arms, who expressly mentions the fact.[6]

References
  1. "Balguy, Charles" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  2. Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society By Derbyshire Archaeological Society, 1960 accessed 23 November 2007
  3. "Balguy, Charles (BLGY725C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. Philosophical Transactions (No. 434, p. 1413)
  5. Part of a Letter from Dr. Charles Balguy of Peterborough, to Cromwell Mortimer, M. D. R. S. Sec. Philosophical Transactions, Volume 38, pp. 413–415
  6. [Pegge's Collections in the College of Arms, vol. vi. ; Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, vi. 11 ; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vi. 4, 74, 122.]
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