Mike Loades-interviewee

One of the great pleasures (and there are also plenty of woes) of making a history documentary is the access that is often possible to rare historical artifacts. It is always such a privilege and thrill to be able to see and touch these unique treasures - to have a genuine hands-on-history experience. For my latest film DOGS OF THE TUDORS – now streaming on History Hit – I visited the library of Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge to handle an original edition of Dr Caius book ‘De Canibus Britannicis’. This gives detailed descriptions of the types of dogs in use in England at the time and provided us with an invaluable spine to the film.The original text is in Latin and is always translated as ‘Of English Dogs’. That is the official title of the book in English as recorded in Caius Library. It may seem counter-intuitive to translate Britannicus at English, as opposed to British, but presumably the early translators were acknowledging the fact that Britain, as a political entity, did not yet exist. Britain, as a geographical entity did exist of course, so it is a bit of a tricky point. However we decided to conform with the 19th century translated version that you will see on screen, which say ‘Of English Dogs’Another Latin twist, with an interesting tale, is the pronunciation of Caius’s name. The author of the book was Dr Johannes Caius. He was physician to Elizabeth I. He was also a naturalist – hence the book. As generations of Cambridge students know, Gonville and Caius College is pronounced Gonville and KEYS. Dr Caius was a co-founder and his original name was simply John Keys. However he studied medicine at Padua University and it was the fashion amongst young academics who studied there to Latinize the spelling of their names – hence ‘Caius’. The spelling was changed but not the pronunciation – both he and the college are correctly referred to as KEYS.Certainly his book was a valuable key in unlocking the secrets of the canine world of the Tudors. (sorry)If you haven’t watched it yet, do take a look. You can sign up for a 14-day FREE TRIAL on History Hit here: www.historyhit.com/subscription/ It has a lot of other wonderful history documentaries, so you may even want to stay. ... See MoreSee Less

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