The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Leland, John
c.1506–1552, English antiquary. He was successively chaplain and librarian to Henry VIII. In 1533 he was appointed king’s antiquarian, and in this capacity traveled through England, collecting a great mass of historical and geographical data for a proposed book to be entitled History and Antiquities. The work was never completed because he went insane in 1550. His notes, however, were invaluable to later scholars.
