Varey, Simon, 1951-....

Simon Varey (1951-2002) excelled as teacher, writer, scholar, critic, editor, and great cook. He served for sixteen years as tutor, instructor, and professor of English at Cambridge University, the University of Utrecht, and at UCLA, publishing well-received works on Viscount Bolingbroke, Henry Fielding, and the 18th-century English novel. In 1990 he joined the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. In 1992, occasioned by the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World, the UCLA Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division bought the 1651 Rome edition of the writings of Francisco Hernández, a 16th century Spanish physician who was sent by Philip II to collect and report on the medical knowledge of the New World. This acquisition sparked Dr. Varey's and many other scholars' interest in Hernández's life and works, and led to a yearlong lecture series on "Medicine in the Age of Columbus," two conferences on "The Meeting of Two Cultures" at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda and at UCLA, and the resolve to translate and publish parts of the Hernández texts into English, which had never been done. With funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities and other donors, and sponsorship by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, two volumes were published by Stanford University Press in 2000: "Searching for the Secrets of Nature: the Life and Works of Dr. Francisco Hernández," and "The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández." Simon Varey, with Rafael Chabrán and Dora Weiner, served as editor of both volumes, wrote several chapters, translated some of the original texts, and contributed an enormous amount of scholarly research towards unraveling the complicated history of Hernández's work and its dissemination. In 1996 Varey shifted to the Development Office of the UCLA College of Letters and Science, and in 2000 be became Director of Grant Development of the California Science Center. His involvement in the scholarship of the 18th century continued during this time; he undertook various editorial assignments for the "Scriblerian", an English literary history journal, ending with becoming its co-editor. He died in Los Angeles in 2002.

Biography

Simon Varey (1951-2002) excelled as teacher, writer, scholar, critic, editor, and great cook. He served for sixteen years as tutor, instructor, and professor of English at Cambridge University, the University of Utrecht, and at UCLA, publishing well-received works on Viscount Bolingbroke, Henry Fielding, and the 18th-century English novel. In 1990 he joined the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. In 1992, occasioned by the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World, the UCLA Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division bought the 1651 Rome edition of the writings of Francisco Hernández, a 16th century Spanish physician who was sent by Philip II to collect and report on the medical knowledge of the New World. This acquisition sparked Dr. Varey's and many other scholars' interest in Hernández' life and works, and led to a yearlong lecture series on "Medicine in the Age of Columbus," two conferences on "The Meeting of Two Cultures" at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda and at UCLA, and the resolve to translate and publish parts of the Hernández texts into English, which had never been done.

With funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities and other donors, and sponsorship by the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, two volumes were published by Stanford University Press in 2000: "Searching for the Secrets of Nature: the Life and Works of Dr. Francisco Hernández," and "The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández." Simon Varey, with Rafael Chabrán and Dora Weiner, served as editor of both volumes, wrote several chapters, translated some of the original texts, and contributed an enormous amount of scholarly research towards unraveling the complicated history of Hernández's work and its dissemination.

In 1996 Varey shifted to the Development Office of the UCLA College of Letters and Science, and in 2000 be became Director of Grant Development of the California Science Center. His involvement in the scholarship of the 18th century continued during this time; he undertook various editorial assignments for the "Scriblerian", an English literary history journal, ending with becoming its co-editor.