A Source for the Lives of Inigo Jones and John Webb

Two letters of biographical information about Inigo Jones and his disciple and relative by marriage John Webb, written by the latter's son James, are to be found among the papers of Anthony Wood in the Bodleian Library. The letters arose from enquiries Wood made in 1681 and 1682 for his great collection of biographies of Oxford men,Athenae Oxonienses.For a time he supposed that Webb had studied at Oxford and so sought information about him and Jones. He included a brief biographical statement about Jones in the first edition of theAthenaein 1691–92, and additional information about Jones and Webb was added from his papers after his death in the second edition in 1721. He provided a note in 1692 stating that his source was letters by James Webb, but later scholars have apparently not realized that these letters are still in existence. They are printed here for the first time.