The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Major, John, 1469–1550, Scottish theologian and historian
1469–1550, Scottish theologian and historian. He studied and taught at the Univ. of Paris. His works, all in Latin, were published there. He was one of the most famous teachers of scholastic philosophy of his day, at Paris and later at the Univ. of Glasgow and at St. Salvator’s College, St. Andrews. The best known of his works is Historia Majoris Britanniae, tam Angliae quam Scotiae (Paris, 1521; Edinburgh, 1740). His History of Greater Britain, both England and Scotland was the first critical history of Scotland. An English translation by Archibald Constable was published (1892) with a biography by Aeneas J. G. Mackay. Major’s name was also spelled Mair.
