Born in West Riding, Yorkshire

Matriculates at Brasenose College, University of Oxford

Elected Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford

Produces a Latin translation of Ptolemy’s Almagest (Bodleian Library Savile Manuscripts, 26–8)

Lectures in mathematics and astronomy at the University of Oxford

Savile undertakes extended tour of continental Europe, collecting and copying manuscripts as he goes.

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At Altdorf, he visits the mathematician Johannes Praetorius.

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At Prague, he visits the imperial physician Tadeaš Hájek.

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At Vienna, he copies works of Greek mathematics and astronomy at the Imperial Library.

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At Wrocłow, he visits André Dudith (staying for 6 months) and collaborates with the astronomer, Paul Wittich.

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At Padua, he studies at the vast private library of Gian Vincenzo Pinelli, and at Venice, at the Biblioteca Marciana. Leaves mathematical treatises of his own composition with Pinelli

Returns to England and becomes tutor in Greek to Elizabeth I

Becomes Warden of Merton College, Oxford, in which role he more than triples the library’s holdings and establishes a stacking method based on continental models

Publishes English translation of Tacitus’s Agricola and Annales

Becomes Provost of Eton

Draws up sketches with Thomas Bodley for the New Library, namely of Arts End. The extension to the medieval building is completed by Yorkshire masons who had previously been employed by the Savile family.

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Publishes the Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores, a collection of medieval English Chronicles

Through Merton College, Savile secures the donation of around £45 worth of books to the new Bodleian Library

Briefly arrested in the wake of the Essex Rebellion for his association with the Essex circle

Appointed as a translator for the Authorized Version of the Bible

Savile enlists Samuel Slade to track down manuscripts of the Greek patriarch, Chrysostom, at the libraries of Paris, Augsburg, Munich, Vienna, Istanbul, the island of Halki, and Mount Athos

Publishes 8 volume edition of Chrysostom in Greek, for which he relied on the help of multiple librarians across Europe to complete

Following the death of Thomas Bodley, Savile plays a large role in the completion of the new library

Founds 2 professorships at Oxford in Geometry and Astronomy. Savile’s own library becomes a foundation for these lectures

Dies at Eton in February