Edward Gibbon was born in 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon at Lime Grove, in the town of Putney, Surrey. He had six siblings, five brothers and one sister, all of whom died in infancy. His grandfather, also named Edward, had

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Oxford, Lausanne, and a religious journey: 1752–1758
Following a stay at Bath in 1752 to improve his health, at the age of 15, Gibbon was sent by his father to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was enrolled as a gentleman-commoner.

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The years following Gibbon's completion of The History were filled largely with sorrow and increasing physical discomfort. He had returned to London in late 1787 to oversee the publication process alongside Lord Sheffield. With that accomplished, in 1789 it

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• Essai sur l’Étude de la Littérature (London: Becket & De Hondt, 1761).
• Critical Observations on the Sixth Book of [Vergil's] 'The Aeneid' (London: Elmsley, 1770).

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• "Lettre sur le gouvernement de Berne" [Letter No. IX. Mr. Gibbon to *** on the Government of Berne], in Miscellaneous Works, First (1796) edition, vol. 1 (below). Scholars differ on the date of its composition (Norman, D.M. Low: 1758–59; Pocock:

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• The Work of J.G.A. Pocock: Edward Gibbon section
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Further reading
• The Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon

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Edward Gibbon's central thesis in his explanation of how the Roman Empire fell, that it was due to embracing Christianity, is not widely accepted by

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