A John Addington Symonds Chronology

• 1834 Marriage of Dr John Addington Symonds and Harriet Sykes
• 1840 Birth of John Addington Symonds on 5 October, at 7 Berkeley Square, Clifton, Bristol.
• 1844 Death of his mother.
• 1851 The Symonds family moves to Clifton Hill House
• 1854-8 At Harrow School
• 1858 Matriculates at Oxford (Balliol College).
• 1860 Newdigate Prize for English Verse.
• 1862 Graduate with first class honours in Literae Humaniores. Elected to an Open Fellowship at Magdalen College.
• 1863 Chancellor's Prize for an English essay on 'The Renaissance'.
  Leaves Oxford following a nervous breakdown.Travels widely on the Continent.
• 1864 Moves to London to study law. Marries Catherine North.
• 1865 Birth of first child, Janet.
• 1866 Abandons legal career on his father's advice. Travels in Italy and France.
• 1867 Birth of his second child, Charlotte (later Mrs Walter Leaf). Travels in France and Switzerland. Second breakdown at Cannes. Leaves London and moves into 7 Victoria Square, Clifton, Bristol. Friendship with Henry Sidgwick.
• 1869 Lectures on Greek Literature at Clifton College. Birth of his third child, Margaret (later Mrs William Vaughan). Beginning of friendship with Norman Moor and Horatio Brown.
• 1870-1 Travel and literary work.
• 1871 Death of his father, aged 64. Moves with his family into Clifton Hill House. Marriage of his sister Charlotte to T.H. Green.
• 1872 Publishes An Introduction to the Study of Dante.
• 1873 Publishes Studies of the Greek Poets, First Series.
• 1874 Publishes travel journalism as Sketches in Italy and Greece.
• 1875 Publishes The Age of Despots (first volume of Renaissance in Italy). Birth of his fourth child, Katherine (later Mrs Charles Furse).
• 1876 Publishes Studies of the Greek Poets, Second Series . Lectures at the Royal Institution on Florence and the Medici.
• 1877 Publishes The Revival of Learning and The Fine Arts (second and third volumes of Renaissance in Italy ). Fails to be elected to the Professorship of Poetry at Oxford.
• 1877-8 Passes his first winter in Davos, as guest of the Greens.
• 1878 Publishes Many Moods (verse); Shelley;and a translation of the sonnets of Michelangelo.
• 1879 Publishes Sketches and Studies in Italy. Publication of Italian translation of The Fine Arts.
• 1880 Publishes New and Old(verse). Moves permanently to Davos.
• 1881 Publishes Italian Literature, Part One and Italian Literature, Part Two (fourth and final volumes of Renaissance in Italy). Begins relationship with Angelo Fusato, a Venetian gondolier.
• 1882 Publishes Animi Figura (verse). The Symonds family moves into Am Hof, their nearly built house at Davos.
• 1883 Publishes Italian Byways. Completes and has privately printed A Problem in Greek Ethics.
• 1884 Publishes Wine, Women, and Song (verse translation of Goliardic songs); Vagabundi Libellus (verse); and Shakespeare's Predecessors in the English Drama.
• 1886 Publishes Sir Philip Sydney;The Catholic Reaction, Part One and The Catholic Reaction, Part Two (sixth and seventh volumes of Renaissance in Italy and Ben Jonson.
• 1887 Publishes a translation of the memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini. His daughter Janet dies of consumption.
• 1889 Begins to write his memoirs.
• 1890 Publishes a translation of the memoirs of Vount Carlo Gozzi, and Essays Speculative and Suggestive. Publication of the French translation of An Introduction to the Study of Dante.
• 1891 Writes and privately prints A Problem in Modern Ethics
• 1892 Publishes (jointly with his daughter Margaret) Our Life in the Swiss Highlands. Collaborates with Havelock Ellis on a study of sexual inversion. Publishes The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti.
• 1893 Publishes In the Key of Blue and Other Essays, and Walt Whitman:A Study. Publication of A.Pearson's abridgement of Renaissance in Italy.
• 1893 Death of Symonds in Rome, 19 April.
• 1895 Publication of John Addington Symonds:A Biography, by Horatio Brown.
• 1896 Publication in Leipzig of Symonds's and Ellis's Das Kontrare Geschlechtsgefuhl 'Sexual Inversion').
• 1897 Suppression by Catherine Symonds and Horatio Brown of the English edition Sexual Inversion. The book was subsequently reissued under Ellis's name alone, but its sale was banned in Britain following a prosecution for obscenity, and publication was transferred to the United States.
• 1913 Death of Catherine Symonds.
• 1923 Publication of The Letters and Papers of John Addington Symonds, edited by Horatio Brown.
• 1925 Death of Margaret Symonds (Vaughan).
• 1926 Destruction of Symonds's diaries and personal papers, following the death of his literary executor, Horatio Brown. The memoirs alone were preserved, with an embargo against publication for 50 years.
• 1937 Death of Charlotte Symonds (Leaf).
• 1952 Death of Katherine Symonds (Furse).
• 1984 Publication of Symonds' Memoirs.