Urquhart’s Pantochronochanon: What’s in the Name

Abstract

Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty’s Pantochronochanon (1652) traces the descent of the Urquharts from Adam through Old Testament worthies, princes of Achaia and Scots of pedigree down to the present laird, Sir Thomas himself. It is part of the extraordinary literary production of his time in prison after his capture at the Battle of Worcester (1651). He wrote to enlarge himself through words either by impressing the Commonwealth authorities enough to free so remarkable an author or simply by pantagruelizing the reality that confined him. ‘Pantochronochanon’ is one of the various Greek titles he gave his books. Greek was the language with humanist cachet, and while it wasn’t uncommon at the time to give books Greek names, it was part of Sir Thomas’s display of fantastic erudition that he should come out with the most outlandish ones.1 Pantochronochanon does cover all time, at least from the sixth day...