   thumbnail|250px|right|the admirable crichton, as depicted in english travellers of the renaissance, a 1914 publication by clare howard james crichton, known as the admirable crichton (19 august 1560 â 3 july 1582), was a scottish polymath noted for his extraordinary accomplishments in languages, the arts, and sciences before he was killed at the age of 21. ==life==  one of the most gifted individuals of the 16th century, james crichton of clunie (perthshire; although some sources maintain his birthplace was dumfries), was the son of robert crichton of eliok, lord advocate of scotland, and elizabeth stewart, from whose line james could claim royal descent. educated at st. andrews university from the ages of ten to fourteen, during which time he completed requirements for both his bachelor's and master's degrees, james was taught by the celebrated scottish politician and poet george buchanan (1506â1582). it was apparent from his earliest days that james was an unusually gifted prodigy, which may have been due to a gift for perfect recall. by the age of twenty, he was not only fluent in, but could discourse in (both prose and verse) no fewer than twelve languages, as well as being an accomplished horseman, fencer, singer, musician, orator, and debater. noted for his good looks as well as his refined social graces, some consider him to have come closest to the ideal of the complete man. leaving scotland, crichton travelled to paris, where he continued his education at the collÃ¨ge de navarre. it was in the french capital that he first came to prominence by challenging french professors to ask him any question on any science or liberal arts subject in arabic, dutch, english, french, greek, hebrew, italian, latin, slavonic, spanish, or syriac. it is said that throughout the course of one extremely long day, french scholars failed to stump crichton on any question they threw at him, no matter how abstruse. thereafter he spent two years as a soldier in the french army before travelling to italy in 1579, winning acclaim in genoa, venice, and padua by repeating his exploit of challenging italian scholars to intellectual discourse and debate. once, he is alleged to have bested a professional gladiator in a brutal fencing match. in venice in 1580, crichton befriended the printer aldus manutius, who introduced him to the venetian intellectual community, where the young scot made an enormous impression on humanist scholars. in padua in 1581, he clashed with a number of scholars over their interpretation of aristotle while demonstrating that their mathematics were flawed. perhaps tiring of intellectual duels, the following year cricht
1560_births 1582_deaths Alumni_of_the_University_of_St_Andrews People_from_Dumfries People_from_Dumfries_and_Galloway People_from_Perth_and_Kinross Scottish_fencers Scottish_linguists Scottish_mathematicians Scottish_murder_victims Scottish_scientists Scottish_soldiers University_of_Paris_alumni