Wrote a history of the Bishops of Aberdeen, under the title of “Vitæ Episcoporum Murthlasensium et Aberdonensium,” published in 1522. He also composed, in Latin, a History of Scotland, beginning with remote antiquity, and ending with the death of James I., which was published under the title of “Scotorum Historia ab illius Gentis Origine,” in 1526. A translation of this work, executed at the command of James V., by John Bellenden, Archdeacon of Moray, and printed in 1536, forms the first existing specimen of Scottish literary prose, and was reprinted in 1821. Another version, by the English chronicler, Holinshed, was the source from which Shakespeare drew the materials for his tragedy of “Macbeth.”

  In the six first books of his history there are great many particulars not to be had in Fordon, or any other writers now extant: and, unless the authors which he pretends to have seen, be hereafter discovered, he will continue to be shrewdly suspected for the contriver of almost as many tales as our Jeoffrey of Monmouth.

  May be justly reverenced as one of the revivers of elegant learning…. The style of Boethius, though, perhaps, not always rigorously pure, is formed with great diligence upon ancient models, and wholly uninfected with monastic barbarity. His history is written with elegance and vigour, but his fabulousness and credulity are justly blamed. His fabulousness, if he was the author of fictions, is a fault for which no apology can be made; but his credulity may be excused in an age when all men were credulous.

  As a specimen of Latinity, the student of antiquity now remembers it only as a receptacle for the wildest of the fables which used to be authoritatively current in the earliest sections of our national annals.

  He seems to have been rather a good Latinist than a scholar imbued with the riches of classical study. That he was of the reforming party of the day—the humanists, as they were called in the continental schools—we learn from his own expressions, from his friends and associates, and especially from his profound admiration for Erasmus, with whom he had even the honour of corresponding. As a historian, he was at first admired and followed, and latterly condemned, in both cases much beyond reason. His object was to give a classical dress to his rude native chronicles. One must doubt whether he really meant his grave readers to credit his stories of “Veremund” and “Cornelius Campbell,” and the records from Iona. He found, over a large period of his history, bare lists of kings, and he took the pains of dressing them in what he thought suitable characters and actions. Quite unembarrassed by facts, he proposed to treat his subject like an artist, with the proper balancing of light and shadow, and studied to administer among the persons of his drama some sort of poetical justice. Leslie compares him to Livy, and his most fabulous portions are perhaps not more romantic than Livy’s first decade. The difference lies in the genius of the writers.

  Through his History—two editions of which were printed in Paris—the wondrous tale of the annals of Scotland got a hold on the European mind. It is noticeable that Hector Boece’s narrative, wild as it would now be counted, was skilfully adjusted to the conditions of belief in his own time. In whatever savours of the supernatural, he deals with far more caution and reserve than Geoffrey of Monmouth, the chronicler of the Anglo-British heroics, or Geoffrey Keating, the historian of Ireland. It is easy, indeed, on a comparison, to imagine a time when these would be dealt with as wild romances, while Boece’s work might be accepted as sober history.

  No doubt his method is that of a romancer. We cannot trust him whenever a point is in dispute. But he did not write to settle points. He wrote to celebrate in heroic fashion the far-descended fame of the Scottish kingdom, and his picturesque touches and full-blown fictions probably seemed to him only the appropriate decorations of his splendid theme. Something may be due to personal credulity and national vanity, but in the main we do think that these were the chief causes of the peculiar features of his work; and while we frankly admit that he has no claim to a place among trustworthy historians, we repudiate the idea that he is an imposter and a cheat. His aim was epic, though his genius and his taste were insufficient for his ambition.

  Prior to this no history of Scotland had been printed except the compendium of Major…. Lord Hailes declared that his countrymen were reformed from popery, but not from Boece, but now that the latter reformation has been accomplished we may do justice to his real merits as we do to those of the mediæval church. His learning and zeal co-operated with the liberality of Elphinstone in laying the foundation of the university which has diffused culture in the northern districts of Britain. A love of historical studies dating from his time has continued to mark the Aberdonian scholars, who have contributed more to Scottish history than the inhabitants of any other part of Scotland.