Documents for "Scholars, Antiquarians, and Orientalists: Biographies":

• Agricola, Rudolphus 1443-85, Dutch humanist, whose real name was Roelof Huysmann. He opposed scholasticism and spread the culture of the Renaissance throughout Germany greatly influencing Erasmus and other scholars....

• Amyot, Jacques 1513-93, French humanist, translator of Heliodorus' Aethiopica (1547), of Longus' Daphnis and Chloë (1559), and particularly of Plutarch's Lives (1559).

• Anquetil-Duperron, Abraham Hyacinthe 1731-1805, French Orientalist. He gave up studying for the priesthood to pursue his deep interest in Eastern languages. In India (1755-61) he learned Persian, Sanskrit, Zend, Avestan, and Pahlavi...

• Ascham, Roger 1515-68, English humanist and scholar, b. Yorkshire. Ascham was a major intellectual figure of the early Tudor period. His Toxophilus (1545), an essay on archery, proved him a master of English prose; in it he urged the importance of physical recreation for students and scholars. The essay won him the favor of Henry VIII, and...

• Ashmole, Elias 1617-92, English archaeologist and antiquary. He made exhaustive antiquarian studies, especially The Institution, Laws and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter (1672) and The Antiquities of Berkshire...

• Bédier, Joseph 1864-1938, French authority on medieval literature. He was professor at the Collège de France and a member of the French Academy. His reconstruction, in modern French, of the Roman de Tristan...

• Babbitt, Irving 1865-1933, American scholar, b. Dayton, Ohio. At Harvard as professor of French literature from 1912 until his death, he was a vigorous critic of romanticism, deprecating especially the influence...

• Barzun, Jacques 1907-, American writer, educator, and historian, b. Créteil, France, grad. Columbia (B.A., 1927; Ph.D., 1932). Barzun moved to the United States in 1919. A student of law and history and one of...

• Ben Yehudah, Eliezer 1858-1922, Jewish scholar and leader, b. Lithuania. He settled in Palestine as early as 1881, where he dedicated himself to the revival of Hebrew as the national language. His outstanding...

• Bentley, Richard 1662-1742, English critic and philologist. Generally considered the greatest of English classical scholars, he was largely responsible for raising standards of textual criticism in the work of his...

• Blau, Joseph Leon 1909-86, American Jewish scholar and educator, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., grad. Columbia (A.B., 1931; M.A., 1933; Ph.D., 1945). He taught at Columbia from 1944, becoming professor of religion (1962-77)...

• Braga, Teófilo 1843-1924, Portuguese intellectual and political leader, b. Ponta Delgada in the Azores. At the Univ. of Coimbra he was a member of the positivist circle of Quental. In 1871 he began to teach at...

• Budaeus see Budé, Guillaume.

• Campbell, John Francis 1822-85, Scottish Gaelic scholar. He is known for Popular Tales of the West Highlands (4 vol., 1860-62) and Leabhar na Feinne (1872), a collection of Gaelic folk ballads. A meteorologist also, he...

• Casaubon, Isaac 1559-1614, English classical scholar and theologian, b. Geneva. He became professor of Greek at Geneva and at Montpellier and by his learning attracted the notice of Henry IV, who made him royal...

• Child, Francis James 1825-96, American scholar, b. Boston, grad. Harvard, 1846. At Harvard he was professor of rhetoric (1851-76) and English literature (1876-96). He greatly influenced modern methods of Chaucer study...

• Choniates, Michael see Acominatus, Michael.

• Colet, John 1467?-1519, English humanist and theologian. While studying on the Continent (1493-96), Colet became interested in classical scholarship and in theories of education. After his residency at Oxford...

• Coornhert, Dirck Volckertszoon 1522-90, Dutch humanist. His translation (1561) of the first 12 books of the Odyssey is considered the first major poetic work of the Dutch Renaissance. Coornhert also translated Cicero, Boccaccio, Seneca, and Boethius. His comedies, morality plays, and a philosophical treatise...

• Croker, Thomas Crofton 1798-1854, Irish antiquary, b. Cork. One of the first to collect Irish folklore, he compiled Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825-28), Legends of the Lakes (1829), and Popular...

• Daurat, Jean 1508?-1588, French classical scholar. He taught (1546-56) at the Collège de Coqueret at Paris. Among his pupils were the poets Ronsard, Du Bellay, Baïf, and Belleau, who included him in the...

• D'Ewes, Sir Simonds 1602-50, English antiquarian, b. Coxden. He collected many old manuscripts and made transcriptions of others with the intention of writing a history of England; these now form part of the Harleian...

• Dorat, Jean see Daurat, Jean.

• Du Cange, Charles du Fresne, sieur 1610-88, French medieval historian and philologist. He is principally known for his Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis [glossary of medieval and late Latin] (1678). It remains the greatest collection...

• Edel, Joseph Leon (Joseph Leon Edel) , 1907-97, American literary scholar and biographer, b. Pittsburgh, Pa. A professor at New York Univ. (1953-72) and the Univ. of Hawaii (1972-78), he received the 1963 Pulitzer Prize and National...

• Ersch, Johann Samuel 1766-1828, German encyclopedist, first editor of the great encyclopedia known as Ersch and Gruber's. At his death, 17 volumes had been completed and he was succeeded by Johann Gottfried Gruber...

• Fell, John 1625-86, English clergyman. He was dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and bishop of Oxford. While at Oxford, he initiated an extensive building program and promoted the development of the Oxford Univ...

• Fish, Stanley Eugene 1938-, American literary critic and educator, b. Providence, R.I.; grad. Univ. of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1959), Yale Univ. (M.A., 1960; Ph.D., 1962). Fish has taught at the Univ. of California,...

• Frye, Northrop 1912-91, Canadian literary critic, b. Quebec. In 1936 he was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Canada. In 1948 he was appointed professor of English at Victoria College, of which he...

• Furness, Horace Howard 1833-1912, American Shakespearean scholar, b. Philadelphia; son of William Henry Furness. He was the editor of the New Variorum edition of Shakespeare (plays published separately, 1871-1913). His...

• Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. 1950-, American scholar and critic, b. Keyser, W.Va., grad. Yale Univ. (B.A., 1973; M.A., 1974; Ph.D., 1979), Cambridge Univ., where he studied with Wole Soyinka. Gates is an expert on African-American literature and culture. His rediscovery and reinterpretation of historic black literature began in 1981 with his finding, authenticating, and publishing of...

• Gaza, Theodore c.1398-c.1478, Greek scholar, b. Salonica. When the Turks attacked Constantinople, he went to Italy, where he became one of the greatest classical scholars and humanists of the Renaissance. His...

• George of Trebizond c.1396-1486, Greek scholar, b. Crete. Settling in Venice, he taught Greek, philosophy, and rhetoric there and in Vicenza before going to Rome in 1442. He became known as a translator of Aristotle...

• Grocyn, William 1446?-1519, English humanist. An associate of John Colet and Thomas Linacre , he reputedly introduced the teaching of Greek at Oxford.

• Guarino da Verona 1374?-1460, Italian humanist, considered the greatest teacher of his time. Associated with several universities, he translated various Greek and Latin classics and wrote a Latin grammar (1487).

• Hand, Wayland Debs 1907-86, folklorist, b. Auckland, New Zealand. Hand wrote Popular Beliefs and Superstitions from North Carolina (1964), which is ranked among the finest published studies of superstition. It is remarkable for its logical arrangement of material, accurate comparative information, and completeness of informant...

• Hazard, Paul 1878-1944, French scholar. He began his teaching at the Univ. of Lyons in 1910. After World War I he taught at the Sorbonne and in 1925 was appointed to the chair of comparative literature in the...

• Herder, Johann Gottfried von 1744-1803, German philosopher, critic, and clergyman, b. East Prussia. Herder was an enormously influential literary critic and a leader in the Sturm und Drang movement. After an impoverished childhood, he studied theology at Königsberg and came under the influence of Kant. During an appointment at Riga, Herder gained attention with his Fragmente über die neuere deutsche Literatur [fragments concerning current German literature] (1767). In 1776 he became court preacher at Weimar through the influence of Goethe, whose work was greatly affected by Herder's ideas, particularly...

• Highet, Gilbert Arthur 1906-78, American classicist, b. Glasgow, Scotland. In 1951 Highet became a citizen of the United States. He was a professor of Greek and Latin at Columbia Univ. from 1938 to 1950 and Anthon...

• Holland, Philemon 1552-1637, English translator and scholar. Educated at Cambridge, he became director of the free school in Coventry, where he also practiced medicine. He was the first English translator of Livy...

• Hyde, Douglas 1860-1949, Irish scholar and political leader. He was largely responsible for the revival of the Irish language and literature through his founding of the Gaelic League in 1893. After teaching...

• Jackson, Abraham Valentine Williams 1862-1937, American Orientalist, b. New York City. Teaching at Columbia Univ. (1895-1935), he was a great authority on ancient Persian religion, language, and literature as well as on modern Parsis...

• Jowett, Benjamin 1817-93, English educator and Greek scholar, b. London. Jowett was a Church of England clergyman, master of Balliol College, Oxford (1870-93), and vice chancellor of Oxford. His influence on his...

• Jusserand, Jean Jules 1855-1932, French diplomat and author, b. Lyon. After service in London, Constantinople, and Copenhagen, he was ambassador to the United States (1902-25). A close friend of every U.S. President...

• Kermode, Sir Frank 1919-, English critic, b. Isle of Man. Educated at Liverpool and a lieutenant in the Royal Navy during World War II, Kermode is one of the most distinguished critics of our time. He has taught at...

• Kittredge, George Lyman 1860-1941, American scholar, b. Boston. A member of the Harvard faculty (1888-1936), Kittredge was a noted authority on the English language, Shakespeare and Chaucer. His one-volume edition of the...

• Lönnrot, Elias 1802-84, Finnish philologist, compiler of the Kalevala. Although he was trained as a physician, he spent his life, after 1828, traveling through Finland, Lapland, and NW Russia, collecting fragments of the Kalevala from the rune singers. Of these he published in 1835 about 12,000 lines. A second edition of nearly 23,000 lines appeared in 1849. To Lönnrot must go the credit of creating a national epic from the...

• Leavis, Q. D. (Queenie Dorothy Leavis), 1906-81, British literary critic; wife of F. R. Leavis. After studying at Cambridge, she wrote Fiction and the Reading Public (1932), which analyzed the market for different...

• Leto, Giulio Pomponio see Pomponius Laetus, Julius.

• Lipsius, Justus 1547-1606, Flemish scholar, whose original name was Joest Lips. He was one of the most celebrated authorities of his day on Roman literature, history, and antiquities. Lipsius edited many works of...

• Lyall, Sir Charles James 1845-1920, British Orientalist and civil servant in India. He held various offices in India and became chief commissioner of the Central Provs. (1895-98). In London he held (1898-1910) an...

• Müller, Friedrich Maximilian see Müller, Max.

• Müller, Karl Otfried 1797-1840, German classical scholar and archaeologist. He was professor of classics at the Univ. of Göttingen (1819-39), lecturing on art history, literature, mythology, and archaeology. His aim...

• Müller, Max (Friedrich Maximilian Müller, Friedrich Max Müller, or Friedrich Max-Müller), 1823-1900, German philologist and Orientalist, b. Dessau; son of the poet Wilhelm Müller. After specializing in...

• Mai, Angelo 1782-1854, Italian philologist and, from 1838, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. As an official at the Ambrosian Library in Milan and the Vatican Library, he discovered and published many...

• Malone, Edmond 1741-1812, English literary critic and Shakespearean scholar, b. Ireland. His studies (1778) in the chronology of Shakespeare's plays are still considered highly valuable. He was among the first to...

• Matthews, Brander (James Brander Matthews), 1852-1929, American author and teacher, b. New Orleans. Matthews was a well-known figure in theatrical and literary circles in Paris and London as well as in New York...

• Menéndez Pidal, Ramón 1869-1968, Spanish scholar and philologist. Menéndez Pidal was a noted authority on Spanish epic literature and the Spanish language, and was also a major modern historian. He directed the Revista...

• Micaëlis de Vasconcelos, Carolina 1851-1925, Portuguese scholar, b. Berlin. As a youth she gained a considerable reputation as a Romance philologist. After her marriage in 1876, she moved to Portugal. Her brilliant edition of the Cancioneiro...

• Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, Carolina see Micaëlis de Vasconcelos, Carolina.

• More, Paul Elmer 1864-1937, American critic, educator, and philosopher, b. St. Louis. More taught Sanskrit and classical literature and then was a newspaper editor until 1914, after which he wrote and lectured...

• Munch, Andreas Peder 1810-63, Norwegian historian and philologist. A principal figure in the Norwegian literary revival, he contributed an authoritative history of the Norwegian people, Det norske folks historie (8 vol.,...

• Murray, Gilbert (George Gilbert Aimé Murray), 1866-1957, British classical scholar, b. Sydney, Australia. In 1908 Murray was appointed regius professor of Greek at Oxford. He is best known as a Greek scholar and...

• Niccoli, Niccolò de' 1363-1437, Italian humanist. One of the distinguished Florentine scholars in Cosimo de' Medici's circle, he wrote little but is remembered for his important collection of Greek and Latin...

• Nicholas of Cusa (Nicolaus Cusanus), 1401?-1464, German humanist, scientist, statesman, and philosopher, from 1448 cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. The son of a fisherman, Nicholas was educated at Deventer,...

• O'Grady, Standish Hayes 1832-1915, Irish scholar. His great work was the Silva Gadelica (1892), a collection of old Irish tales. He also translated heroic stories from the Gaelic and began a catalog of the Irish manuscripts in the British Museum, thus laying a foundation for the later...

• Palsgrave, John d. 1554, English scholar, educated at Oxford and at the Univ. of Paris. Palsgrave was tutor to Henry VIII's daughter Mary (later Mary I), who used her influence in his behalf after he had taken...

• Paris, Paulin (Alexis Paulin Paris) , 1800-1881, French scholar. He was noted for his research in medieval French literature and for initiating the systematic study of Romance philology. His studies include Les...

• Percy, Thomas 1729-1811, English antiquary and churchman, b. Shropshire. In 1782 he became Protestant bishop of Dromore (Ireland). He achieved literary fame as the editor of the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (3 vol., 1765), a collection of 176 English and Scottish ballads. Its publication initiated a general interest in earlier literary forms and exercised a great influence on the romantic poets in...

• Peutinger, Konrad 1465-1547, German antiquarian, diplomat, politician, and economist. One of the earliest writers in Germany on Roman inscriptions, he introduced the Italian Renaissance spirit into his native land...

• Pococke, Edward 1604-91, English Orientalist, b. Oxford. Ordained a priest in 1629, he resided at Aleppo in Syria as a chaplain, where he collected valuable manuscripts and studied Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac,...

• Poggio Bracciolini, Gian Francesco 1380-1459, Italian humanist. A secretary in the Roman curia, he later became chancellor and historiographer of the republic of Florence. A prodigious copyist, he rediscovered many lost classical...

• Pomponius Laetus, Julius 1425-1498?, Italian humanist, also called Giulio Pomponio Leto. His knowledge of ancient Rome was immense and his works numerous; they included a historical compendium of Roman and Byzantine...

• Porson, Richard 1759-1808, English classical scholar, b. Norfolk. A poor boy, he showed such astonishing powers of memory that patrons sent him through Eton and Cambridge. He was appointed regius professor of...

• Reuchlin, Johann 1455-1522, German humanist and lawyer, a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, b. Baden. He taught jurisprudence at Tübingen. In 1492 he began the study of Hebrew, and his Rudimenta Hebraica (1506) was the first Hebrew grammar written by a Christian. His reputation as a scholar had already been established by the translations from the Greek that he made at Heidelberg. When Johann...

• Ritson, Joseph 1752-1803, English antiquarian and scholar, b. Stockton-on-Tees. An industrious student of English literature, he attacked Thomas Warton's scholarship in Observations on Warton's History (1782) and...

• Valla, Lorenzo c.1407-57, Italian humanist. Valla knew Greek and Latin well and was chosen by Pope Nicholas V to translate Herodotus and Thucydides into Latin. From his earliest works, he was an ardent spokesman...

• Vambery, Arminius Hung. Ármin Vámbéry , 1832-1913, Hungarian philologist and traveler. In Constantinople (1857-63) he learned several languages and dialects of Asia Minor and then traveled through Armenia and Persia in the dress of a...

• Vendler, Helen Hennessy 1933-, American poetry critic, b. Boston; attended Emmanuel College, Harvard Univ. (Ph.D., 1960). One of America's most lucid critics of poetry, uniquely adept at close reading, she is also among...

• Walafrid Strabo (Walafrid the Squinter), c.809-849, German scholar, b. Swabia. Educated at the abbey of Reichenau, he wrote, at 18, a Latin verse account of a journey to the hereafter, Visio Wettini. In 842 he returned to Reichenau as abbot. There he encouraged the production and exchange of manuscripts which made the library and scriptorium famous. Among Walafrid's writings, renowned...

• Wellhausen, Julius 1844-1918, leading German biblical scholar of the 19th cent. He is recognized for his documentary hypothesis that sought to account for both the composition of the Pentateuch (Genesis-Deuteronomy)...