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Manasseh ben Israel, 1604–57, Jewish scholar and communal leader, b. Portugal. Early in his life he settled in Amsterdam, where he became a rabbi and started (1627) the first Hebrew press there. He is best known for his efforts to obtain the readmission of Jews into England, where they had been forbidden to live since 1290; he managed to obtain Oliver Cromwell's unofficial assent for Jews to settle in London. His Conciliador, an elaborate discussion of hundreds of conflicting passages in the Old Testament, was intended to make Judaism more understandable and acceptable to the Christian world. He wrote in five languages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lightfoot, Joseph Barber, 1828–89, English prelate and scholar. A fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, he became Hulsean professor of divinity (1861) and Lady Margaret professor (1875). In 1871 he became a canon of St. Paul's, London; in 1879 he was consecrated bishop of Durham. He was learned in biblical and early Christian literature. From 1870 to 1880 he was one of the revisers of the King James Version of the Bible. He published commentaries (3 vol., 1865–75) on St. Paul's epistles to the Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. His editions of the Apostolic Fathers include Clement of Rome (1869) and Ignatius and Polycarp (1885). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Liddell, Henry George (lĭd′əl), 1811–98, English classical scholar. He was headmaster (1846–55) of Westminster School and dean (1855–91) of Christ Church, Oxford. Liddell is famous for his compilation of the Greek-English Lexicon (with Robert Scott, 1843). It was his daughter, Alice Liddell (d. 1934), for whom Lewis Carroll wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lawrence, T. E. (Thomas Edward Lawrence), 1888–1935, British adventurer, soldier, and scholar, known as Lawrence of Arabia. While a student at Oxford he went on a walking tour of Syria and in 1911 joined a British Museum archaeological expedition in Mesopotamia. He remained in the Middle East until 1914, learning colloquial Arabic and making exploratory trips and archaeological surveys. After the outbreak of World War I, Lawrence was attached to the intelligence section of the British army in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lang, Andrew, 1844–1912, English scholar and man of letters, b. Scotland. His poetry, much of it written in the forms of ballades, triolets, and rondeaux, appeared in such volumes as his Ballads in Blue China (2 vol., 1880–81). Lang was one of the first to apply anthropological findings to the study of myth and folklore; his best work in this field was Myth, Literature, and Religion (1887, rev. ed. 1899). He is known for his prose translations of the Odyssey (with S. H. Butcher, 1879), and the Iliad (with Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers, 1883), and for his defense of the unity of Homer in The World of Homer (1910). With his wife, Leonora Blanche Lang, he translated and adapted traditional stories for children, published in his Blue Fairy Book (1889) and others. Lang also wrote literary and art criticism, a biography of J. G. Lockhart (1896), and several works on Scottish history, culminating in his History of Scotland (4 vol., 1900–1907). His poetical works were edited (1923) by his wife. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Kennicott, Benjamin (kĕn′ĭkət, –kŏt″), 1718–83, English clergyman and biblical scholar. His long career at Oxford was one of devotion to learning. He was rector of Culham, Oxfordshire, from 1753 to 1783. With the aim of preparing an improved Hebrew text of the Old Testament, he secured the assistance of other scholars in the study of Hebrew manuscripts. Besides the many printed editions, 615 Hebrew manuscripts and 16 manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch were collated to produce his edition, the Vetus testamentum Hebraicum cum variis lectionibus (1776–80). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Jowett, Benjamin (jō′ət, jou′ət), 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 pupils was profound. Jowett's translation of the dialogues of Plato (1871) is an outstanding work both of English literature and of classical scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

John of Salisbury (sôlz′bərē), c.1110–1180, English scholastic philosopher, b. Salisbury. He studied in France at Paris and Chartres under Abelard and other famous teachers. He was secretary to Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, and friend and secretary to St. Thomas à Becket, of whom he wrote a biography. From 1176 to 1180, John was bishop of Chartres. His two main works are the Polycraticus, a treatise on the principles of government, and the Metalogicus, which presents a picture of the intellectual life and the scholastic controversies of the age. He was well acquainted with the Latin classics, and the influence of Platonism on his writing is considerable. He was one of the originators of moderate realism as a solution to the controversy with nominalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Innes, Michael, pseud. of John Innes Mackintosh Stewart, 1906–94, British writer and scholar, b. near Edinburgh. From 1969 to 1973 he was a reader in English literature at Oxford. Under his own name he wrote novels, short stories, and such critical studies as Character and Motive in Shakespeare (1949), Rudyard Kipling (1966), and Thomas Hardy (1971). As Michael Innes he wrote more than forty detective stories featuring John Appleby, a gentleman turned policeman. These erudite and witty mysteries include Seven Suspects (1936), A Comedy of Terrors (1940), The Open House (1972), and The Appleby File (1975). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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 and Septonius, of Plutarch's Morals and Pliny's Natural History, and of Ammianus Marcellinus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Harrison, Jane Ellen, 1850–1928, English classical scholar. She applied archaeological discoveries in the interpretation of Greek religion. Her works include Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903), Themis (1912), Ancient Art and Ritual (1913), and Epilegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1921). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hales, John, 1584–1656, English clergyman and scholar, often alluded to as the Ever-Memorable. He won distinction by his lectures on Greek at Oxford, his preaching, and his writings. From 1613 to 1649 he held a fellowship at Eton College. As chaplain to Sir Dudley Carleton, he was an observer at the Synod of Dort (1618–19), an important meeting of Calvinists. Hales's tolerance in religion found expression in Schism and Schismatics, published anonymously (and without consent) in 1642. Archbishop Laud in 1639 made Hales a canon of Windsor, but he was ejected from that post in 1642 and from his Eton fellowship in 1649. His remaining years, under the Commonwealth, were spent in obscurity and poverty. In the Golden Remains of the Ever Memorable Mr. John Hales (1659), with a preface by John Pearson, are included a number of his writings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Grenfell, Bernard Pyne (grĕn′fĕl), 1869–1926, English classical scholar and Egyptologist. With Arthur Surridge Hunt he discovered at Oxyrhynchus the Logia of Jesus (see Agrapha of Jesus). He became in 1908 professor of papyrology at Oxford and helped edit the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (9 vol., 1897–1912) and other similar works. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gasquet, Francis Aidan (găs′kĭt), 1846–1929, English prelate and scholar, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, a Benedictine. In historical studies of English religious and social life in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, Gasquet emphasized the purity in medieval Catholicism and criticized the English Reformation as harsh and unnecessary. Although his conclusions have been greatly modified by later scholars, his work had considerable influence on prevailing views of the period. Notable among his works are Henry VIII and the English Monasteries (2 vol., 1888–1889) and The Eve of the Reformation (1899). He was made a cardinal in 1914 and appointed prefect of the Vatican archives in 1918. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dobrée, Bonamy (bŏn′əmē dō′brē), 1891–1974, English scholar and critic, b. London, grad. Cambridge (B.A., 1921, M.A., 1924). He served with the Royal Artillery in both world wars, attaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Dobrée taught at the Univ. of London, Egyptian Univ. in Cairo, and the Univ. of Leeds. Among his numerous works were Restoration Comedy, 1660–1720 (1924), Restoration Tragedy, 1660–1720 (1929), Rudyard Kipling (1951), English Literature of the Early Eighteenth Century (1959); Alexander Pope (1963), From Milton to Ouida (1970). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Chambers, Sir Edmund Kerchever, 1866–1954, English literary critic and Shakespearean scholar. He wrote The Mediaeval Stage (1903), The Elizabethan Stage (1923), Arthur of Britain (1927), William Shakespeare (1930), and studies of S. T. Coleridge (1938) and Matthew Arnold (1947). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Capell, Edward (kā′pəl), 1731–81, English Shakespearean scholar. His 10-volume edition of Shakespeare (1768) was the first to incorporate exact collations of all available old texts. He followed this with a commentary, Notes and Various Readings to Shakespeare (3 vol., 1783). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Camden, William (kăm′dən), 1551–1623, English scholar, chief historian and antiquary of Elizabethan times. His two chief works are Britannia (1586) and Annales rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Elizabetha [annals of affairs in England and Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth]. He was a conscientious scholar in editing old manuscripts and in collecting materials of antiquarian interest. He was also a teacher (1575–97) and headmaster (1593–97) at Westminster School and helped to revive the study of Anglo-Saxon. He wrote a Greek grammar long popular in English secondary schools and aided Sir Robert Cotton in collecting materials. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Burton, Robert, 1577–1640, English clergyman and scholar, b. Leicestershire, educated at Oxford. He served as librarian at Christ Church, Oxford, all his life; in addition he was vicar of St. Thomas, Oxford, and later was rector of Seagrave, Leicestershire. A bachelor, he led an uneventful, scholarly life. His famous work, The Anatomy of Melancholy, appeared in 1621 under the pen name Democritus Junior. Enlarged and revised several times before his death, this treatise originally set out to explore the causes and effects of melancholy, but it eventually covered many areas in the life of man, including science, history, and political and social reform. The work is divided into three main portions: The first defines and describes various kinds of melancholy; the second puts forward various cures; and the third analyzes love melancholy and religious melancholy. Burton's prose style is informal, anecdotal, and thoroughly idiosyncratic, and he includes quotations from a wide range of literature—the Bible, the classics, the Elizabethan authors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Bradley, Andrew Cecil, 1851–1935, English scholar and critic, b. Cheltenham; brother of Francis Herbert Bradley. He taught at Oxford for many years and was professor of poetry there (1901–6). Bradley is known for his Shakespearean Tragedy (1904), a classic work of criticism noted for its exposition of Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth as psychological beings and of Shakespeare as a consummate interpreter of the human soul. Bradley's other works include Oxford Lectures on Poetry (1909) and Ideals of Religion (1940). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Bowra, C. M. (Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra) (bou′rə), 1898–1971, English classical scholar, b. China. Associated with the Univ. of Oxford throughout his adult life, he was warden of Wadham College (1922–71) and also served as professor of poetry (1946–51) and vice chancellor (1951–54). He was knighted in 1951. Although he wrote and edited books in many areas of literature, Bowra is particularly known for his studies of ancient Greek poetry and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Bodley, Sir Thomas, 1545–1613, English scholar and diplomat, organizer of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. He was a Greek scholar and teacher at Oxford, and in 1584 he was elected to Parliament. He spent 11 years (1585–96) abroad on diplomatic missions for Queen Elizabeth I. In 1598 his offer to restore Duke Humphrey's library was accepted by Oxford, and he spent the rest of his life and most of his fortune on it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Wotton, William, 1666–1727, English scholar. He is best known for his Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1694), a defense of contemporary learning written in response to an essay by Sir William Temple. Both Wotton and Temple were satirized by Swift in Battle of the Books (1704). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

William of Occam or Ockham (both: ŏk′əm), c.1285–c.1349, English scholastic philosopher. A Franciscan, Occam studied and taught at Oxford from c.1310 until 1324, when he was summoned to the papal court at Avignon to answer charges of heresy in his writings. He waited there until 1328 for a judgment. When it appeared that Pope John XXII was about to condemn his position Occam fled to the protection of Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV, whom he supported in his struggle with Pope John. He is thought to have died in the black plague that swept Europe in the middle of the 14th cent. Occam's teachings mark an important break with previous medieval philosophy, especially with the Aristotelian realism of St. Thomas Aquinas. A nominalist, he denied that the forms of knowledge corresponded to those of being. He saw our concepts to be naturally occasioned by the world, but thought could not be taken as a measure of being. Specifically, Occam denied the existence of universals except in our minds and in language. An empiricist, Occam disputed the self-evidence of principles of Aristotelian logic (like the final cause) and of Christian theology (like the existence of God). For this reason Occam severely restricted the province of philosophy in order to safeguard theology, denying the competence of reason in matters of faith. Just as he had maintained a distinction between our concepts and being, he saw creation not as a necessary consequence of the divine intellect, as Aquinas had, but as an expression of God's limitless will. In the area of logic, where he had great influence, he is remembered for his use of the principle of parsimony, formulated as Occam's razor, which enjoined economy in explanation with the axiom, What can be done with fewer [assumptions] is done in vain with more. Like Marsilius of Padua, Occam strongly opposed the temporal power of the pope and wrote numerous works on the subject. His Dialogus is a thorough discussion of political theories. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Westcott, Brooke Foss, 1825–1901, English prelate and scholar. From 1870 to 1890 he was regius professor of divinity at Cambridge. With F. J. A. Hort, he published The New Testament in the Original Greek (2 vol., 1881). From 1890 until his death he was bishop of Durham. He was known for his many scriptural commentaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Watson, Thomas, 1557?–1592, English poet and scholar. He translated into Latin the Antigone of Sophocles and the Aminta of Tasso and wrote The Hecatompathia; or, Passionate Century of Love (1582), one of the earliest collections of sonnets in English. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tyrwhitt, Thomas (tĭr′ĭt), 1730–86, English scholar. He was noted for his studies of Shakespeare (1766) and for his edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (5 vol., 1775–78). Tyrwhitt revealed in 1777 that the Rowley Poems were not actually Middle English poems, but a fabrication by young Thomas Chatterton. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ascham, Roger (ăs′kəm), 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 Ascham became tutor (1548–50) to Princess Elizabeth. He seems to have been largely responsible for her love of the classics and her proficiency in Greek. As a member of a diplomatic mission Ascham spent several years on the Continent, in contact with other scholars, and in 1553 was appointed Latin secretary to Queen Mary. He continued as secretary and private tutor to Elizabeth I after Mary's death. The Scholemaster (1570), his treatise on the teaching of Latin, urged the use of the double translation method. Dr. Johnson's life of Ascham (1761), included in many editions of Ascham's collected works, is a classic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Skelton, John, 1460–1529, English poet and humanist. Tutor to Prince Henry (later Henry VIII), he later (c.1502) became rector of Diss, Norfolk. In 1512 he began to call himself royal orator, a position that may have been conferred by Henry VIII requiring that Skelton carry on some royal correspondence and write occasional official poems. He wrote a long allegorical poem, The Garland of Laurel (1523), but is remembered for his scathing and often obscene satires on the court, the clergy, and Cardinal Wolsey—The Bowge of Court (1499), Speak, Parrot (1521), Colin Clout (1522), and Why Come Ye Not to Court? (c.1522)—and the mock dirge Philip Sparrow. Many of his works are written in verse forms he himself devised, called Skeltonics. They consist of short lines and insistent rhymes, sometimes repeated through several sets of couplets; they also employ alliteration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Skeat, Walter William, 1835–1912, English scholar and philologist. Skeat took holy orders in 1860, but illness cut short his church career. At Cambridge he served as a lecturer in mathematics (1864–71), began the study of Old English, and was professor of Anglo-Saxon (1878–1912). In 1873 he founded the English Dialect Society, which brought about the English Dialect Dictionary, edited by Joseph Wright (1896–1905). Skeat was the author of a number of textbooks, contributed freely to learned journals, and led the way in the study of English place names. Among the many works he edited are Lancelot of the Laik (1865), Piers Plowman (1867–85), John Barbour's The Bruce (4 parts, 1870–89), Ælfric's Lives of Saints (2 parts, 1881–1900), and a seven-volume edition of Chaucer (1894–97). His important work, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (1882), was a standard reference for many years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sharp, Granville, 1735–1813, English reformer, scholar, and abolitionist. In 1772 he won a case establishing the principle that any slave would become free upon reaching British land. Sharp continued his abolitionist activities, notably the promotion of a colony of former slaves in Sierra Leone, which was unsuccessful. In 1776 he began agitation against the impressment of seamen. Later he founded a Bible society. Self-taught in Greek and Hebrew, he was noted for his studies in biblical texts. He also wrote many pamphlets on political questions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Schechter, Solomon (shĕkh′tər), 1847–1915, Jewish scholar. Born in Romania, he was educated in Vienna and at the Univ. of Berlin. He went to England in 1882 and in 1890 he was made lecturer in Talmud at Cambridge; he became professor of Hebrew at University College, London, in 1899. In 1887 he published his critical edition of Avot According to Rabbi Nathan. In 1897 he traveled to Cairo and brought back to Cambridge some 100,000 manuscript fragments from the famous Cairo geniza. Among these, Schechter identified the hitherto missing Hebrew version of Ecclesiasticus. In 1902 he became president of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, which he developed into a center of learning and a spiritual home of the Conservative movement. He was also the founder of the United Synagogue of America, the association of Conservative congregations. Among his books are Studies in Judaism (1896; 2d series 1908; 3d series 1924) and Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (1909). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sanday, William, 1843–1920, English theologian and biblical scholar. He was professor of exegesis (1883–95) at Oxford and from 1895 to 1919 Lady Margaret professor of divinity and canon of Christ Church, Oxford. He was joint editor of the Variorum Bible (1880) and won acceptance for new methods of New Testament study among Anglican clergy. Besides commentaries, his many writings include The Authorship and Historical Character of the Fourth Gospel (1872), The Gospels in the Second Century (1876), and The New Testament Background (1918). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Roscommon, Wentworth Dillon, 4th earl of (rŏskŏm′ən), 1633?–1685, English poet and scholar, b. Ireland. He was one of the first to praise Milton's genius. Besides making a blank-verse translation (1680) of Horace's Ars poetica, he wrote an Essay on Translated Verse (1684). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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 disputed the originality of Bishop Percy's Reliques. He criticized Dr. Johnson, George Steevens, and Malone as editors of Shakespeare, and in 1802 he compiled a catalog of English poets from the 12th to the 16th cent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purvey, John, c.1354–c.1421, English scholar, who in support of the Lollardry movement completed the first thorough translation of the Bible into English. Becoming associated with John Wyclif at Oxford, he accompanied the Lollard leader to Lutterworth in 1382 and there perhaps finished a faulty translation of the Bible previously begun by others under Wyclif's inspiration. He completed (c.1395) a careful and scholarly translation entirely his own. These two versions were erroneously attributed to Wyclif himself until modern times. The second shows a prose style better than that of Wyclif's writings; portions of it were later used by the translators of the King James Version. Purvey continued active as a Lollard until his arrest in 1401. The following year he recanted under pressure and accepted a living from Archbishop Arundel. In 1403, however, he resigned and resumed Lollard activities until his arrest again in 1421, after which time nothing certain is known of his fate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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 Greek at Cambridge in 1792, and lived in London, where he edited several plays of Euripides. A scrupulous scholar, Porson was a textual critic of the highest order and changed existing ideas of Greek meter. His treatises and criticism were edited by Thomas Kidd (1815) and his correspondence by H. R. Luard (1851). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Pococke, Edward (pō′kŏk), 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, Samaritan, and Ethiopic. Living in England from 1636, he wrote a series of essays on Arabic history, Specimen historiae Arabum (1636), the first book printed in Arabic type. In 1663 he published the Arabic text and his Latin translation of the history by Bar-Hebraeus that had inspired his essays. This important work of scholarship was entitled Historia compendiosa dynastiarum. Pococke also wrote commentaries on Hosea, Joel, Micah, and Malachi, and made his superb collection and his vast knowledge available to other scholars. His library is now part of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. His name appears also as Pocock. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Peregrinus, Petrus (Peter the Pilgrim) (pē′trəs pĕrəgrĭn′əs), c.1220–?, medieval scholar and soldier. The tutor of Roger Bacon, he wrote the first important study of magnetism, Epistola de Magnete, in which he described simple magnetic attraction and repulsion. He improved the compass by placing the lodestone on a pivot and surrounding it with a graduated directional scale. His ideas were further elaborated in the 16th cent. by William Gilbert. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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 especially as a translator of Greek drama. His translations were rendered in heroic rhymes to preserve the rhythm of the originals. Among his works are History of Ancient Greek Literature (1897), The Rise of the Greek Epic (1907), Euripides and His Age (1918), The Classical Tradition in Poetry (1927), and Hellenism and the Modern World (1953). Murray was active in the cause of world peace. He was chairman (1923–38) of the League of Nations Union and first president of the general council of the United Nations Association. He wrote several books about international politics, including Liberality and Civilization (1938). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mill, John, 1645–1707, English clergyman and biblical scholar. The masterpiece of scholarly critical work to which 30 years of his life were devoted is an edition (1707) of the Greek New Testament. Dr. John Fell, bishop of Oxford, encouraged Mill to undertake the task, giving over his own notes and assuming the expense of printing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]