Elias Avery Lowe

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Elias Avery Lowe (born October 15, 1879 in Kalvarija (Lithuania) as Elias Avery Loew , † August 8, 1969 in Bad Nauheim ) was an American paleographer .

life and work

Elias Avery Loew was born into a Jewish family in what was then the Russian Empire . When he was twelve years old, his family emigrated to the United States and settled in New York. In 1911 he became an American citizen. In 1918 he changed his name from Loew to Lowe .

Loew studied from 1894 to 1897 at the City College of New York , then classical philology at Cornell University and from 1902 at the University of Halle under Georg Wissowa , whose fame attracted classical philologists from all over the world. Wissowa recommended him to continue his studies with Ludwig Traube at Munich . In 1908 he received his doctorate there with a dissertation on The oldest calendars in Monte Cassino .

In 1911 Elias Avery Loew married the translator Helen Tracy Porter , who became known (and appreciated by) for her translations of the works of Thomas Mann under her married name Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter and who contributed to the author's success in the English-speaking world through the quality of her translations . After receiving his doctorate, Loew traveled to numerous archives and libraries, especially in Rome and the Vatican, and opened up the collection of her oldest manuscripts. In 1913 he became a lecturer in paleography at the University of Oxford , from 1927 until his retirement in 1948 he was professor of paleography at Oxford.

His research on the manuscripts in the library of Montecassino Abbey had led Lowe to palaeography, the study of the style of manuscripts, in particular to researching the Beneventana script, which has been widespread in southern Italy since the 8th century, and the historical typology of manuscripts that have been handed down in uncial script . In the course of the 1920s, this gave rise to the idea of ​​creating a complete catalog of all Latin manuscripts written up to the end of the 8th century: the Codices Latini Antiquiores . In 1929 he presented the edition plan of his project to his colleagues . That same year he got to work. The publication of the Codices Latini Antiquiores became his life's work.

In 1944 Lowe was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Since 1949 he was a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . From 1936 to 1945 Lowe did research - except in Oxford - at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and during these years divided his time between Princeton and Oxford. Just before he died, he kept the galley proofs of the last correction of the last ( Supplement ) band of Codices Latini Antiquiores in hands.

His extensive scientific estate is in the Pierpont Morgan Library .

Fonts (selection)

  • The oldest calendars in Monte Cassino , Munich, Diss. Phil. 1908.
  • Studia palaeographica. A contribution to the history of early Latin minuscule and to the dating of Visigothic MSS, with seven facsimiles. Presented on November 5, 1910 (= session reports of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Philosophical-philological and historical class. Born 1910, 12th paper ). Publishing house of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 1910.
  • The Beneventan Script. A history of the South Italian Minuscule . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1914 (2nd, expanded edition in two volumes, edited by Virginia Brown, Edizione di Storia e Letteratura, Rome 1980).
  • The Bobbio missal. A Gallican mass-book (Ms. Paris Lat. 13246) . Henry Bradshaw Society, London 1917–1924, three volumes:
    • Vol. 1: Facsimile , 1917
    • Vol. 2: Text , 1920
    • Vol. 3: Notes and studies , 1924
  • Codices Lugdunenses antiquissimi. Le scriptorium de Lyon, la plus ancienne école calligraphique de France . Amis de la Bibliothèque de Lyon, Lyon 1924.
  • Regula S. Benedicti . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1929.
  • Coelii Sedulii de quatuor evangelistis ex libro primo operis Paschalis vulgati circa annum CCC XXXIV . The Anvil Press, Lexington 1955.
  • English Unical . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1960.
  • Handwriting. Our medieval legacy . Edizione di Storia e Letteratura, Rome 1969.
  • Palaeographical papers. 1907–1965 , edited by Ludwig Bieler, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1972.

literature

  • Bernhard Bischoff : Elias Avery Lowe, October 15, 1879 - August 8, 1969. In: Yearbook of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , vol. 1970, ISSN  0084-6090 , pp. 199-203.
  • Julian Brown: EA Lowe and "Codices Latini Antiquiores" . In: Scrittura e civiltà , Jg. 1 (1977), pp. 177-197.
  • Frank-Rutger Hausmann : Elias Avery Lowe (1879–1969) and Germany: with an appendix to unpublished letters. In: Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch Vol. 50 (2015) pp. 1–38.
  • James J. John: EA Lowe and Codices Latini Antiquiores . In: Newsletter of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), Vol. 20, No. 5 (October 1969), pp. 3-17.
  • James J. John: A Palæographer among Benedictines. A Tribute to EA Lowe . In: American Benedictine Review , Vol. 21 (1970), pp. 139-147.
  • James J. John: Lowe, Elias Avery . In: Ward W. Briggs (ed.): Biographical dictionary of North American classicists . Greenwood Press, Westport 1994, ISBN 0-313-24560-6 , pp. 376-378.
  • Patricia Tracy Lowe: A marriage of true minds. A memoir of my parents, Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter and Elias Avery Lowe. Tusitala, New Paltz NY 2006, ISBN 0-9642350-4-8 .
  • Studia in honorem EA Lowe . Johnson, Boulder 1962 (commemorative publication).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b James J. John: Lowe, Elias Avery . In: Ward W. Briggs (ed.): Biographical dictionary of North American classicists . Greenwood Press, Westport 1994, pp. 376-378, here p. 376.
  2. ^ Bernhard Bischoff: Elias Avery Lowe, October 15, 1879 - August 8, 1969. In: Yearbook of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , year 1970, pp. 199-203.
  3. ↑ a b James J. John: Lowe, Elias Avery . In: Ward W. Briggs (ed.): Biographical dictionary of North American classicists . Greenwood Press, Westport 1994, pp. 376-378, here p. 377.
  4. ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1900-1949 ( PDF ). Retrieved October 8, 2015
  5. ↑ Hope Mayo, Sunil Sharma: The EA Lowe Papers at the Pierpont Morgan Library . In: Scriptorium , vol. 46 (1992), pp. 90-107.
personal data
SURNAME Lowe, Elias Avery
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Loew, Elias Avery (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American paleographer
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Kalvarija
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1969
Place of death Bad Nauheim