George Martin Lane
George Martin Lane (born December 24, 1823 in Charlestown , Massachusetts , † June 30, 1897 in Cambridge , Massachusetts) was an American classical philologist . He taught at Harvard University from 1851 to 1894 .
Life
George Martin Lane studied together with Francis James Child (1825-1896) and Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908) at Harvard University , where he received his bachelor's degree in 1846 . He then worked as an instructor in Latin for a year . He represented his academic teacher Charles Beck (1798–1866), who was in Germany for study purposes. After his return, Lane also went to Germany in 1847 to deepen his studies. He studied classical philology at the universities of Bonn and Göttingen in the three-year course ( triennium ) that was usual at the time and made friends with the American philologist Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve . Lane completed his studies in Germany in 1851 with a doctorate as Dr. phil. from. In 1852 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .
After returning to Harvard University, he was appointed to succeed his teacher Beck and has taught as Professor of Latin ever since . In 1869 the Pope Professorship of Latin was established at the university , which Lane held until his retirement (1894). During his time at Harvard, Lane focused almost exclusively on academic teaching. Unlike his colleague Gildersleeve, he published only a few scientific papers. However, he made a major contribution to the development of classical studies at his university. While he only had one colleague in his field at the beginning of his career, there were already seven when he retired. It was an unusual occurrence at the time for Lane to be retired with a pension at all. At the same time he received an honorary doctorate from the university (LL.D.).
Lane made an important contribution to the pronunciation of Latin . He replaced the Anglicised pronunciation with an almost classical and ancient one. Its effect was not limited to Harvard: his study Latin Pronunciation appeared in 1871 and was widely used in the United States. Lane's greatest work, a Latin school grammar, did not appear until 1898 ( posthumously ).
Fonts (selection)
- Smyrnaeorum res gestae et antiquitates . Göttingen 1851 (dissertation)
- Latin Pronunciation . Cambridge 1871
- Morris Hicky Morgan (Ed.): A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges . New York 1898. Numerous reprints
literature
- Meyer Reinhold : Lane, George Martin . In: Ward W. Briggs (Ed.): Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists. Greenwood Press, Westport CT et al. 1994, ISBN 0-313-24560-6 , pp. 339-340.
Web links
- Entry on George Martin Lane in the Database of Classical Scholars (English)
- Information on the estate of George Martin Lane
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lane, George Martin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American classical philologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 24, 1823 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Charlestown, Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 30, 1897 |
| Place of death | Cambridge, Massachusetts |