Peter Elmsley (philologist)
Peter Elmsley (* 1773 in Hampstead , † March 8, 1825 in Oxford ) was a British classical philologist and church historian .
His uncle was a well-known bookseller and its namesake. Elmsley attended Westminster School and studied Classical Philology at Christ Church College , Oxford. The Bachelor's degree followed in 1794 and the Master's degree in 1797. After completing his studies, he spent the following years in Edinburgh and from 1807 to 1816 in Kent . 1797 followed the spiritual consecration and the benefit in Great Horkesley . In 1814 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society . From 1816 he stayed in Italy and France for a few years. There he evaluated various manuscripts on Sophocles for an edition. In 1819 he supported Humphry Davy in Naples with the work on the papyri from Herculaneum . In 1822 it was decided against Elmsley for the venerable Regius Chair of Ecclesiastical History (Chair of Church History) in Oxford , despite a high professional reputation . In 1823 he was appointed Rector of St. Alban Hall and Camden Professor of Ancient History at Oxford University, both offices he was only able to hold two years until his death in 1825.
His research focus was on editions on Sophocles and Euripides . In 1818 he was the first philologist to evaluate the manuscript there containing the tragedies of Sophocles in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence ( Codex Laurentianus 32, 9). He also worked for the Edinburgh Review . Elmsley maintained a lively scholarly exchange with Richard Porson , Robert Southey, and other intellectuals. For his edition, however, he is said to have taken over text corrections from Porson without having indicated this. Plagiarism allegations were made against him in an anonymous post in the Church of England Quarteley Review of 1839 .
literature
- Warwick Wroth: Elmsley, Peter. In: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 17, 1899, pp. 310-311 ( digitized version ).
- Marcel Humar: Elmsley, Peter. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Hrsg.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 355 f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Elmsley, Peter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British classical philologist and church historian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1773 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hampstead |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 8, 1825 |
| Place of death | Oxford |