Richard Bentley
Encyclopedia
Richard Bentley was an English
classical scholar
, critic
, and theologian. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge
.
Bentley was the first Englishman to be ranked with the great heroes of classical
learning and was known for his literary and textual criticism. Called the "founder of historical philology
", Bentley is credited with the creation of the English school of Hellenism
. He inspired generations of subsequent scholars.
near Rothwell
, Leeds
, West Yorkshire
, northern England
. His grandfather had suffered for the Royalist
cause following the English Civil War
, leaving the family in reduced circumstances. Bentley's mother, the daughter of a stonemason, had some education, and was able to give her son his first lessons in Latin.
After attending grammar school
in Wakefield
, Bentley was an undergraduate at St John's College, Cambridge
in 1676. He afterward obtained a scholarship and took the degree of B.A. in 1680 (M.A. 1683).
, but was appointed to be the headmaster of Spalding Grammar School
before he was 21. Edward Stillingfleet
, dean of St Paul's, hired Bentley as tutor to his son, which enabled the younger man to meet eminent scholars, have access to the best private library in England, and become familiar with Dean Stillingfleet. During his six years as tutor, Bentley also made a comprehensive study of Greek
and Latin writers, storing up knowledge which he used later.
In 1689, Stillingfleet became bishop of Worcester
, and Bentley's pupil went to Wadham College, Oxford
, accompanied by his tutor. Bentley soon met Dr John Mill
, Humphrey Hody
, and Edward Bernard
. Here he studied the manuscripts of the Bodleian
, Corpus Christi
and other college libraries. He collected material for literary studies. Among these are a corpus of the fragments of the Greek poets and an edition of the Greek lexicographers.
The Oxford (Sheldonian) press was about to bring out an edition (the editio princeps
) from the unique manuscript of the Greek Chronicle in the Bodleian Library
. It was a universal history
(down to AD 560) of John of Antioch (date uncertain, between 600 and 1000), called John Malalas
or "John the Rhetor". The editor, Dr John Mill, principal of St Edmund Hall
, asked Bentley to review it and make any remarks on the text.
Bentley wrote the Epistola ad Johannem Millium, which is about 100 pages included at the end of the Oxford Malalas (1691). This short treatise placed Bentley ahead of all living English scholars. The ease with which he restored corrupted passages, the certainty of his emendation and command over the relevant material, are in a style totally different from the careful and laborious learning of Hody
, Mill or Edmund Chilmead
. To the small circle of classical students (lacking the great critical dictionaries of modern times), it was obvious that he was a critic beyond the ordinary.
In 1690, Bentley had taken deacon
's orders. In 1692 he was nominated first Boyle lecturer
, a nomination repeated in 1694. He was offered the appointment a third time in 1695 but declined it, as he was involved in too many other activities. In the first series of lectures ("A Confutation of Atheism"), he endeavours to present Newtonian
physics
in a popular form, and to frame them (especially in opposition to Hobbes
) into proof of the existence of an intelligent Creator. He had some correspondence with Newton, then living in Trinity College, Cambridge
, on the subject. The second series, preached in 1694, has not been published and is believed to be lost.
After being ordained, Bentley was promoted to a prebendal stall
in Worcester Cathedral
. In 1693 the curator of the royal library became vacant, and his friends tried to obtain the position for Bentley, but did not have enough influence. The new librarian, a Mr Thynne, resigned in favour of Bentley, on condition that he receive an annuity of £130 for life out of the £200 salary. In 1695 Bentley received a royal chaplaincy and the living of Hartlebury
.
That same year, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
, and in 1696 earned the degree of D.D. (Doctor of Divinity). The scholar Johann Georg Graevius
of Utrecht
made a dedication to him, prefixed to a dissertation on Albert Rubens, De Vita Flavii Mattii Theodori (1694), which showed Bentley's work had been recognized on the Continent.
, and his first care was the royal library. He worked to restore the collection from a dilapidated condition. He persuaded the Earl of Marlborough
to ask for additional rooms in the palace for the books. This was granted, but Marlborough kept them for personal use. Bentley enforced the law, ensuring that publishers delivered nearly 1000 volumes which had been purchased but not delivered.
The University of Cambridge
commissioned him to obtain Greek and Latin fonts for their classical books; he had these made in Holland. He assisted John Evelyn
in his Numismata. Bentley did not settle down to the steady execution of any of the major projects he had started. In 1694, he designed an edition of Philostratus
, but abandoned it to Gottfried Olearius (1672–1715), "to the joy," says F. A. Wolf
, "of Olearius and of no one else." He supplied Graevius with collations of Cicero
, and Joshua Barnes
with a warning as to the spuriousness of the Epistles of Euripides
. Barnes printed the epistles anyway and declared that no one could doubt their authenticity but a man perfrictae frontis aut judicii imminuti. For Graevius's Callimachus (1697), Bentley added a collection of the fragments with notes.
He wrote the Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris, his major academic work, almost accidentally. In 1697, William Wotton
, about to bring out a second edition of his Ancient and Modern Learning, asked Bentley to write out a paper exposing the spuriousness of the Epistles of Phalaris
, long a subject of academic controversy. The Christ Church College editor of Phalaris, Charles Boyle
, resented Bentley's paper. He had already quarreled with Bentley in trying to get the manuscript in the royal library collated for his edition (1695). Boyle wrote a response which was accepted by the reading public, although it was much later criticized as showing superficial learning.) The demand for Boyle's book required a second printing. When Bentley responded, it was with his dissertation. The truth of its conclusions was not immediately recognized but it has a high reputation.
recommended Bentley to the Crown for the mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge
. He arrived an outsider and proceeded to reform the college administration. He started a program of renovations to the buildings, and used his position to promote learning. At the same time, he antagonized the fellows, and the capital programme caused reductions in their incomes, which they resented.
After ten years of stubborn but ineffectual resistance, the fellows appealed to the Visitor, the bishop of Ely
(John Moore
). Their petition was full of general complaints. Bentley's reply (The Present State of Trinity College, etc., 1710) is in his most crushing style. The fellows amended their petition and added a charge of Bentley's having committed 54 breaches of the statutes. Bentley appealed directly to the Crown, and backed his application with a dedication of his Horace
to the lord treasurer (Harley).
The Crown lawyers decided against him; the case was heard (1714) and a sentence of expulsion from the mastership was drawn up. Before it was executed, the bishop of Ely died and the process lapsed. The feud continued in various forms at lower levels. In 1718 Cambridge rescinded Bentley's degrees, as punishment for failing to appear in the vice-chancellor's court in a civil suit. It was not until 1724 that he had them restored under the law.
In 1733 the fellows of Trinity again brought Bentley to trial before the bishop of Ely (then Thomas Greene
), and he was sentenced to deprivation. The college statutes required the sentence to be exercised by the vice-master Richard Walker
, who was a friend of Bentley and refused to act. Although the feud continued until 1738 or 1740 (about thirty years in all), Bentley remained in his post.
's Tusculan Disputations. In the following year, he published his emendations on the Plutus and Nubes of Aristophanes
, and on the fragments of Menander
and Philemon
. He published the last work under the pen name of "Phileutherus Lipsiensis." He used it again two years later in his Remarks on a late Discourse of Freethinking, a reply to Anthony Collins
the deist
. The university thanked him for this work and its support of the Anglican Church and clergy.
Although he had long studied Horace, Bentley wrote his version quickly in the end, publishing it in 1711 to gain public support at a critical period of the Trinity quarrel. In the preface, he declared his intention of confining his attention to criticism and correction of the text. Some of his 700 or 800 emendations have been accepted, but the majority were rejected by the early 20th century as unnecessary, although scholars acknowledged they showed his wide learning.
In 1716, in a letter to William Wake
, Archbishop of Canterbury
, Bentley announced his plan to prepare a critical edition of the New Testament
. During the next four years, assisted by J. J. Wetstein, an eminent biblical critic, he collected materials for the work. In 1720 he published Proposals for a New Edition of the Greek Testament, with examples of how he intended to proceed. By comparing the text of the Vulgate
with that of the oldest Greek manuscripts, Bentley proposed to restore the Greek text as received by the church at the time of the Council of Nice
. Bentley's lead manuscript was Codex Alexandrinus
, which he described as "the oldest and best in the world." Bentley used also manuscripts: 51
, 54
, 60
, 113
, 440
, 507
, and 508
. John Walker
worked over many manuscripts for the project, particularly in Paris with the help of the Maurists
. Numerous subscribers were obtained to support publication of the work, but he never completed it.
His Terence
(1726) is more important than his Horace; next to the Phalaris, this most determined his reputation. In 1726 he also published the Fables of Phaedrus and the Sentenliae of Publilius Syrus
.
His Paradise Lost
(1732), suggested by Queen Caroline
, has been criticized as the weakest of his work. He suggested that the poet John Milton
had employed both an amanuensis
and an editor, who were responsible for clerical errors and interpolations, but it is unclear whether Bentley believed his own position. He never published his planned edition of Homer
, but some of his manuscript and marginal notes are held by Trinity College. Their chief importance is in his attempt to restore the metre by the insertion of the lost digamma
.
of Brampton, Huntingdonshire
. They had three children together: Richard (1708–1782), an eccentric, playwright and artist whose engravings for Thomas Gray’s ‘A Long Story’ were published in 1753, and two daughters, one named Johanna. His wife died in 1740.
Johanna Bentley married Denison Cumberland in 1728, a grandson of Richard Cumberland the bishop of Peterborough
, and himself later a bishop of the Church of Ireland
. Their son Richard Cumberland
developed as a prolific dramatist, while earning his living as a civil servant.
.
Bentley was the first Englishman to be ranked with the great heroes of classical learning. Before him there were only John Selden
, and, in a more restricted field, Thomas Gataker
and Pearson. "Bentley inaugurated a new era of the art of criticism. He opened a new path. With him criticism attained its majority. Where scholars had hitherto offered suggestions and conjectures, Bentley, with unlimited control over the whole material of learning, gave decisions".
The modern German school of philology
recognised his genius. Bunsen wrote that Bentley "was the founder of historical philology." Jakob Bernays
says of his corrections of the Tristia, "corruptions which had hitherto defied every attempt even of the mightiest, were removed by a touch of the fingers of this British Samson
."
Bentley was credited with creating the English school of Hellenists, by which the 18th century was distinguished, including scholars such as R Dawes
, J Markland
, John Taylor, Jonathan Toup
, T Tyrwhitt
, Richard Porson
, Peter Paul Dobree
, Thomas Kidd and James Henry Monk
. Although the Dutch
school of the period had its own tradition, it was also influenced by Bentley. His letters to Tiberius Hemsterhuis
on his edition of Julius Pollux
made the latter one of Bentley's most devoted admirers.
Bentley inspired a following generation of scholars. Self-taught, he created his own discipline; but no contemporary English guild of learning could measure his power or check his eccentricities. He defeated his academic adversaries in the Phalaris controversy. The attacks by Alexander Pope
(he was assigned a niche in The Dunciad), John Arbuthnot
and others demonstrated their inability to appreciate his work, as they considered textual criticism as pedantry. His classical controversies also called forth Jonathan Swift
's Battle of the Books.
In a university where the instruction of youth or the religious controversy of the day was the chief occupation, Bentley was unique. His learning and original views seem to have been developed before 1700. After this period, he acquired little and made only spasmodic efforts to publish. But, the critic A.E. Housman believed that the edition of Manilius
(1739) was Bentley's greatest work.
Bentley's works:
Minor Works
For Bentley's letters see:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
classical scholar
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
, critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
, and theologian. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
.
Bentley was the first Englishman to be ranked with the great heroes of classical
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
learning and was known for his literary and textual criticism. Called the "founder of historical philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
", Bentley is credited with the creation of the English school of Hellenism
Hellenism
Hellenism may refer to:*Hellenic studies*Hellenistic civilization*Hellenistic period, in Greek antiquity*Hellenistic Greece*Hellenization, the spread of Greek culture over foreign peoples*Hellenistic philosophy in the Hellenistic period and late antiquity...
. He inspired generations of subsequent scholars.
Early life and education
Bentley was born at OultonOulton, West Yorkshire
Oulton is a village in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England, between Leeds and Wakefield. It is at the junction of the A639 and A642 roads. Though now adjoining the village of Woodlesford, it was once quite separate...
near Rothwell
Rothwell, West Yorkshire
Rothwell is a market town on the River Dolphin in the south east of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, situated between Oulton to the east, Belle Isle to the west, Woodlesford to the north east and Robin Hood to the south west. Swillington, Methley and Kippax are located...
, Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, northern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. His grandfather had suffered for the Royalist
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
cause following the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
, leaving the family in reduced circumstances. Bentley's mother, the daughter of a stonemason, had some education, and was able to give her son his first lessons in Latin.
After attending grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
in Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
, Bentley was an undergraduate at St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
in 1676. He afterward obtained a scholarship and took the degree of B.A. in 1680 (M.A. 1683).
Academic work
He never became a FellowFellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
, but was appointed to be the headmaster of Spalding Grammar School
Spalding Grammar School
Spalding Grammar School, or as it is fully known The Queen Elizabeth Royal Free Grammar School Spalding, is a selective school on Priory Road in Spalding, Lincolnshire for pupils aged 11–18.- History :...
before he was 21. Edward Stillingfleet
Edward Stillingfleet
Edward Stillingfleet was a British theologian and scholar. Considered an outstanding preacher as well as a strong polemical writer defending Anglicanism, Stillingfleet was known as "the beauty of holiness" for his good looks in the pulpit, and was called by John Hough "the ablest man of his...
, dean of St Paul's, hired Bentley as tutor to his son, which enabled the younger man to meet eminent scholars, have access to the best private library in England, and become familiar with Dean Stillingfleet. During his six years as tutor, Bentley also made a comprehensive study of Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and Latin writers, storing up knowledge which he used later.
In 1689, Stillingfleet became bishop of Worcester
Bishop of Worcester
The Bishop of Worcester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. He is the head of the Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury...
, and Bentley's pupil went to Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College, Oxford
Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I...
, accompanied by his tutor. Bentley soon met Dr John Mill
John Mill
John Mill was an English theologian. He is noted for his critical edition of the Greek New Testament which included notes on many variant readings.-Biography:...
, Humphrey Hody
Humphrey Hody
Humphrey Hody was an English scholar and theologian.-Life:He was born at Odcombe in Somerset in 1659. In 1676 he entered Wadham College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1685...
, and Edward Bernard
Edward Bernard
Edward Bernard was an English scholar and Savilian professor of astronomy at the University of Oxford, from 1673 to 1691.-Life:He was born at Paulerspury, Northamptonshire. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and St John's College, Oxford, where he was a scholar in 1655; he became a Fellow...
. Here he studied the manuscripts of the Bodleian
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
, Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom...
and other college libraries. He collected material for literary studies. Among these are a corpus of the fragments of the Greek poets and an edition of the Greek lexicographers.
The Oxford (Sheldonian) press was about to bring out an edition (the editio princeps
Editio princeps
In classical scholarship, editio princeps is a term of art. It means, roughly, the first printed edition of a work that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which could be circulated only after being copied by hand....
) from the unique manuscript of the Greek Chronicle in the Bodleian Library
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...
. It was a universal history
Universal history
Universal history is basic to the Western tradition of historiography, especially the Abrahamic wellspring of that tradition. Simply stated, universal history is the presentation of the history of humankind as a whole, as a coherent unit.-Ancient authors:...
(down to AD 560) of John of Antioch (date uncertain, between 600 and 1000), called John Malalas
John Malalas
John Malalas or Ioannes Malalas was a Greek chronicler from Antioch. Malalas is probably a Syriac word for "rhetor", "orator"; it is first applied to him by John of Damascus .-Life:Malalas was educated in Antioch, and probably was a jurist there, but moved to...
or "John the Rhetor". The editor, Dr John Mill, principal of St Edmund Hall
St Edmund Hall, Oxford
St Edmund Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Better known within the University by its nickname, "Teddy Hall", the college has a claim to being "the oldest academical society for the education of undergraduates in any university"...
, asked Bentley to review it and make any remarks on the text.
Bentley wrote the Epistola ad Johannem Millium, which is about 100 pages included at the end of the Oxford Malalas (1691). This short treatise placed Bentley ahead of all living English scholars. The ease with which he restored corrupted passages, the certainty of his emendation and command over the relevant material, are in a style totally different from the careful and laborious learning of Hody
Humphrey Hody
Humphrey Hody was an English scholar and theologian.-Life:He was born at Odcombe in Somerset in 1659. In 1676 he entered Wadham College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1685...
, Mill or Edmund Chilmead
Edmund Chilmead
Edmund Chilmead was an English writer and translator, who produced both scholarly works and hack writing. He is also known as a musician.He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1631...
. To the small circle of classical students (lacking the great critical dictionaries of modern times), it was obvious that he was a critic beyond the ordinary.
Deacon
Deacon is a ministry in the Christian Church that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions...
's orders. In 1692 he was nominated first Boyle lecturer
Boyle Lectures
The Boyle Lectures were named after Robert Boyle, a prominent English/Irish natural philosopher of the 17th century. Boyle endowed a series of lectures in his will, which were designed as a forum where prominent academics could discuss the existence of God....
, a nomination repeated in 1694. He was offered the appointment a third time in 1695 but declined it, as he was involved in too many other activities. In the first series of lectures ("A Confutation of Atheism"), he endeavours to present Newtonian
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in a popular form, and to frame them (especially in opposition to Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
) into proof of the existence of an intelligent Creator. He had some correspondence with Newton, then living in Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
, on the subject. The second series, preached in 1694, has not been published and is believed to be lost.
After being ordained, Bentley was promoted to a prebendal stall
Prebendal stall
A prebendal stall is a seat, usually in the back row of the choir stalls, where a prebendary sits. It was a place of honour for dignitaries who were members of clergy on the staff of a cathedral or collegiate church....
in Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, England; situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. It is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Worcester. Its official name is The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester...
. In 1693 the curator of the royal library became vacant, and his friends tried to obtain the position for Bentley, but did not have enough influence. The new librarian, a Mr Thynne, resigned in favour of Bentley, on condition that he receive an annuity of £130 for life out of the £200 salary. In 1695 Bentley received a royal chaplaincy and the living of Hartlebury
Hartlebury
Hartlebury is a village in Worcestershire, England. It is a few miles south of Kidderminster and is in Wychavon district. The village registered a population of 2,549 in the Census 2001.The railway station is about half a mile to the east of the village....
.
That same year, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
, and in 1696 earned the degree of D.D. (Doctor of Divinity). The scholar Johann Georg Graevius
Johann Georg Graevius
Johann Georg Graevius was a German classical scholar and critic. He was born at Naumburg....
of Utrecht
Utrecht
Utrecht is a city in the Netherlands.The name may also refer to:* Utrecht , of which Utrecht is the capital* Utrecht , including the city of Utrecht* Bishopric of Utrecht* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht...
made a dedication to him, prefixed to a dissertation on Albert Rubens, De Vita Flavii Mattii Theodori (1694), which showed Bentley's work had been recognized on the Continent.
Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris
Bentley had official apartments in St. James's PalaceSt. James's Palace
St. James's Palace is one of London's oldest palaces. It is situated in Pall Mall, just north of St. James's Park. Although no sovereign has resided there for almost two centuries, it has remained the official residence of the Sovereign and the most senior royal palace in the UK...
, and his first care was the royal library. He worked to restore the collection from a dilapidated condition. He persuaded the Earl of Marlborough
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...
to ask for additional rooms in the palace for the books. This was granted, but Marlborough kept them for personal use. Bentley enforced the law, ensuring that publishers delivered nearly 1000 volumes which had been purchased but not delivered.
The University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
commissioned him to obtain Greek and Latin fonts for their classical books; he had these made in Holland. He assisted John Evelyn
John Evelyn
John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...
in his Numismata. Bentley did not settle down to the steady execution of any of the major projects he had started. In 1694, he designed an edition of Philostratus
Philostratus
Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus , , called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name. He was born probably around 172, and is said by the Suda to have been living in the reign of emperor Philip the Arab . His death...
, but abandoned it to Gottfried Olearius (1672–1715), "to the joy," says F. A. Wolf
Friedrich August Wolf
Friedrich August Wolf was a German philologist and critic.He was born at Hainrode, a village not far from Nordhausen, Germany. His father was the village schoolmaster and organist...
, "of Olearius and of no one else." He supplied Graevius with collations of Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, and Joshua Barnes
Joshua Barnes
Joshua Barnes , was an English scholar.He was born in London, the son of Edward Barnes, a merchant taylor.Educated at Christ's Hospital and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he was in 1695 chosen Regius Professor of Greek, a language which he wrote and spoke with the utmost facility.One of his first...
with a warning as to the spuriousness of the Epistles of Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
. Barnes printed the epistles anyway and declared that no one could doubt their authenticity but a man perfrictae frontis aut judicii imminuti. For Graevius's Callimachus (1697), Bentley added a collection of the fragments with notes.
He wrote the Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris, his major academic work, almost accidentally. In 1697, William Wotton
William Wotton
William Wotton was an English scholar, chiefly remembered for his remarkable abilities in learning languages and for his involvement in the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns. In Wales he is remembered as the collector and first translator of the ancient Welsh laws.-Early years:William Wotton...
, about to bring out a second edition of his Ancient and Modern Learning, asked Bentley to write out a paper exposing the spuriousness of the Epistles of Phalaris
Phalaris
Phalaris was the tyrant of Acragas in Sicily, from approximately 570 to 554 BC.-History:He was entrusted with the building of the temple of Zeus Atabyrius in the citadel, and took advantage of his position to make himself despot. Under his rule Agrigentum seems to have attained considerable...
, long a subject of academic controversy. The Christ Church College editor of Phalaris, Charles Boyle
Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery
Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery KT PC FRS was an English nobleman, statesman and patron of the sciences....
, resented Bentley's paper. He had already quarreled with Bentley in trying to get the manuscript in the royal library collated for his edition (1695). Boyle wrote a response which was accepted by the reading public, although it was much later criticized as showing superficial learning.) The demand for Boyle's book required a second printing. When Bentley responded, it was with his dissertation. The truth of its conclusions was not immediately recognized but it has a high reputation.
Master of Trinity College
In 1700, the commissioners of ecclesiastical patronagePatronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
recommended Bentley to the Crown for the mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
. He arrived an outsider and proceeded to reform the college administration. He started a program of renovations to the buildings, and used his position to promote learning. At the same time, he antagonized the fellows, and the capital programme caused reductions in their incomes, which they resented.
After ten years of stubborn but ineffectual resistance, the fellows appealed to the Visitor, the bishop of Ely
Bishop of Ely
The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire , together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the...
(John Moore
John Moore (Bishop of Ely)
John Moore was an English cleric, scholar, and book collector. He was bishop of Norwich and bishop of Ely ....
). Their petition was full of general complaints. Bentley's reply (The Present State of Trinity College, etc., 1710) is in his most crushing style. The fellows amended their petition and added a charge of Bentley's having committed 54 breaches of the statutes. Bentley appealed directly to the Crown, and backed his application with a dedication of his Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
to the lord treasurer (Harley).
The Crown lawyers decided against him; the case was heard (1714) and a sentence of expulsion from the mastership was drawn up. Before it was executed, the bishop of Ely died and the process lapsed. The feud continued in various forms at lower levels. In 1718 Cambridge rescinded Bentley's degrees, as punishment for failing to appear in the vice-chancellor's court in a civil suit. It was not until 1724 that he had them restored under the law.
In 1733 the fellows of Trinity again brought Bentley to trial before the bishop of Ely (then Thomas Greene
Thomas Green (bishop)
-Life:He was born in Norwich, and educated at Norwich grammar school and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1679 and became a Fellow in 1680....
), and he was sentenced to deprivation. The college statutes required the sentence to be exercised by the vice-master Richard Walker
Richard Walker (philosopher)
Richard Walker was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Cambridge, noted as a supporter of Richard Bentley in his long legal battle with the fellowship of Trinity College.-Life:...
, who was a friend of Bentley and refused to act. Although the feud continued until 1738 or 1740 (about thirty years in all), Bentley remained in his post.
Later studies
During his mastership, except for the first two years, Bentley continuously pursued his studies, although he did not publish much. In 1709 he contributed a critical appendix to John Davies's edition of CiceroCicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
's Tusculan Disputations. In the following year, he published his emendations on the Plutus and Nubes of Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
, and on the fragments of Menander
Menander
Menander , Greek dramatist, the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy, was the son of well-to-do parents; his father Diopeithes is identified by some with the Athenian general and governor of the Thracian Chersonese known from the speech of Demosthenes De Chersoneso...
and Philemon
Philemon (poet)
Philemon ; was an Athenian poet and playwright of the New Comedy. He was born either at Soli in Cilicia or at Syracuse in Sicily but moved to Athens some time before 330 BC, when he is known to have been producing plays....
. He published the last work under the pen name of "Phileutherus Lipsiensis." He used it again two years later in his Remarks on a late Discourse of Freethinking, a reply to Anthony Collins
Anthony Collins
Anthony Collins , was an English philosopher, and a proponent of deism.-Life and Writings:...
the deist
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
. The university thanked him for this work and its support of the Anglican Church and clergy.
Although he had long studied Horace, Bentley wrote his version quickly in the end, publishing it in 1711 to gain public support at a critical period of the Trinity quarrel. In the preface, he declared his intention of confining his attention to criticism and correction of the text. Some of his 700 or 800 emendations have been accepted, but the majority were rejected by the early 20th century as unnecessary, although scholars acknowledged they showed his wide learning.
In 1716, in a letter to William Wake
William Wake
William Wake was a priest in the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1716 until his death in 1737.-Life:...
, Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, Bentley announced his plan to prepare a critical edition of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. During the next four years, assisted by J. J. Wetstein, an eminent biblical critic, he collected materials for the work. In 1720 he published Proposals for a New Edition of the Greek Testament, with examples of how he intended to proceed. By comparing the text of the Vulgate
Vulgate
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
with that of the oldest Greek manuscripts, Bentley proposed to restore the Greek text as received by the church at the time of the Council of Nice
First Council of Nicaea
The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325...
. Bentley's lead manuscript was Codex Alexandrinus
Codex Alexandrinus
The Codex Alexandrinus is a 5th century manuscript of the Greek Bible,The Greek Bible in this context refers to the Bible used by Greek-speaking Christians who lived in Egypt and elsewhere during the early history of Christianity...
, which he described as "the oldest and best in the world." Bentley used also manuscripts: 51
Minuscule 51
Minuscule 51 , δ 364 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment leaves. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 13th century. Formerly it was labelled by 51e for the Gospels, 32a for the Acts, and 38p for the Pauline epistles...
, 54
Minuscule 54
Minuscule 54 , ε 445 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment leaves. It is dated by a colophon to the year 1337 or 1338. It has complex contents and marginalia.- Description :...
, 60
Minuscule 60
Minuscule 60 , ε 1321 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment leaves. It is dated by a colophon to the year 1297. It has complex contents, marginalia are incomplete.- Description :...
, 113
Minuscule 113
Minuscule 113 , ε 134 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment leaves. Paleographically it has been assigned to the 11th century....
, 440
Minuscule 440
Minuscule 440 , δ 260 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment...
, 507
Minuscule 507
Minuscule 507 , ε 142 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 11th century....
, and 508
Minuscule 508
Minuscule 508 , ε 431 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 13th century....
. John Walker
John Walker (scholar)
John Walker was an English classical scholar, a collaborator of Richard Bentley.-Life:He was son of Thomas Walker of Huddersfield, and was educated, like Richard Bentley, at Wakefield School, where he was under Edward Clarke. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a pensioner on 24 May 1710, at...
worked over many manuscripts for the project, particularly in Paris with the help of the Maurists
Maurists
The Congregation of St. Maur, often known as the Maurists, were a congregation of French Benedictines, established in 1621, and known for their high level of scholarship...
. Numerous subscribers were obtained to support publication of the work, but he never completed it.
His Terence
Terence
Publius Terentius Afer , better known in English as Terence, was a playwright of the Roman Republic, of North African descent. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought Terence to Rome as a slave, educated him and later on,...
(1726) is more important than his Horace; next to the Phalaris, this most determined his reputation. In 1726 he also published the Fables of Phaedrus and the Sentenliae of Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus
Publilius Syrus, a Latin writer of maxims, flourished in the 1st century BC. He was a Syrian who was brought as a slave to Italy, but by his wit and talent he won the favor of his master, who freed and educated him....
.
His Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
(1732), suggested by Queen Caroline
Caroline of Ansbach
Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach was the queen consort of King George II of Great Britain.Her father, John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, was the ruler of a small German state...
, has been criticized as the weakest of his work. He suggested that the poet John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
had employed both an amanuensis
Amanuensis
Amanuensis is a Latin word adopted in various languages, including English, for certain persons performing a function by hand, either writing down the words of another or performing manual labour...
and an editor, who were responsible for clerical errors and interpolations, but it is unclear whether Bentley believed his own position. He never published his planned edition of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
, but some of his manuscript and marginal notes are held by Trinity College. Their chief importance is in his attempt to restore the metre by the insertion of the lost digamma
Digamma
Digamma is an archaic letter of the Greek alphabet which originally stood for the sound /w/ and later remained in use only as a numeral symbol for the number "6"...
.
Relationships and personal life
Bentley was self-assertive and presumptuous, which alienated some people. But, James Henry Monk, Bentley's biographer, charged him (in his first edition, 1830) with an indecorum of which he was not guilty. Bentley seemed to inspire mixed feelings of admiration and repugnance.Marriage and family
In 1701, Bentley married Joanna Bernard, daughter of Sir John Bernard, 2nd BaronetSir John Bernard, 2nd Baronet
Sir John Bernard, 2nd Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1654 and 1660.Bernard was born at Northampton, the son of Sir Robert Bernard, 1st Baronet and his wife Elizabeth Tallakerne, daughter of Sir John Tallakerne. His father had been MP for Huntingdon in 1640...
of Brampton, Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire
Huntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Traditionally it is a county in its own right...
. They had three children together: Richard (1708–1782), an eccentric, playwright and artist whose engravings for Thomas Gray’s ‘A Long Story’ were published in 1753, and two daughters, one named Johanna. His wife died in 1740.
Johanna Bentley married Denison Cumberland in 1728, a grandson of Richard Cumberland the bishop of Peterborough
Bishop of Peterborough
The Bishop of Peterborough is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Peterborough in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the counties of Northamptonshire, Rutland and the Soke of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire...
, and himself later a bishop of the Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...
. Their son Richard Cumberland
Richard Cumberland (dramatist)
Richard Cumberland was a British dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived...
developed as a prolific dramatist, while earning his living as a civil servant.
Later life
In old age, Bentley continued to read; and enjoyed the society of his friends and several rising scholars, J Markland, John Taylor, and his nephews Richard and Thomas Bentley, with whom he discussed classical subjects. He died at 80 of pleurisyPleurisy
Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs. Among other things, infections are the most common cause of pleurisy....
.
Legacy and honors
- Bentley left about £5000 in his estate (which would have the buying power of nearly £500,000 in 2010).
- He bequeathed a few Greek manuscripts, brought from Mount AthosMount AthosMount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...
, to the Trinity College library. - He bequeathed his books and papers to his nephew Richard Bentley, a fellow of Trinity. At his own death in 1786, the younger Bentley left the papers to the Trinity College library.
- The British MuseumBritish MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
eventually purchased the books, which in many cases had valuable manuscript notes, and holds them in its collection.
Bentley was the first Englishman to be ranked with the great heroes of classical learning. Before him there were only John Selden
John Selden
John Selden was an English jurist and a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law...
, and, in a more restricted field, Thomas Gataker
Thomas Gataker
Thomas Gataker was an English clergyman and theologian.-Life:He was born in London and educated at St John's College, Cambridge. From 1601 to 1611 he held the appointment of preacher to the society of Lincoln's Inn, which he resigned on accepting the rectory of Rotherhithe...
and Pearson. "Bentley inaugurated a new era of the art of criticism. He opened a new path. With him criticism attained its majority. Where scholars had hitherto offered suggestions and conjectures, Bentley, with unlimited control over the whole material of learning, gave decisions".
The modern German school of philology
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
recognised his genius. Bunsen wrote that Bentley "was the founder of historical philology." Jakob Bernays
Jakob Bernays
Jakob Bernays was a German philologist and philosophical writer.-Life:Bernays was born in Hamburg to Jewish parents...
says of his corrections of the Tristia, "corruptions which had hitherto defied every attempt even of the mightiest, were removed by a touch of the fingers of this British Samson
Samson
Samson, Shimshon ; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh ....
."
Bentley was credited with creating the English school of Hellenists, by which the 18th century was distinguished, including scholars such as R Dawes
Richard Dawes
-Life:He was born in or near Market Bosworth, England, and was educated at the town grammar school under Anthony Blackwall, and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, of which he was elected fellow in 1731. His eccentricities and frank speaking made him unpopular. His health broke down as a result of his...
, J Markland
Jeremiah Markland
Jeremiah Markland , English classical scholar, was born at Childwall in Liverpool on the 29th of October 1693. He was educated at Christ's Hospital and Peterhouse, Cambridge...
, John Taylor, Jonathan Toup
Jonathan Toup
Jonathan Oannes Toup , was an English philologist, classical scholar and critic.- Early life and education :Toup was born at St Ives, Cornwall in December 1713 and baptized on January 5, 1714...
, T Tyrwhitt
Thomas Tyrwhitt
Thomas Tyrwhitt was an English classical scholar and critic.-Life:He was born in London, where he also died. He was educated at Eton and Queen's College, Oxford . In 1756 he was appointed under-secretary at war, in 1762 clerk of the House of Commons...
, Richard Porson
Richard Porson
Richard Porson was an English classical scholar. He was the discoverer of Porson's Law; and the Greek typeface Porson was based on his handwriting.-Early life:...
, Peter Paul Dobree
Peter Paul Dobree
Peter Paul Dobree , English classical scholar and critic, was born in Guernsey.He was educated at Reading School under Richard Valpy and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected fellow...
, Thomas Kidd and James Henry Monk
James Henry Monk
James Henry Monk was an English divine and classical scholar.-Life:He was born at Buntingford, Hertfordshire. He was educated at Charterhouse School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1809 was elected Regius Professor of Greek in succession to Porson. The establishment of the classical tripos...
. Although the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
school of the period had its own tradition, it was also influenced by Bentley. His letters to Tiberius Hemsterhuis
Tiberius Hemsterhuis
Tiberius Hemsterhuis was a Dutch philologist and critic.-Life:He was born in Groningen. His father, a learned physician, gave him a good early education and he entered the university of his native city in his fifteenth year, where he proved himself the best student of mathematics...
on his edition of Julius Pollux
Julius Pollux
Julius Pollux was a Greek or Egyptian grammarian and sophist from Alexandria who taught at Athens, where he was appointed professor of rhetoric at the Academy by the emperor Commodus — on account of his melodious voice, according to Philostratus' Lives of the Sophists. Nothing of his...
made the latter one of Bentley's most devoted admirers.
Bentley inspired a following generation of scholars. Self-taught, he created his own discipline; but no contemporary English guild of learning could measure his power or check his eccentricities. He defeated his academic adversaries in the Phalaris controversy. The attacks by Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
(he was assigned a niche in The Dunciad), John Arbuthnot
John Arbuthnot
John Arbuthnot, often known simply as Dr. Arbuthnot, , was a physician, satirist and polymath in London...
and others demonstrated their inability to appreciate his work, as they considered textual criticism as pedantry. His classical controversies also called forth Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
's Battle of the Books.
In a university where the instruction of youth or the religious controversy of the day was the chief occupation, Bentley was unique. His learning and original views seem to have been developed before 1700. After this period, he acquired little and made only spasmodic efforts to publish. But, the critic A.E. Housman believed that the edition of Manilius
Manilius
Manilius may refer to one of the following:*Manius Manilius, consul*Marcus Manilius, Roman poet and astrologer*Gaius Manilius, Roman tribune*Manilius , a Lunar crater, named after Marcus Manilius----...
(1739) was Bentley's greatest work.
Further reading
- Bentley, Richard (1842). The Correspondence of Richard Bentley, Ed. Monk. London:Murray (reissued by Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, 2009; ISBN 9781108000543) - Brink, C.O. http://www.lutterworth.com/jamesclarke/jc/titles/engclass.htm, English Classical Scholarship: Historical Reflections on Bentley, Porson and Housman, James Clarke & Co (2009), ISBN 9780227172995. Retrieved on 23 February 2008.
Bentley's works:
- Works of Richard Bentley, collected by Alexander DyceAlexander DyceAlexander Dyce was a Scottish dramatic editor and literary historian.He was born in Edinburgh and received his early education at the high school there, before becoming a student at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1819...
, 1836. v. 1-2. Dissertations upon the epistles of Phalaris, Themistocles, Socrates, Euripides, and upon the fables of Aesop; also, Epistola ad Joannem Millium — v. 3. Sermons preached at Boyle's lecture; remarks upon a discourse of free-thinking; proposals for an edition of the Greek testament.
Minor Works
- Astronomica of ManiliusMarcus ManiliusMarcus Manilius was a Roman poet, astrologer, and author of a poem in five books called Astronomica.-Criticism:The author of Astronomica is neither quoted nor mentioned by any ancient writer. Even his name is uncertain, but it was probably Marcus Manilius; in the earlier books the author is...
(1739) - a letter on the Sigean inscription on a marble slab found in the Troad, now in the British MuseumBritish MuseumThe British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
- notes on the Theriaca of NicanderNicanderNicander of Colophon , Greek poet, physician and grammarian, was born at Claros, , near Colophon, where his family held the hereditary priesthood of Apollo. He flourished under Attalus III of Pergamum.He wrote a number of works both in prose and verse, of which two survive complete...
and on Lucan, published after his death by his grandson, Richard CumberlandRichard Cumberland (dramatist)Richard Cumberland was a British dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived... - emendations of PlautusPlautusTitus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
(in his copies of the editions by Pareus, CamerariusJoachim CamerariusJoachim Camerarius , the Elder was a German classical scholar.-Life:He was born at Bamberg, Bavaria...
and GronoviusGronoviusGronovius is the name of:* Johann Friedrich Gronovius, né Gronow , German classical scholar and critic, father of Jakob* Jakob Gronovius , Dutch classical scholar, father of Jan Frederik...
, edited by Schroder, 1880, and Sonnenschein, 1883) - Bentleii Critica Sacra (1862), edited by AA Ellis, contains the epistle to the GalatiansEpistle to the GalatiansThe Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, often shortened to Galatians, is the ninth book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of Early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central Anatolia...
(and excerpts), printed from an interleaved folio copy of the Greek and Latin VulgateVulgateThe Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
in Trinity College. - a collection of his Opuscula Philologica published at Leipzig in 1781.
For Bentley's letters see:
- Bentlei et doctorum-virorum ad eum Epistolae (1807)
- The Correspondence of Richard Bentley, edited by C. Wordsworth (1842)